On the Meaning of “Pro-Worker”: Most politicians understand the power of identifying with working Americans. They will declare themselves “pro-worker”. They’ll seek to connect with us by telling us about their great grandmothers first-cousins sister, that was in a union. As they take in millions from corporate and financial interests, the declare they are on our side. Then we elect them and Holy Moses, they support measures that make us weaker and poorer. Part of the problem is the American worker hasn’t figured out the political code words for these deceptions.
In its simplest definition, being “Pro-Worker” should mean the intent to improve the average worker’s opportunities, financial security and social standing. It’s part economic and part respect. In this nation, to be legitimately “pro-worker”, its essential that a leader be “pro-union”. Unions did build the American middle class and they are the only American institution that is solely tasked with improving the fortunes of America’s working families. In unraveling the “code” that the political world uses, asking if a candidate or elected official is “pro-union”, is a defining question.
The second way to judge the sincerity of a political leader is their actions regarding worker solidarity. In this country, it’s a constant struggle between big money and the rest of us. The rest of us are losing. The rise of fortunes for working people in this nation came only after we figured out that we had to come together. One of the successes of the union movement was its ability to convince people they had common cause with others, no matter how different they appeared to be. That search for solidarity continues to this day, particularly in the American South. If a political wannabe is dividing working people, urging we adopt some basis to feel superior to other workers, or seeks to place blame on one group of workers vs another, then that politician is a divider and our Spidey-sensors should be going off.
Ever since the first human put on their boss clothes, management has resisted workers organizing and using their power collectively. The rise of unionized workers in the Post WWII era generated a fifty-year campaign on the part of the corporate/financial interests to curb our enthusiasm. This sustained war on workers included characterizing union leaders as “union bosses”, sowing mistrust among the rank and file over how “connected” union leadership was with its members and trying to convince us that all union leaders were corrupt, self-centered and working against our best interests. It worked. In today’s America, corrupt business and Wall Street profiteers are seen as more reliable than union leaders. The real intent of the anti-union forces is to remove an obstacle from their quest for more, more, more. If we buy into the idea that our union leaders are working against our interests, we put nails in our own coffins. If that were true, then all those union contracts, all those workers whose unfair treatment was successfully challenged, all those anti-worker management actions that were turned back or curbed…all of that would never happen.
There is a difference between being “union” and being silent in the union world. All unions have Constitutions and democratic procedures. For unions to thrive and achieve our mission, members have to pay an active role in the decision-making and internal union leadership contests. The anti-union forces will say unions are hopelessly autocratic. But the changes in major union leadership over the past few years tells a different story. So, does the rise of an entirely new and younger union leadership, with new ideas, skills and determination. We can buy into a self-destructive narrative that unions are corrupt. Or we can take up our membership responsibilities and use the accountability and policy tools that are readily available to us. Those trying to convince us that our own organizations are bad for us, should be asked what other American institution has done more for us.
The huge role that private money plays in our political system had denied workers and the union movement of the kind of pure and consistent candidates we would like. There are a number of exceptions. Political leaders that can be counted on to support workers, help us unify, and take risks to support our interests. But in a world where it takes millions to pursue office, workers will never compete with the big dollar donors. That makes our votes extremely important. It also means we have to understand that choosing who to vote for is going to be a compromise from the choices we would like to have.
This goes back to the basic questions. Which candidates really support workers AND our unions? Which candidates seek to unite us, not divide us? Which candidates respect workers and the leadership decisions we make within our unions? Which candidates understand that American prosperity must be broadly shared or the economy will fail. The political strategists will try to get us to focus in on one position of a candidate and get us to vote against them for that single position we might object to. We have to be more sophisticated than that. We have to look at overall performance and real support over the long haul. Single position politics is nothing more than divide and conquer.
In the long term, turning this nation around means taking the money out of politics and making office-seeking something working people can do. We won’t get there unless we show, by our votes, that we aren’t being fooled by the “pro-worker” frauds. We won’t get there by saying “all of them are the same”. We won’t get there by voting against our own interests.
If we recognize that literally billions of dollars are being spent to turn workers into independent contractors, who have no power. If we fall for that, we have no one to blame but ourselves.
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Unions are nowhere close to the true autocracies underlying all multinational corporations.
That label is yet one more LIE promulgated by billionaires who never work.