When did Union become a dirty word?

[Xipe Totec]

Mr. President ,I shall enter on no encomium upon Massachusetts; she needs none. There she is. Behold her, and judge for yourselves. There is her history; the world knows it by heart. The past, at least, is secure. There is Boston, and Concord, and Lexington, and Bunker Hill; and there they will remain for ever. The bones of her sons, falling in the great struggle for Independence, now lie mingled with the soil of every State from New England to Georgia; and there they will lie for ever. And Sir, where American Liberty raised its first voice, and where its youth was nurtured and sustained, there it still lives, in the strength of its manhood, and full of its original spirit. If discord and disunion shall wound it, if party strife and blind ambition shall hawk at and tear it, if folly and madness, if uneasiness under salutary and necessary restraint, shall succeed in separating it from that Union, by which alone its existence is made sure, it will stand, in the end, by the side of that cradle in which its infancy was rocked; over the friends who gather round it; and it will fall at last, if fall it must, amidst the proudest monuments of its own glory, and on the very spot of its origin.

I have not allowed myself, Sir, to look beyond the Union, to see what might lie hidden in the dark recess behind. I have not cooly weighed the chances of preserving liberty when the bonds that unite us together shall be broken asunder. I have not accustomed myself to hang over the precipice of disunion, to see whether, with my short sight, I can fathom the depth of the abyss below; nor could I regard him as a safe counsellor in the affaairs of this government, whose thoughts should be mainly bent on considering, not how the Union may be best preserved, but how tolerable might be the condition of the people when it should be broken up and destroyed. While the Union lasts, we have high, exciting, gratifiying prospects spread out before us and our children. Beyond that I seek not to penetrate the veil.

- Daniel Webster,
The Second Reply to Hayne
January 26-27, 1830

So when did Union become a pejorative, and why?


http://www.dartmouth.edu/~dwebster/speeches/hayne-speech.html

[aquart]

1. It was always a dirty word to the bosses.

So I guess you've been listening to them.

[Xipe Totec]

4. 'scuse me, massa, listening to the bosses? n/t

[merh]

2. It happened about the same time liberal became a bad word

but before empathy became a curse.

I hope that helps. :hi:

:patriot:

[avaistheone1]

36. Reagan is the one who tore down the unions.

[merh]

38. he also made "liberals" a bad word.

[avaistheone1]

39. Correct on both scores.

He also rolled taxes way back on the super wealthy. His base, you know.

[WeDidIt]

3. About three years before the word "liberal" became a dirty word. n/t

[Mike 03]

5. Jesus christ, I ask: When was it NOT a dirty word.

Hasn't it been a dirty word since unions were born?

EDIT:

I am in a union. I had to correct what I wrote, because I said I was not in one.

[Xipe Totec]

6. A dirty word, but to whom?

why would the people reject the Union?

Why would they reject the only tool they have against oppression?

[Mike 03]

7. Who do you think? The employers. The corporations who pay the employees.

Did I say something wrong?

Or, if you are in the arts, the studios can usurp the money that the writers, directors and actors make from any reproduction of the product they were involved in, right?

What could be more obvious?

Maybe I'm wrong, or something.

[Xipe Totec]

9. I can see, then, why employers would be against unions,

but why the workers?

What worker, in his right mind would be stupid enough to oppose a union?

[mrcheerful]

10. People that didn't work for unions that got less pay then the union guy next

door. The guy who had to suck up to the boss to keep on the bosses good side so when said boss got pissed off at his wife the kiss up wasn't the one canned, because there wasn't anyone to tell the boss that he can't fire a worker cause he has personal problems at home. The guy who bought a over priced broken down house on his non union job wage and the union worker next door had a nicer house, car or sent his kids off to a better collage. You know the petty nit wit that bought the trickle down BS fed to them by Reagan, who thought that voting republicon was going to bring them great rewards and when it didn't it was the union workers fault.

[muntrv]

8. About when raygun became president.

[Xipe Totec]

12. Why does St Reagan hate America?

Why is he against the union?

Why do Republicans hate the Union?

[omega minimo]

11. Remember the 80's?

[Xipe Totec]

15. No, Alzheimer's.

Of course I remember the 80's...

[omega minimo]

18. Then why you aksin?

:shrug:

[Xipe Totec]

19. Did you read the original post?

or did you just react to the word union?

[omega minimo]

23. Are you playing a game?

[Xipe Totec]

27. I'm trying to understand why you're giving me a hard time,

when we seem, at least to me, to be on the same side of the issue.

The question is, are YOU playing a game? :shrug:

[omega minimo]

30. No intention of doing so, sorry.

:thumbsup:

[JVS]

13. See bourgeoisification

[liberal N proud]

14. The Reagan administration started the war on unions

First there was the air traffic controllers. Then there were hundreds of union operations where the company closed the facility and reopened under a different name months later hiring illegals or at the very best lower wages with no unions.

Then you can add on the Wal-Mart movement.

