Sure, unions had their problems but people who work need them more now than
ever.  Corporations have always been successful at combatting the protections
unions offered by hiring scabs to replace striking workers (and the recruitment of
Mexican workers was their biggest success—ask anyone in construction—as well
as the global outsourcing ); removing the teeth of any kind of regulation that
might make doing business more costly (try complaining about safety standards or
even discrimination) and making the worker so dependent on the vanishing
paycheck that he or she will keep their mouth shut.

Good morning. I’ve erased the rant I was about to
post, and will just say that unions were successful
when enough people were willing to sacrifice their own
ambitions and ladder-climbing, in order to assure
that all the boats are floating, or at least not sinking because of conditions beyond their control.

For
example, the main detriment to joining a union, for
those in a trade already union-organized, is because
the work isn’t as steady and overtime isn’t as
readily available to them when they jump ship. In other words, for the
union to get enough work for the workers to feel
comfortable about the future work scene, they have to
get most of the workers to give up the security of
lots of work available and more opportunities for OT,
which is what is supposed to make up for the lower
wages paid by non-union shops. My hall,( I’m a retiree of Local #73 Asbestos
Workers and Heat and Frost Insulators.) has been
running up against this problem for at least 2
decades, now, and as I traveled the country working,
almost every territory had similar results.

Kinda off-topic but relevant is that, while the
battle over the hearts and minds and wallets of workers was in full-swing, the Women’s Movement was
gathering steam, which helped begin the stagnant wages of the formerly sole-breadwinners, hidden
by the added funds provided by the spouses. ( I certainly feel that the Women’s Movement was long overdue, and any negative outcome of that usually the result of inequalities being adjusted more fairly.) After
that dance number got a bit overused, the debtors as
breadwinners game was ramped up to astronomical
proportions, as we got a little taste of in ‘08.

In another really hilarious twist, union workers, who
were shot, beaten, robbed, and run out of town by the
corporate robber barons, are now known as “thugs”.

Tobysgirl’s words bear repeating:

“I was at a conference in the 1970s about the decline of unionism, where the agreement seemed to be that all unions wanted to do was hang on to their dwindling membership. Unionism without radicalism is bound to turn into seeing one’s interests aligned with capitalism, then struggling to maintain wages and benefits, constantly ceding ground to the employer.

We will see unions rise again in this country if and when the American public stops seeing their interests as identical to corporate interests. If and when unionism once again means struggling for a different kind of society, a society where health care is available for all, housing for everyone, free education, and the banksters put in their proper place: picking up trash by the roadside.”

I grew up in a Republican family in the ‘50s and learned to view unions with suspicion (at best).  I’ve never joined one in the intervening half-century.  Yet now I see them as one of the very few potential saviors left in our country, given that the national Democratic party (which I came to in the ‘60s but left in 2004 to support actual progressives) has failed us so completely.

Unions still give lip service to progressive action, just as some national Democrats do, but when the chips are down they fall into line (just as those nominally progressive national Democrats do).  They backed Bill Halter (himself hardly a raging progressive) in Arkansas against Blanche Lincoln and the Democratic establishment, but are now back proclaiming their allegiance to the Democrats in Washington despite having been chided by them for having ‘wasted’ their time, effort, and money in Arkansas.

It’s time that the unions faced up to the fact that establishment Democrats just aren’t EVER going to support that “different kind of society” that we so desperately need after the depredations of at least the past 30 years.  It’s time that they began being radical enough once again to support alternatives outside the two-party rigged system.

They were leaders once.  We need them to be leaders again.  The question is whether their own leadership is as bought-and-paid-for as that of our major parties.

Tobysgirl: My reference re: “engaging in politics”  was to diverting funds for supporting workers and their families during protracted labor actions to wooing with ever increasing amounts self-interested political parties and their unprincipled, greedy candidates for sale to the highest bidder!

Reagan not only stifled the solar cell idea,he also shut down the largest experimental wind generator that had just been sucessfully completed, and producing electricity in Medicine Bow, Wyoming. This singular action may have set wind-power technology back two decades in the US. It also eliminated the opportunity for a major steel fabricator, which was a Union SHOP, to expand on the expertise learned in the design and production of that structure.

berniem: The simple truth of the matter is that the labor movement fell into decline when it decided to engage in politics and stop shooting back!

As far as I know, the labor movement ALWAYS engaged in politics even when shooting back. The radical unions were ousted with McCarthyism (a thoroughly successful anti-union effort, as members of the CPUSA were very involved in organizing unions), and the unions and the American public began to identify with corporate capitalism.

I was at a conference in the 1970s about the decline of unionism, where the agreement seemed to be that all unions wanted to do was hang on to their dwindling membership. Unionism without radicalism is bound to turn into seeing one’s interests aligned with capitalism, then struggling to maintain wages and benefits, constantly ceding ground to the employer.

