"This essay argues that the implementation of serious ethics training at all levels of labor unions will significantly contribute to union effectiveness by enhancing union legitimacy—understood as an amalgam of legal, pragmatic, and moral legitimacy—and by paving the way to stable recognition of the labor movement as an integral part of American society, necessary to economic prosperity and the realization of fundamental American moral and social values. It proceeds from an examination of how several labor campaigns have been enhanced in effectiveness by stressing concerns with professional responsibilities to the public, and broadly shared moral values. The concept of legitimacy developed in these contexts by Chaisen and Bigelow is expanded to include the internal operations of unions with emphasis on implementing pervasive democratic principles and introducing a broad concept of fiduciary responsibility to activists and leaders at all levels, which encompasses but surpasses the legal concept."

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