Today is Labor Day. What better time to recognize the importance of unions in giving working people a voice and “unrigging” our economy. There was a time when most people understood the importance of creating a balance between the power of corporations and the rights of workers.
A generation of pro-corporate propaganda has eroded public support for unions and left most workers on their own, at the mercy of corporations.
The Economic Policy Institute explains here why unions matter and why they should be revived.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
A good read for Labor Day.
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Well, since we’re adding our songs, here’s a more recent one:
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Awesome
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I am NOT a fan of Larry Summers but he actually said some cogent things about unions: “On this Labor Day we would do well to remember that unions have long played a crucial role in the American economy in evening out the bargaining power between employers and employees. They win higher wages, better working conditions and more protection from unjust employer treatment for their members. More broadly they provide crucial support in the political process for broad measures such as Social Security and Medicare, which benefit members and non-members alike. Both were at their inception passionately opposed by major corporations.
The shrinking of the union movement to the point where today only 6.4 per cent of private sector workers – a decline of nearly two-thirds since the late 1970s – are in unions is one important contributor to the decline in the relative position of labour in general and those who work with their hands in particular. The decline in the unions is also a contributor to the pervasive sense that too often our political system is for sale to the highest bidder.”
From larrysummersdotcom
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Unions matter because of corporate GREED!
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Great posts today, Diane, all getting right to the heart of the matter. Economics 101. Yes, yes, yes, and yes. So-called education reform is all about suppressing wages and concentrating power in the hands of the few, the oligarchs. It’s not disruption; it’s oppression.
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Testify, Brother LeftCoast!
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It’s not freedom of choice; it’s oppression.
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Amen
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YES!
We Europeans have had to learn this the hard way, but learned we have.
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Perhaps I am a Marxian , believing in “Dialectrical Materialism” . In short most human interactions have economic roots . From family structure to ethos…….
“its (always ) the economy stupid”
As such “economics is who gets what ” how goods and services and the production of those goods and services are divided in any society.
“Politics who decides who gets what when and how”
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” In short most human interactions have economic roots”
Thoroughly disagree!
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Duane E Swacker
The opposite of that view point is that , . Individuals or groups are responsible for their circumstances . So therefore if blacks had better ethos . They would not be in the circumstances they are in.
Vs because of the economic circumstances they were in they developed dysfunctional family units in urban America .
Lets bring it closer to home, white middle class (in this case the managerial or professional class ) students preform better because of the value systems of their parents. Vs the value systems and advantage that their parents convey, were created by the economic circumstance that their parents were in and their abbility to assist their children .
Better yet look at the civil service system in Dynastic China and the effect it has on how that society educates hundreds of years latter. An education system that still teachs to the test and parents who send their children for tutoring 6hrs a day after school for years to compete on those tests. .
Or if we force single mothers , (the welfare queen of Mr Reagan – Ryan ) off of welfare they will go out and get the jobs that lift them and their children out of poverty . Because they have developed a culture of dependency . Vs if we provide the jobs that can lift people out of poverty and access to those jobs, they will seek those jobs and what ever education they feel is attainable to get those jobs .
Obviously throwing mothers off of welfare did not create the jobs that would bring them out of poverty. It increased poverty. Or because of the lack of decent employment the underground economy in drugs and the gang networks develop as a means of subsistence.
Been a long time since my intro to Anthropology class and perhaps my examples are a bit rusty . . But I think you will still find that, when discussing family structure and belief systems , in a given society. Anthropologists still look for its roots in how that society provides for its basic needs . Which is a Marxian approach to the science.
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Most human interactions have roots in dignity, rights, and responsibilities. It might be best to say most human predicaments instead of interactions have economic roots. Interactions sounds like Tony Blair. Or like Margaret Thatcher… Ah! I finally have an appropriate yet double entendres use for this phrase: “Most human interactions have economic roots.” That’s what she said. Get it? That’s what she said… Don’t all laugh at once… Tough audience… I’m here all week!
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LeftCoastTeacher
How about we say to understand . Belief systems and family and societal structures.We have to examine the underlying economic circumstances . MY wife’s (ex) rt wing friend whose wealthy daddy took care of her useless butt , for 50+ years , told us that women’s
lib is responsible for women going work . So women are working for a sense of liberation ? . Can we agree she has that backwards .
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It’s not accountability; it’s oppression.
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It’s not education reform; it’s oppression.