We will see unions rise again in this country if and when the American public stops seeing their interests as identical to corporate interests. If and when unionism once again means struggling for a different kind of society, a society where health care is available for all, housing for everyone, free education, and the banksters put in their proper place: picking up trash by the roadside.

When I see the factors separating people from people at work even in these strings, it makes me sick!
  People are very frequently referred to as “sheeple.“People are referred to as “proles.”
Some people are said to “deserve” this or that. I’ve done it myself from time to time, automatically, without thinking.
  Ideas that are absolutely fanciful are credited to politically opposing factions.  Each “side” fears the other, and destructive emotions like hate are engendered.
  All this would be healthy if it vented itself and disappeared, but it lingers and prevents movement beyond itself. We really need uniters, not splitters; healers, not ill-willers. 
  The rampant blame of opposing parties all works to the benefit of the overlords. If we are unable to unite on common goals, we are much more easily managed. We give up our power in fighting each other.
  I guess what I’m trying to say is, we need to fight the issues, not the people. Fight poverty, fight injustice, fight war, fight the systemic factors like the power that money can buy to manage the economy in favor of the rich and against the poor; in favor of lies at the expense of facts.
  For one instance:  Why do we not take up at once the gross injustice of the Supreme Court’s recent decision permitting huge corporate contributions to be funneled into the electoral system, to the benefit of a favored party or candidate, and enriching only the media?  This outrage works against democracy and the equality of the vast majority of the population. Why can’t the vast majority get together and protest instantly?
  We are letting ourselves be disenfranchised by standing by and waiting for someone else to fix it—which it appears will not happen.
  Where did this psychology of victimization come from and how can we get rid of it? It’s either self-flagellation or blame-the-other, over and over.

The simple truth of the matter is that the labor movement fell into decline when it decided to engage in politics and stop shooting back!

Carl writes “Labor leaders have been corrupted and chosen by corporate America for decades now.”

This is pure drivel. If corporate America could control the unions they would cease all efforts to destroy them. Corruption is endemic because the USA has turned a blind eye to it.

We all know that the contractors who aid the “war effort” only aid their coffers, not this nation or its soldiers. Their corruption is so horrific it makes the fumbling thievery of the NCOs in the military seem like children stealing a single piece of penny candy.

Unions did not let american jobs get out-sourced.
america elected a “B” Rated actor to manage an “A” Rated country to facilitate a “B” status in keeping with that really ‘bad idea’ for president!(i did not vote for BONZO).
regan’s “Hi-Point’ was removing the solar cells Carter had the insight to install on the WH in his attempts to inform america- “We must convert from gas guzzelers to renewables.
Another bad choice from an ‘un-informed public’
America has run out of options & we deserve what is coming- Everyone ready for the new season of “AMERICAN IDOL” WHOOPEE!

Labor leaders have been corrupted and chosen by corporate America for decades now. This is why they earn a million dollars a year. They even support another Reagan type amnesty for illegal aliens, even though the flood of illegals has done more to drive down wages and increase unemployment than anything.

Since Reagan used to be a union president his betrayal is all the more right wing American. Those of the right wing in this country hate the notion that the average citizen should be considered equal with or to our aristocracy of wealth. LAbor consists of the peasantry and ought not to take on airs of being equal to those who know they are more deserving because they have more money, inherited or stolen.

Why should our wealth aristocracy allow itself to be pushed around by low wage worker whose labor creates the wealth? Let all unions die. They only force management to pay a decent wage, pay more for overtime, pay for healthcare and vacation. Who wants any of that? Its such a waste to treat workers as though they are full fledged rational humans.

Capitolism is wonderful for the top 10% and not so good for the bottom 90%. The worker bees must not be permitted to have rights. If they don’t like being exploited and abused let them go elsewhere.

The beneficence of the ruling class will assure us enough quiet places to crawl off to and die when we are no longer making profit for them.

EJ:

Big Labor was MURDERED, deliberately and with malice aforethought, with a plan that started with the election of Ronald Reagan, organized labor’s worst enemy, the “Adolph Hitler” to Labor’s Jewry.

Reagan began by endangering our skies and every air traveler by firing the ENTIRE air traffic controllers’ union for an “illegal” strike against unsafe and unfair working conditions. He didn’t care—breaking the union was more important than the safety of our skies.

He then signed into law a bill giving HUGE tax incentives to companies moving manufacturing operations off-shore, supposedly to “help” the 3rd world.

Result: Over 3.5 million industrial union jobs lost, never to return.  Something like 50,000 non-union jobs were lost.  Most items we use are manufactured overseas, mostly in China.  Garments are made in Indonesia, Mexico, etc, but the International Ladies Garment Workers Union is effectively dead.  Remember the song “Look for the Union Label”?  That was the swan song of the ILGWU.

2nd result: The Unions mainly back the Democrats. Kill the unions and you kill a major source of Democratic ground-pounders.

All part of the plan for their “Final Solution”, or as Tom DeLay put it: The K Street Project to control all patronage and political funding.