8 Union Victories Progressives Should Be Watching--And Learning From

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.alternet.org/story/151974/8_union_victories_progressives_should_be_watching--and_learning_from?page=entire

It might be too early to call it a resurgence, but organized labor has been marking some big victories lately.
August 10, 2011 |



Photo Credit: modernsara via Flickr


We always hear that unions are in trouble. But that’s not the whole story.

While nearly one of every three American workers were union members in 1945, today only 6.9 percent of private sector employees have union representation, a historic low. Tea Party governors like Wisconsin’s Scott Walker have pushed anti-union bills through state legislatures. Wisconsin’s bill stripped public employees of most of their collective bargaining rights and was the most significant direct attack against unions by a leading politician since Ronald Reagan crushed the air traffic controllers strike in 1981.

Yet despite the odds, over the past few months unions have achieved significant victories around the nation. Workers continue to fight for better wages, job security, safe workplaces, and health care, regardless of the struggles unions face. Their long-term struggles have not changed. But their success rate may be improving.

Why is this? The terrible economy may have convinced more workers that standing together with their fellow employees is the best chance they have to hold on to middle-class dreams. The less-negative media climate surrounding unions after the draconian anti-union bills in Wisconsin and Ohio may have helped.

Some of this success may also come from the structural changes within the National Labor Relations Board that have helped level the playing field for workers. President Obama has disappointed many unionists in his administration. He did not push very hard for the Employee Free Choice Act, and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka has expressed frustration with the Democratic Party for its continued rightward tilt. But behind the scenes, Obama’s appointees to the NLRB, Craig Becker and Mark Pearce, have reenergized the board, and the recent NLRB decision to expedite union elections, undermining employer attempts to intimidate workers, brought howls of protest from corporations.

FULL story at link.

[CarmanK]

1. Always show the graph that indicates UNION wages=Workers wages

there is a graph that shows that as goes UNION WAGES and benefits, so goes the general work force wages and benefits. E.G. Last week in VA one of the IKEA (I think) plants chose to unionize, another VA location did not press for UNIONIZATION because management agreed to sit down and talk about WAGES AND BENEFITS. UNIONS are the PATHWAY back to the middle class and economic justice in this country. UNIONS make our nation strong, because a middle class keeps us FREE from the tyranny of ignorance and greed.

[Omaha Steve]

2. This one?

[Luminous Animal]

3. Good article. K&R