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Women and minorities are the two groups most represented in unions today. Unions help mitigate the harmful impact of discrimination while providing working people with some level of due process, benefits and stability. Educators are a significant sub-group among union members. What is shocking is that so many politicians have sold out teachers and often lead the charge to destroy unions and teaching as a profession. As Chiara has stated before, nobody voted for them to do that. That’s because so many of our so-called representatives work for Wall St. and Silicon Valley.
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Love you all . Got to get some vitamin D
Keep up the great posts
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LOL Enjoy.
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This was in my mailboz before your post. It is a good summary of the reasons that unions matter and which workers are still unionized in spite of decades of work to get rid of them… with corporations, ALEC, and Republicans at the forefront of that effort.
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The Catholic Church has been a supporter of workers rights in general and the workers right to form unions in particular for well over a century. People like Paul Ryan seem to think they can treat long standing church doctrine as a shopping list, not the moral and ethical guidance it truly is on this topic. One must wonder if he knows or even cares that under church doctrine, union busting is a mortal sin. He and other like minded politicians disemble and deflect from any notion of this, of the need to and right of workers to unionize, by the ludicrously false claim that their historically failed economic policies eliminate the need for unions. That has never been true, no large scale example exists of the success of their claims. Please see http://www.catholicscholarsforworkerjustice.org for the details.
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Ryan has a well established reputation for hypocrisy… like all Republicans.
Catholic University of America took millions in Koch money agreeing to the strings-attached covenants.
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While I cannot agree with this from the article “Overall, more than one in nine U.S. workers are represented by unions. This representation makes organized labor one of the largest institutions in America.” because labor unions are not one institution. They are varied and many as explained in the article. It’s the same kind of false language that people use when they say things like “public school monopoly” or “We are measuring student achievement”, etc. . . .
Overall the article is spot on!
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Good catch.
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Having studied and worked with labor for decades . I am sure the writers at EPI are familiar with all of the short comings of labor that divide and weaken the Union movement. The most striking of which was described by Jack London in 1906 . And one that I watched play out right here in NY.
If you are curios read the “Iron Heal” Short enough . a century ago and much of it still rings true. .
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Yes, I read the Iron Heel a few years back. Will have to dig it out of the pile of papers and reread it one of these days.
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The average American employee stands no chance against corporate, state, or municipal power — except through collective power with fellow employees in a union. Employee unions have been demonized by corporate-owned politicians and media, but America’s churches strongly support unions: Just read the following strong moral pro-union stances taken by our nation’s mainstream churches and you will then know with certainty that you are morally right to support the expansion of unions and to oppose deceptively-labeled “right to work” laws that in truth are “Prepare to be fired at any time for any or no reason” laws. In the face of mammoth corporations and their puppet politicians, only by becoming united in unions can We the People secure our God-given rights to fair wages and benefits and job security. America’s churches strongly support unions and the collective bargaining that enables workers to have their fair share the profits that their work creates, and The Right is on the wrong side of this issue:
CATHOLIC CHURCH — UNITED STATES CONFERENCE OF CATHOLIC BISHOPS, Pastoral Letter “Economic Justice for All,” 1986: “The [Catholic] Church fully supports the right of workers to form unions or other associations to secure their rights to fair wages and working conditions. This is a specific application of the more general right to associate [this makes unionizing a constitutional right under the First Amendment right of freedom to form associations]. No one may deny the right to organize without attacking human dignity itself. Therefore, we firmly oppose organized efforts — such as those regrettably seen in this country — to break existing unions or prevent workers from organizing.”
POPE BENEDICT XVI, “Caritas in Veritate,” 2009: “Governments, for reasons of economic utility, often limit the freedom or the negotiating capacity of labor unions. The repeated calls issued within the Church’s social doctrine, beginning with Rerum Novarum, for the promotion of workers’ associations that can defend their rights must therefore be honored today even more than in the past.”
AMERICAN BAPTIST CHURCHES in the U.S.A. Resolution, 1981: “We reaffirm our position that workers have the right to organize by a free and democratic vote of the workers involved.”
CENTRAL CONFERENCE OF AMERICAN RABBIS, Preamble to the Workplace Fairness Resolution, adopted at the 104th Annual Convention, June 1993: “Jewish leaders, along with our Catholic and Protestant counterparts, have always supported the labor movement and the rights of employees to form unions for the purpose of engaging in collective bargaining and attaining fairness in the workplace. We believe that the permanent replacement of striking workers upsets the balance of power needed for collective bargaining, destroys the dignity of working people and undermines the democratic values of this nation.”
DISCIPLES OF CHRIST, Resolution on the Church and Labor, 1938: “We believe in the right of laboring men to organize for protection against unjust conditions and to secure a more adequate share of the fruits of the toil.”
CHRISTIAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH Discipline doctrine, adopted 1982: “Free collective bargaining has proved its value in our free society whenever the parties engaged in collective bargaining have acted in good faith to reach equitable and moral solutions of problems dealing with wages and working conditions.”
EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH IN AMERICA, Resolution adopted at Churchwide Assembly, 1991: “The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America commits itself to advocacy with corporations, businesses, congregations and church-related institutions to protect the rights of workers, support the collective bargaining process, and protect the right to strike.”
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH U.S.A, “Principles of Vocation and Work,” adopted at General Assembly, 1995: “Justice demands that social institutions guarantee all persons the opportunity to participate actively in economic decision making that affects them. All workers — including undocumented, migrant and farm workers — have the right to choose to organize for the purposes of collective bargaining.”
UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST ASSOCIATION OF CONGREGATIONS, adopted at General Assembly, 1997: “The Unitarian Universalist Association urges its member congregations and individual Unitarian Universalists in the United States… to work specifically in favor of mechanisms such as: reform of labor legislation and employment standards to provide greater protection for workers, including the right to organize and bargain collectively, protection from unsafe working conditions and protections from unjust dismissal.”
UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST, “Resolution Affirming Democratic Principles in an Emerging Global Economy,” adopted at 21st General Synod, 1997: “The 21st General Synod reaffirms the heritage of the United Church of Christ as an advocate for democratic, participatory and inclusive economic policies in both public and private sectors, including … the responsibility of workers to organize unions for collective bargaining with employers regarding wages, benefits and working conditions, and to participate in efforts further to democratize, reform and expand the labor movement domestically and abroad.”
We the People have so much to thank unions for — and it’s a shame that so relatively few know the story of how selfless union workers even gave their lives to put into practice our First Amendment right to freely associate in labor unions and in doing so created The Great American Middle Class. Unionized workers gained equitable and fair incomes not only for themselves but also for non-unionized workers whose companies raised wages and provided benefits comparable to unionized companies in order to retain good employees and to avoid being unionized. Those good wages not only created The Great American Middle Class but also created our consumer-based economy. To bring back the financial health and strength of the Middle Class that our economy needs to grow, we must bring back union strength and membership.
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Prof. Mark Perry is at the PUBLIC University of Michigan. He spews AEI’s concentrated wealth propaganda which is poisonous to democracy. Expectedly, he makes the God-like pronouncement, “unions are no longer relevant”. Perry should be the first to lose his job when Gates’ scheme “to implement business models of collaborative course design and delivery” takes its casualties. Perry should lose his job before New America succeeds in its plan to starve public universities of funds, turning them over to legacy admission colleges. The first people to be hung in effigy on campus are the arrogant, defenders of colonialist policies that give 6 Walton heirs wealth that is equivalent to 40% of Americans combined and that gives Bill Gates wealth equivalent to 750,000,000 people.
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I wonder if my favorite ad is still on the FDR drive as you approach Wall Street . An ad for a storage company.
“Even the French Aristocracy never saw it coming.”
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Extraordinarily well said, Linda.
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The Dem’s recent salve, “A Better Deal” is mocked with its comparison to Papa John’s ad, “Better Ingredients, Better Pizza”. In an article posted today, Tribune News Service reported that the head of Priorities USA, which is “packed with Clinton loyalists”, sent a memo that claimed the base thinks that they will be lifted by overall economic growth (a view that supplants any interest they may have in fairness). Over the past 40 years, the benefits of growth have all accrued to the richest 1%, robbing labor of the gains for its productivity. Why would the 99% continue to fall for that B.S.?
The colonialist Dems WILL NOT talk about the oligarchy that controls the U.S. The party’s favorite politicians are people like hedge fund-loving Corey Booker and Goldman Sachs-loving Kamala Harris, who chose not to prosecute Mnuchin, when she was Calf.’s attorney general.
The only surprising thing about the Dems is that Harris and Booker weren’t on the government aircraft for a mini vacation with Mnuchin and Marie Antoinette to view the eclipse at Ft. Knox.
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Spent some time rereading Philip Dray’s “There Is Power in a Union: The Epic Story of Labor in America.” I would highly recommend it everyone.
“Gone missing is the communal purpose that animated America in the mid-twentieth century, leading workers into unions and creating fundamental trust in government sufficient to bring about not only the benefits of the New Deal but the advances of the 1960s, such as the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, Medicare, Medicaid, and the National Endowment for the Arts, among many other programs.”
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Gone is a political party to carry the communal banner, replaced by oligarch-funded Center for American Progress and New America Foundation.
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