Detroit Sees Largest Fast-Food Strike in U.S. History

[socialist_n_TN]

5. My perspective on this is that these alternative labor groups,......

and they are springing up ALL over, are actually the true descendants of the labor pioneers of the 30s and before. The unions themselves have become fat and bureaucratized and cater to an aristocracy of more highly skilled workers, rather than the mass of the working class. The regular unions are also compartmentalized into separate trades and don't (or can't thanks to T-H) works across trade and union lines when it comes to action. Plus, they can't strike, once again by law, for anything other than economic issues. IOW, no political strikes. So there are a LOT of problems using unions to get widespread solidarity in action throughout the class.

These alternatives however are not as constricted by laws as the unions are. AND they CAN organize across various sectors of the economy and, if they so choose, strike for more than economic issues. Now, so far they haven't. They've been focused on immediate economic issues like pay, conditions and, especially, wage theft. But I could see this movement grow into more. In addition, these alternative labor groups are MUCH more militant than the regular unions. Mostly because they have to be.

There are drawbacks of course too, mostly involving money and the lack of legal protections enjoyed by the "official" unions. I would love to see a closer working relationship between the official unions and the alternative orgs in each area, first locally, then statewide, then regionally, and finally, nationally.

I think I'm going to propose an article on this for Worker's Power using this slant. I think it's a worthwhile subject to explore.