What the Labor Movement Has to Do to Become a Major Force Again

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/labor/what-labor-movement-has-do-become-major-force-again

Is it possible for Americans to ever again bring the “labor question” to the forefront of their thinking about our economy and political culture? The phrase today resonates only with historians, yet for over a half century, from the late 19th century to the era of the Great Depression, it was a central analytical category in American public life.

At its narrowest, it concerned what elites believed to be the necessity to mitigate the regular civil disruptions of the most militant labor movement in the Western world. At its most broad and socially creative, the labor question considered the essential relationship between the great waged work force and the nation’s politics, economics and, most importantly, workplaces: the phrase, “industrial democracy” was often linked to discussions of the labor question. Presidential candidates brought it up unasked. Woodrow Wilson made it central to his statement to Congress (what presidents now personally deliver as their State of the Union address) in 1919. Following the Second World War, the labor question effectively vanished from public discourse, but a variant of it was found in Harry Truman’s focus on “the promotion of greater harmony between labor and management” as the most important priority of his 1947 State of the Union address. Truman’s concern was understandable—because in 1946, 10 percent of the American workforce had gone on strike, the greatest strike wave in American history.

Of course, the labor question of that now vanished era referred almost entirely to white manufacturing, mining, building trade and transportation workers—the classic stereotype of the unionized worker. There were women and African-American workers who were union members, of course, but the cultural and political understanding of unionism marginalized those workers (and citizens) until the social justice movements of the 1960s and afterwards forced their attention upon the House of Labor. If the labor question is ever to be resurrected, it will be reformulated to encompass a cross-gender multi-racial and ethnic workforce dedicated to the ideal (if not yet the reality) of full egalitarianism. If it is asked again, the labor question of the future will be put forth under the banner of a broad civic nationalism, not the ethno-nationalist constraints of a century ago.

[Neon Gods]

1. Labor unions will thrive again in the future

We (liberals, Democrats, etc.) have largely ignored labor because many of the blue workers who were once union members are now vote solidly Republican. We can thank Ronny Reagan for that. They now vote for guns and against gays, etc. even though those votes are destroying their income and their jobs. At some point they will catch on that they've been duped. I think we (Democrats) should begin emphasizing the benefits of unions: protect workers' jobs and demanding a bigger share of company profits for the workers. In this era of job insecurity and obscene CEO salaries, it shouldn't be hard to get at least a portion of the blue collar workers to support unions and hopefully begin voting with us again. 20 years from now I think union membership will again be strong (thanks largely to the insatiable greed of the corporatists).