Stephen Greenhouse was the labor reporter for the New York Times for 19 years.
In this interview with the California-based Capital & Main, Greenhouse reviews the history of the labor movement, the role it played in building a middle class, and its decline. He goes on to describe strong portents of a revival of power for working people.
No Seat at the Table: Steven Greenhouse on Labor’s Silenced Voice
Greenhouse has written a new book about the labor movement and why it matters. The book is titled Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present and Future of American Labor.
He said,
One of the reasons I wrote this book is that there’s a phenomenon that far too few Americans understand. Worker power in the United States, not just union power, but worker power overall, has fallen to its lowest level, certainly since World War II and probably since the Great Depression.
That has hurt tens of millions of Americans because it’s a big contributor to wage stagnation. Consumers don’t have enough money to spend. That’s depressed the economy a bit.
Another unfortunate result of this declining worker power is income inequality. One study I looked at showed that income inequality has increased faster in America since 1995 than in any of three dozen industrial nations. One reason for that is that unions and worker power in the U.S. have grown so weak.
A third bad result of the decline of worker power is that corporations have undue domination of our nation’s politics and policymaking.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
One of the most spectacular phenomenons is this whole idea of Americans voting against their interests. Over the years, the propaganda and distractions of the ruling class have worked brilliantly. The techniques are relatively bloodless and efficient, limited to images, moving images, print, and the political and cultural sculpting of a wide menu of different core identities that stood to disunity people. I’m a leftie, You’re a righty. I’m black. You’re white. I’m elite. You’re blue collar, etc. The list is endless. It’s vertigo producing.
Amidst all this brain wiring over the decades, Americans have allowed the decline of unionism to happen and they will be the only ones to allow it to grow and make the society far more equitable.
One thing unions have learned is not to exclude “others” who are not like them, as they did in the 40s, 50s, and 60s. Blacks and Hispanics were excluded from so many unions, which were primarily comprised of white working class people, and mostly men in the early stages of union growth. Sounds a little like Trump’s base? Connect the evolved dots many years later. This exclusion was the most foolish thing to do, considering that there is only power in numbers. One must strengthen the damn herd.
And unions will only grow once enough Americans lose their “differences” and identities that they feel so comfortable with. They are also slowly losing those labels that they assign to others, and are beginning to realize that everyone – regardless of their status – needs dignified healthcare, environment, housing food, transportation, education, legal rights, and retirement. These needs are so universal that the roads leading to them cannot be so wildly varied. These needs are our human, birth, and civil rights. They define who we all essentially are. They are written into the DNA of homo sapien.
This is a cautionary tale for us Americans This is not the lesson for the politicians or overclass or ruling class or ownership class to learn. This is OUR lesson, and I think we can all learn it! We have the ability, and now we have the motivation.
The cave we fear to enter holds the treasures we seek the most . . .
I’m going into the dark cave . . . It’ll be okay.
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If you ever read any young adult books, I recommend WIDE AWAKE by David Levithan (along with pretty much everything else he’s ever written). The book makes a lot of the same points you do. It’s set sometime in a very likely future when the U.S. is just coming out of years of a “Reign of Terror” with several Trump-type presidents in a row who rule by fear. Gradually different groups have come to realize they have more in common than differences and they have united to finally elect a progressive gay, Jewish president. It’s perhaps not the best of Levithan’s books (that would be TWO BOYS KISSING), but it is uplifting and inspiring, especially for these times.
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I agree with you, Dienne.
Personally, I don’t care if it’s a president who is 300 years olds, a Martian with three heads and 5 different genders, warts, fangs, and claws. As long as it’s politics represent the masses and their needs.
We are all far more alike than we are different. Just ask the Europeans:
https://eand.co/why-are-europeans-so-much-happier-than-americans-6d26ccb71322
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Workers helping drive the economy, not just by working, but by spending a good deal of what they make on goods and services. The economy is stronger when workers have stable, decent paying jobs and an adequate pension.
Labor unions have fought for all the benefits most workers enjoy like the forty hour work week, vacations and weekends. We need more workers to join labor unions. With union membership at an all time low since the depression, union membership is a little over 10%. This low membership reflects the low wages. income disparity and the power of the 1% in our country. Public unions represent the largest group in the 10%.
Red for Ed finally brought some attention to the dire circumstances of many teachers today. West Virginia teachers that walked out gained a modest increase of 5% in their salaries, some additional supports for their students, but they also had to accept charter school expansion as part of the deal.http://wvmetronews.com/2019/06/20/educators-legislators-react-to-passing-of-house-omnibus-education-bill/
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The possibly good news in W Virginia is that the charter bill makes districts the only authorizers. The charter lobby has warned the state that it won’t have any charters if this bill stands.
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You can’t get garlic juice out of a dry sponge.
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You can’t get any semblance of intelligence from a defanged, de-clawed, isolated, old curmudgeon.
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