On his regular television show “Last Week Tonight,” John Oliver explains how big corporations like Amazon prevent their workers from forming a union. They hire expensive consultants to advise them on tactics. They bombard their workers with warnings about what they will lose if they join a union. They require them to watch anti-union videos.
His show is both informative and amusing. He runs an anti-union video in which two actors play the part of workers who warn their colleagues not to join the union. After all, “we are one big family here.” Oliver points out that the two actors belong to a union. When he questions them about their hypocrisy, he responds that he can be paid to act like a rapist, but that doesn’t make him a rapist.
This show is a must-see. Oliver relies on data gathered by the Economic Policy Institute in D.C., which is a rare think tank that supports labor unions and progressive legislation.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The same thing goes on at Walmart, Target and other businesses. They have signs everywhere in the employee lounge warning of the evils of the evil unions. If any employee so much as utters the first syllable of union, they are quietly and quickly disappeared (fired, let go on trumped up charges). Not to mention the Taft-Hatley Act and all the right to work (for less) states. The GOP is totally anti-union while the Democrats are wishy-washy on unions except for Bernie and the progressives.
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The near-death of America’s union movement has been a frog-in-the skillet process. When I lived in Flint, where they made Buicks and other valuable cars & parts, the city claimed the highest per-capita income in the U.S. Then G.M. left, to make Buicks more cheaply in China, etc. (See Michael Moore’s “Roger & Me”). Conservative Republicans learned to use the NLRB against unions and organizing them, rather than to foster them in an orderly way, as the Wagner Act intended. Reagan’s NLRB especially. How can we help? Unions still exist. Try to buy a union-made product. You’ll have to look hard. You may have to give up your delightful Japanese car for one made in Canada. But we all have a stake in the survival of unions. (Note: I worked for NEA affiliates, AFSCME, & SEIU and am an SEIU retiree. Follow my comments on FB).
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From bloomberg, about Japan’s unions, 12-16-20: quote – the unionization rate for Japan fell to a record low of 16.7% in 2019 and stood at 17.1% in 2020, from close to 25.2% in 1990, according to government data. end quote
17.1% is still better than the US overall unionization rate of about 10%
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A headline from the U.S. edition of today’s Guardian: Starbucks/Chain launches aggressive anti-union effort as upstate New York stores organize. (The coffee is mediocre, too.)
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It certainly makes sense the the Economic Policy Institute supports labor unions as labor unions are major donors to the Economic Policy Institute and labor union leaders sit on the board of directors.
Major donors include
American Federation of Teachers (over $200,000)
National Education Association (over $200,000)
AFL-CIO (between $100,000 and $200,000)
AFSCME (between $100,000 and $200,000)
International Brotherhood of Teamsters (between $100,000 and $200,000)
Service Employees International Union (between $100,000 and $200,000)
United Auto Workers (between $100,000 and $200,000)
United Steel Workers (between $100,000 and $200,000)
Many other unions donated less than $100,000.
I know folks here immediately dismiss any group partially funded by Gates or Koch as a shill for their financial backers. Is the same true of the Economic Policy Institute?
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Do you have a problem with unions supporting a pro-union think tank? You will notice that none gives more than $200,000.
How can you liken this to the charter organizations that get multiple millions from billionaires like Koch, Waltons, Gates, and others who want to destroy unions? TFA, which replaces unionized teachers, has a bank account with more than $300 million. Eli Broad gave them $100 million.
EPI is a respected think tank whose studies are carefully reviewed and valuable.
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Indeed I do not. Any research that it does should be evaluated on the merits just like any research done by an organization supported by Gates, Koch, etc should also be evaluated on the merits.
It will be good to see folks on the blog not dismissing research findings based simply on who financially supports the organization.
I should point out that both the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association gave more than $200,000. It is not reported how much more, so we are free to speculate about how much they actually gave and what it purchased.
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The money given by NEA and AFT comes from their middle-class/working-class members. They are trying to improve lives, not ruin them. The unions are not multi billionaires. The research by EPI supports working people, not inflated egos. I have never seen their studies called biased. But maybe Charles Koch thinks they are.
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America’s Churches strongly support unions — take a look:
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops declared in their 1986 Pastoral Letter “Economic Justice for All” that the right of workers to organize in labor unions is a constitutional First Amendment right to free association and free assembly. Here’s what America’s churches say:
“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.”
— POPE BENEDICT XVI, Encyclical “Caritas in Veritate,” 2009
“[The unions’] task is to defend the existential interests of workers in all sectors where their rights are concerned. The experience of history teaches that organizations of this type are an indispensable element of social life, especially in modern industrialized societies. [Unions] are indeed a mouthpiece for the struggle for social justice, for the just rights of working people in accordance with their individual professions.”
— POPE JOHN PAUL II, Encyclical “On Human Work,” 1981
Other denominations, Christian and Jewish alike, have taken official positions supporting unions. Here are some examples:
“We reaffirm our position that workers have the right to organize by a free and democratic vote of the workers involved.”
— AMERICAN BAPTIST CHURCHES in the U.S.A. Resolution, 1981
“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.”
— CENTRAL CONFERENCE OF AMERICAN RABBIS, Preamble to the Workplace Fairness Resolution, adopted at the 104th Annual Convention, June 1993
“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.”
— DISCIPLES OF CHRIST, Resolution on the Church and Labor, 1938
“Free collective bargaining has proved its values 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.”
— CHRISTIAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH,Discipline doctrine, adopted 1982
“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.”
— EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH IN AMERICA, Resolution adopted at Churchwide Assembly, 1991
“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.”
— PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH U.S.A, “Principles of Vocation and Work,” adopted at General Assembly, 1995
“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.”
— UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST ASSOCIATION OF CONGREGATIONS, adopted at General Assembly, 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.”
— UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST, “Resolution Affirming Democratic Principles in an Emerging Global Economy,” adopted at 21st General Synod, 1997
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Thanks to you and thanks to Last Week Tonight.
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John Oliver was wonderful!!
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Bravo, John Oliver. It’s awkward to say so after seeing union busters at work but…required viewing.
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