Business Books: Playbook for resurgence of U.S. labor

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN18442760

By Kevin Krolicki

DETROIT, Oct 18 (Reuters) - When chronicling the decades-long decline of organized labor in the United States, commentators have often examined the dwindling role of unions in troubled industries such as cars and coal.

Few consider the more hopeful case of the catfish industry.

In his just-released book "State of the Unions: How Labor Can Strengthen the Middle Class, Improve our Economy and Regain Political Influence," Philip Dine chronicles the unlikely gains made by union organizers in the booming business of farming catfish in the Mississippi Delta.

The anecdote from a little-known business is part of Dine's playbook for a comeback for organized labor at a time when many are ready to write off the American union movement as irrelevant and outdated.

Dine, a 20-year veteran of the labor beat at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper, counters that organized labor's message and values could still resonate with the 9 out of 10 Americans who don't belong to a union -- if the movement can reinvent itself.

As examples of the new style of leadership required to do that, Dine cites union wins for catfish workers in Mississippi and the grass-roots organizing success of Iowa firefighters in winning that state's 2004 presidential caucus for John Kerry.

FULL story at link.