From the report: Key findings One of my parents was a teachers' union member; I grew up in a locale dominated by auto industries and their attendant unionized workers. I'm old enough to have...
Exemplary
From the report:
Key findings
Americans’ approval of unions and willingness to vote for them at their workplaces have increased although union membership has continued to drop in recent years.
Even more remarkable than the growth of union support has been the decline of outright opposition to unions and the rise of the “union curious.”
A large generational divide that was not apparent even a few years ago is emerging. Workers 30 and under are far more likely than older workers to report both support for and uncertainty about unionization.
One of my parents was a teachers' union member; I grew up in a locale dominated by auto industries and their attendant unionized workers. I'm old enough to have watched the following factors in the decline of unionization:
the extensive bad press unions received over corruption and organized crime involvement in some industries;
the collapse of American manufacturing employment during the 1970's and 1980's due to poor responses to high energy prices and inflation;
the deliberate weakening of labor laws and enforcement under Republican leadership; and
the further hollowing out of industries through a globalized race to the lowest labor costs from the 1990's to the present.
The report doesn't explore the reasons people over 30 are skeptical about unions. In manufacturing industries, there was tremendous rage over how impotent and incompetent unions were at doing anything other than turning out Democratic Party votes. During the same time period, the party was capitulating to neoliberalism.
The report only briefly mentions specific examples of successful present-day organizing, and doesn't discuss union sentiment by industry. I've got a family member who's a home health aide for exactly 36 hours a week, with no schedule certainty for her thrice-a-week twelve hour shifts, no benefits, and wage theft when she's forced to exceed scheduled hours for patient care. I know any number of restaurant, food service, agricultural, hospitality, and retail workers who'd unquestionably benefit from a union. Even as a tech worker, I've personally experienced 80 - 100 hour weeks and 24/7/365 on-call without overtime compensation, lost vacation pay, sexual harassment and wage discrimination without recourse, etc.
Every wage laborer needs a union regardless of industry, especially in a time of Gilded Age wealth concentration that's likely to get worse. A great deal depends on union democracy, transparent bargaining, union representation on corporate boards, and so on. The U.S. has a great deal to learn from other countries.
I can remember the rise (at least to me) of anti-unionism during Regan. I remember being in my college dorm, gathered with others in this guy's room who had a mini-tv. He was a republican...
I can remember the rise (at least to me) of anti-unionism during Regan. I remember being in my college dorm, gathered with others in this guy's room who had a mini-tv. He was a republican engineering student and I can remember him saying smugly and shaking his head "Oh Steve, unions aren't needed anymore, that is a dated opinion".
To quote the cylons: "all this happened before, all this will happen again".
Wage stagnation and erosion of worker's rights have brought unionism to the edge of a new cycle of life.
I guess the next step is to get some of the corrupt leaders out, like that guy from the teamsters who spoke at the RNC.
From the report:
Key findings
One of my parents was a teachers' union member; I grew up in a locale dominated by auto industries and their attendant unionized workers. I'm old enough to have watched the following factors in the decline of unionization:
The report doesn't explore the reasons people over 30 are skeptical about unions. In manufacturing industries, there was tremendous rage over how impotent and incompetent unions were at doing anything other than turning out Democratic Party votes. During the same time period, the party was capitulating to neoliberalism.
The report only briefly mentions specific examples of successful present-day organizing, and doesn't discuss union sentiment by industry. I've got a family member who's a home health aide for exactly 36 hours a week, with no schedule certainty for her thrice-a-week twelve hour shifts, no benefits, and wage theft when she's forced to exceed scheduled hours for patient care. I know any number of restaurant, food service, agricultural, hospitality, and retail workers who'd unquestionably benefit from a union. Even as a tech worker, I've personally experienced 80 - 100 hour weeks and 24/7/365 on-call without overtime compensation, lost vacation pay, sexual harassment and wage discrimination without recourse, etc.
Every wage laborer needs a union regardless of industry, especially in a time of Gilded Age wealth concentration that's likely to get worse. A great deal depends on union democracy, transparent bargaining, union representation on corporate boards, and so on. The U.S. has a great deal to learn from other countries.
I can remember the rise (at least to me) of anti-unionism during Regan. I remember being in my college dorm, gathered with others in this guy's room who had a mini-tv. He was a republican engineering student and I can remember him saying smugly and shaking his head "Oh Steve, unions aren't needed anymore, that is a dated opinion".
To quote the cylons: "all this happened before, all this will happen again".
Wage stagnation and erosion of worker's rights have brought unionism to the edge of a new cycle of life.
I guess the next step is to get some of the corrupt leaders out, like that guy from the teamsters who spoke at the RNC.