Everyone agrees that Unions in the 21st Century are faltering, the question is what do we on the Left do to help unions adapt to this new reality. The majority of Labor is now concentrated in government services and is helping to fuel conservative hostility against it. A cognitive dissonance in the ranks of some labor unions (police, fire, corrections, and some construction trades) tend to be more conservative and vote against their own economic interests. In addition, these factors also come into play as I see them in my work place:
- Pensions tied to Wall Street. A double edged sword. Shareholder activism can be used to drum up reforms on Wall Street because our pensions (PERS, STRS, etc.) are tied to Wall Street. However, performance suffers and preparations must be made if this route is chosen.
- Health Care Mismanagement. I see this a lot in my union, the Teamsters. Management pays off the Business Agent, who is also a trustee in the management of rank and file medical benefits, by increasing the medical benefit but is never enough to cover the deductible.
- Protect the incompetent. The one thing everyone secretly agrees on, but no one does anything about.
- Demographically unrepresentative. When I drive down the 215 freeways I hardly see any African-American and Latino faces doing construction.
So can the current labor union change its ways, I have my doubts. I believe that once folks see what it is like without a labor union, they will regret they had. Only then can we start to build a Labor Union for the 21st Century.
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