In the past three months, American organized labor has mobilized to the highest degree seen in years responding to legislation introduced in Wisconsin and Ohio that eliminated the right for public employees to collectively bargain for wages and benefits. The worst setback to American labor since Ronald Reagan’s dissolution of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization has ironically allowed for its greatest mobilization in recent memory. This labor crisis is a new chance for the Left to reevaluate the state of the American Labor Movement. Sadly, labor’s deficiencies go much farther than the virulently anti-union sentiment and legislation so common on the Right, and its power is far weaker than the recent protest movement may seem to indicate.
Since the 19th century, American organized labor has been stricken with corruption and structural deficiencies that make it more like a disorganized fiefdom of corrupt and often antagonistic factions rather than a coherent working class movement. The shameful history of corruption and crime among American trade unions has remained extant into the 21st century, and prefigures the nature of modern unions as headed undemocratically and coercively. Recent examples of this include the indictment of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees local leaders in 2000 of larceny and embezzlement alongside accusations of voter fraud, and the regular accusations of involvement with organized crime against the well-respected garment workers union, Union of Needletrades, Industrial, and Textile Employees-Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union (UNITE-HERE). The nature of many unions as undemocratic and headed by overpaid strongmen has continued for far too long. Another unusual deficiency of American unions is their competitive, rather than cooperative, nature. UNITE-HERE’s recent embarrassing rivalry with the Service Employees International Union reveals that the history of union competition, the most notable example of which was the often bloody feud between the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organization in the early 20th century, continues to be an obstacle for class progress. Unlike the social democracies of western Europe, where national unions work together for progressive political reform, the closest that American unions have to a labor party is the Democratic party, which has done almost nothing in recent years to halt the onslaught of austerity and anti-union sentiment against workers. American unions often have little democratic political power outside of the threat of striking, which rarely produces net gains for employees and enflames tension between management and labor.
Among the political left, the division between the oversimplified camps of “pro-union” versus “anti-union” has stymied any real criticism of American labor, rather than simply criticism of those who try to destroy it. As a proud member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), I find it disheartening that so many of my DSA comrades have devoted themselves to union organizing for major trade unions that do not make progress towards social democratic goals for all citizens, regardless of employment or union affiliation. Those who identify with the cause of workers’ rights or social democracy not only need to address the constant attacks on organized labor from the right and center, but also must work to reform from the side of labor. Although the radical dream of an all-encompassing industrial union essentially died with the factionalization of the Industrial Workers of the World, it is clear that the divisive and workplace-specific model of trade unionism that persists in the U.S. is no longer functional.
Amidst the growing gap between rich and poor, backsliding on labor rights and the death of an ideological working class, a new, more radical and universal movement must come to American labor that will not get stymied by divisions of trade or union affiliation. For the American labor movement to renew itself, workers must unite and demand benefits from the state as U.S. citizens, rather than benefits from management as members of a particular union.
Dan Hanson is a contributor to the Voice. He can be reached for comment at DHanson12@wooster.edu.
Regarding Mr. Hanson’s comments on the American Labor movement, I get the strong sense that people are entitled to jobs. That the workers’ first priority on a job is not the customer, but in securing their own job for a lifetime. We need only make a trip to the local BMV or post office to see what that productivity gets us.
Mr. Hanson, companies are in business to make a profit. And your pay raise, as an employee, becomes effective when you are. Growing up in Youngstown OH, I witnessed the slow grind of lost jobs in the union town since the 1970’s. Among the union workers, mediocrity was an expectation. Breaks during the work hours were expected. My sister-in-law worked too hard on a union job, so after 2 weeks of counseling, she quit. Working at half speed was not for her.
Her husband, my brother, never went to college. He built his own construction company off his front porch and today employes 6 guys, all husbands and fathers. They are productive, profit-motivated and take ownership of the products they build for their customers. They are as good as their last job and not insulated from paycuts or lost hours. Their motivation is the 17% unemployment rate in Youngstown. Customer loyalty matters to them. And unlike public sector unions, they don’t have a monopoly on the work being performed.
In France, it’s so unionized that the whole nation shuts down when it goes on strike. Is that the kind of power you seek in American unions? France, like Spain, endures 20% unemployment rates. Productivity is horrible. Ingenuity among the union ranks is non-existent because there is no incentive. But the sense of entitlement is in their genes.
Finally, public sector unions in many states bargain with politicians for raises and pensions using the money of taxpayers who are not even at the table! This is incredibly corrupt. How can a city bus driver who drives an empty bus around for 30 years, retire at 55 and earn 90% of their top pay (~$64,000) per year until they die? California has at least $48 billion in unfunded pensions to pay out. And your hope is to see unions strengthened?
Mr. Hanson, when unions recognize that the customer comes first, their members will learn to be competitive. I find it most revealing that non-unionized states like TX and many other southern states, are economically less worse off than any in the midwest. That is not a coincidence.
Regards,
Mike Crowe
Houston TX