I remember exactly when it became a bad thing to be part of a union. But I still carry my union card.

[Davis_X_Machina]

16. It never *wasn't* a dirty word --

-- except maybe for three or four years in the thirties, thanks to a heavily unionized film industry.

Unions were, at their inception, for people who worked with their hands, for a wage. The archetypical American is an independent yeoman farmer, not a wage earner. And down South, there was a specialized caste system for manual labor.

Unions organized -- miners and a few others aside -- mostly people who worked in urban industries. The archetypical American is not a city dweller -- cities are corrupt and full of danger.

The unionized workers in those urban industries were disproportionately ethnic. The archetypical American is a (deracinated) Englishman, or Ulster Scots-Irish.

The existence of unions have never not been a living affront to the myth of The Real American. You accept the need for unions, the utility of unions, the justice of unions, and you're going to need a whole new myth -- and nations will fight wars civil and foreign to preserve their myths.

[Xipe Totec]

17. So, I guess the victors of the Civil War were not Real Americans

Because they believed in the power of the Union as the power of the people.

[Davis_X_Machina]

24. Look at how the Southerners derided the soldiers of the Union:

"mudsills" and "dirty mechanics" and "hirelings". Wage-earners. Non-farmers.

(The normative True American, according to the official myth, is of course a Southerner -- check out the GOP's current mythos.)

Unions challenge the national story-arc. That's no small part of why they must be destroyed.

[Canuckistanian]

20. August 3rd, 1981. The PATCO strike

On August 3, 1981 nearly 13,000 of the 17,500 members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) walked off the job, hoping to disrupt the nation's transportation system to the extent that the federal government would accede to its demands for higher wages, a shorter work week, and better retirement benefits. At a press conference in the White House Rose Garden that same day, President Reagan responded with a stern ultimatum: The strikers were to return to work within 48 hours or face termination. As federal employees the controllers were violating the no-strike clause of their employment contracts. In 1955 Congress had made such strikes a crime punishable by a fine or one year of incarceration -- a law upheld by the Supreme Court in 1971. Nevertheless, 22 unauthorized strikes had occurred in recent years -- by postal workers, Government Printing Office and Library of Congress employees, and by air traffic controllers who staged "sick-outs" in 1969 and 1970.

http://eightiesclub.tripod.com/id296.htm

[Xipe Totec]

22. Try 1947

Prior to the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act by Congress over President Harry S. Truman's veto in 1947, unions and employers covered by the National Labor Relations Act could lawfully agree to a "closed shop," in which employees at unionized workplaces are required to be members of the union as a condition of employment. Under the law in effect before the Taft-Hartley amendments, an employee who ceased being a member of the union for whatever reason, from failure to pay dues to expulsion from the union as an internal disciplinary punishment, could also be fired even if the employee did not violate any of the employer's rules.

The Taft-Hartley Act outlawed the "closed shop." The Act, however, permitted employers and unions to operate under a "union shop" rule, which required all new employees to join the union after a minimum period after their hire. Under "union shop" rules, employers are obliged to fire any employees who have avoided paying membership dues necessary to maintain membership in the union; however, the union cannot demand that the employer discharge an employee who has been expelled from membership for any other reason.

A similar arrangement to the “union shop” is the “agency shop,” under which employees must pay the equivalent of union dues, but need not formally join such union.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-to-work_law

[Canuckistanian]

31. Yes, that was significant

But it still never demonized unions like the PATCO stike did. A lot of people applauded Ray-gun at the time.

Unions had remained strong in the 50s, 60s and 70s until Reagan did his dirty work.

[Xipe Totec]

32. And then, planes started chucking engines on takeoff, and nobody noticed...

funny that...

[BlooInBloo]

21. When Joey said it.

[ThomWV]

25. I was going to say around 1980 under Reagan - the worst President this country has ever seen

Actually I guess Bush passed Reagan up for the title as worst President ever, but still ...

[Xipe Totec]

29. At least Reagan was elected n/t

[michreject]

26. You need to ask all of the people who support non union auto makers

They'll be along shortly to defend their actions.

[Xipe Totec]

28. Forgive me if I don't hold my breath...

:hi:

[DainBramaged]

35. OH, you mean most of the membership here on DU?

Who think buying a Japanese car assembled here is an American car? Or who defend their right to buy copious arms and assualt weapons while driving their Toyotas.

[proud patriot]

33. w/o my union I'd have no health coverage

Thank god for my union .

[Touchdown]

34. When it was voted on by "Secret Ballot"

:eyes:

[Kievan Rus]

37. When the pro-rich conservatives said it was

Unions, of course, are a big no-no to conservatives. Anything that does not further life for able-bodied, heterosexual, conservative Protestant white men that are wealthy is something conservatives will not agree with.

Unions are needed to make sure that employers obey the laws set aside by the government. Not surprisingly, labor law violations went up under Reagan due to some unscrupulous corporations having a friend in the White House.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

40. If you think its bad now, wait until the public pension bills start to roll in

Cram down here we come...