The Labor Movement in America, it’s members, it’s friends and its allies have views of what Union’s are supposed to do, that just don’t work…for workers. This is very apparent when union members insist that their union’s stay out of politics. It is also apparent when Warren Buffet, a businessman who fancies himself as “labor-friendly” and a populist, won’t get involved in a three-month unfair labor practice strike at a steel mill he owns in West Virginia. Both the “non-political” member and the theoretically union-favorable businessman stand in the way of unions being more successful for American working families. Both have a basic misunderstanding of what labor does and what arena’s it must work in to do its job.
The union member makes a huge mistake by thinking that their unions can somehow deliver a better quality of life on and off the job, without “getting dirty” in the politics and legislation of the nation. As workers have often discovered, way too late, the laws that underpin their earnings, workplace rights, pensions and healthcare are gone at the stroke of a political and legislative pen or a judges ruling. Labor earned those rights by being involved in the political and legislative arena, and we have lost many of them because our members were convinced there isn’t a connection. Often, we hear “the union isn’t going to tell me how to vote”. Okay, so after years of ignoring union leadership recommendations (and they are only recommendations), working people now face income insecurity, workplace safety compromises, the siphoning of pension and healthcare obligations and not enough political power to easily regain ground. Not only didn’t they back labor-friendly Democrats, they have left labor-friendly Republicans twisting in the wind as well. Some have the idea that a politician can be “labor-friendly” but anti-union. Another misjudgment of where working folks power comes from in this country.
On the business and corporate side, Buffet isn’t the only pretender. Add a bunch of CEO’s of major corporations, who claim to be “humanists”, like Starbucks, Amazon, McDonalds, etc. to a pretty big list. A list of those who love unions, until they are faced with the prospect of actually bargaining with us. Then they run to the union-busters with checkbooks wide open, begging to remain “union-free”. It is also their behind the scenes pressure that keeps the PRO Act, a piece of legislation that would level the playing field for workers, from becoming law. There always is just enough resistance, from both Parties and the corporate set, to leave working people with the short end of the stick.
The answer to both sides of this coin is accountability. Working people have to decide where their priority interests lie, and demand those issues are addressed by those they vote for. Those in the business world, who claim to want worker equity, need to pass a test as well. Either they can accept and work with an organized workforce, or they should be dismissed as frauds. Shouldn’t matter what Party they belong to. They’re either with us or agin us. That doesn’t mean that there won’t be disagreements around legislative policy or bargaining positions. The push and pull between money and labor will endure long after we’re all gone. However, what has happened over the past few decades has been a concerted and successful effort to mislead workers, co-opt politicians and punish any truly pro-labor business types, so that money rules and workers take what’s left.
What Union’s and workers (both members and the 90% without union protection) need is an honest conversation. One that lays out the reality of worker power. Teaches a few generations of workers, who missed the formative years of the labor movement, how their standing in this society came to be and what it takes to maintain it. The number of workers going on strike as of late and the rising number that are seeking to use their collective voices by organizing, are positive signs. Signs that working people are opening up to that conversation. What Union’s have to beware of is not to over-promise. Politics in this country are so screwed up, turning things around for working families won’t get done easily or quickly. There is a practical part of politics and legislation that we need to understand and not get frustrated by. If we can establish that priority list and build a growing movement to hold both public and private leaders accountable, we will start to change our futures. But only if we accept that many of us have been mislead and who it is, that has done that misleading.
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