It’s not been a pretty couple of days here for New York labor. It is true that Brian McLaughlin deserves the presumption of being innocent until proven guilty of the corruption charges leveled against him yesterday. But, what really needs to be looked at is how we got here in the first place.

Frankly, even if you put aside the corruption charges (and, if they are true, it is disgusting) I always found it strange that Brian, who I think was well-liked in the city and thought of as someone who worked the streets for every union, could hold down jobs as the head of the city’s central labor council and as a state assemblyman–at the same time. How can you do justice to either job–to the members of labor unions and/or the constituents who elected you to the Assembly?

Which is why I think Ed Ott, who is the interim executive director of the Council, and Denis Hughes, the president of the state AFL-CIO, are right on the mark with their comments in today’s New York Times piece:

“We also want to have some ethical practices and procedures that make some sense and have some real teeth,” said Mr. Hughes, who has pushed for ethics seminars for state and city union leaders.

Mr. Hughes declared that no future head of the labor council should simultaneously hold a political office. “This job requires full attention from that individual,” Mr. Hughes said. “You can’t have two full-time jobs and expect to get it done.”

He said the council needed a strategic plan. “We have to look at what exactly is our mission,” he said. “Our members are losing economic security. Many workers can’t afford to live in the five boroughs any more in ways we were able to a generation ago. We have to help fix our education system, supporting the needs of students as well as the teachers.”

Ott adds:

“There is not a culture of organizing at the center of the labor movement in New York City,” he said. “It’s left to individual unions. We have to get union leaders and union members thinking all the time about organizing.”

I agree with both of them. Though there should have been a strategic organizing plan years ago and there should have been louder questions asked about how union leaders can hold multiple jobs (and those questions should now be asked of all union leaders in the city and state), the silver-lining in this chapter may be that it shakes up a movement so hard that something good arises out of what is now a black eye. Maybe.