WHY AMERICA NEEDS A LABOR PARTY
Posted in political on June 1st, 2006
Unions in America are slowly waking up to a reality. For the past 30+ years, labor has been the Democratic parties’ bitch. In 1975, at the peak of union membership in the U.S., manufacturing by itself sported 22.2 million members. By 2005 the number for ALL union members had been reduced to 15.7 million and only 13% of private manufacturing was being done by union members, down from a high in 1973 0f 38.9%. The truth is, despite dumping millions of dollars into Democratic coffers, unions in America are dying a slow death. The question that I have for any union member is why are you still supporting union leaders that swear allegiance to the Democratic Party who are doing next to nothing to save your ass? Is it because you enjoy getting your monthly union periodical showing your leaders partying with Al Gore?
One thing that I’ve learned about politics over the years is that the worse thing you can do is swear allegiance to one party. Look at how badly that has played itself out for blacks and anti-abortionalists. If you become your parties’ base you will be forever ignored. The Democrats have convinced the Unions that if they were to leave, the bleeding would be profuse instead of slow. This I believe is a total lie. Lots of Republicans would be willing to support Unions if it meant winning in their district, especially if it meant bumping a Democrat out of that spot. Different candidates have different agendas; some of them are all about social issues such as banning gay marriage, or limiting abortions and actually support a strong labor market. Don’t assume all Republicans are anti-union.
Part of the answer, I believe, to this problem is for the unions to become more independent and more focused on increasing membership. Unions have allowed themselves to be divided by an assortment of issues. They pit blacks against whites, women against men, and retirees against current workers. What part of UNION don’t they understand? Business loves all this infighting as it almost always plays out in their favor. Racial issues and gender issues have absolutely no place in a union where everyone should be seen as a union worker only! Stand together or fall apart! These issues have a place, and they should be dealt with as they are in the non-union sector, through Federal, State and Local Laws. Let the employee handle that part himself while the union supports better retirement, wages and worker rights in general. This will benefit everyone in a more positive way than division could benefit the few.
Some of you, particularly in the manufacturing sector have had it very rough in the past, and I sympathize, but you have to understand, things are changing in an irreversable fashion. The Global economy has changed everything for you and as much as I hate to say it, it’s only going to get worse. The truth is, it’s much cheaper for products to be manufactured overseas and those jobs will continue to leave for the forseeable future. Anyone who’s telling you different is selling you a pipedream. Too much money is being made for the U.S. to go backwards into isolationism or to erect trade barriors.
Another big part or the solution for unions as I see it, is to focus on the service sector for recruiting. That’s right; I’m talking about Walmart, Autozone, and any other big business that sells overseas manufactured parts and supplies here in the U.S. While it’s true that unions in manufacturing drive the prices up too high to be competitive, I don’t think that’s true about the service sector. Think about it for a minute, that clerk in the checkout line at Walmarts is dragging in thousands of dollars an hour. How could it effect the price of your end products for them to be paid an additional 1 dollar an hour? Or 5, Or even 10? Good stores like Krogers and Meijers have unions, and still manage to stay competitive. The reality is, unlike manufacturing where every person on down the line is driving up the price if the product, service industry is affected far less.
But by far the best thing that unions could do to accomplish what needs to be done, is to separate themselves from the Democratic party. The unions can do this in much the same way that the Service Employee International Union and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters has separated themselves from the worthless AFL/CIO to form Change to Win. One by one they should leave these umbrella organizations (who are fat and bloated on union dues and way to close to the Dems) to form their own, non-committed union organizations. Together they could then form a REAL Labor Party with a new focus on throwing their support towards whoever supports their agenda. This new Labor Party could support candidates from either party, or in absence of a candidate willing to support labor, put up their own candidate. Much like the Whig party of the mid 1800’s, even a small section of the House or Senate can be very powerful if they use their swing votes to gain advantage. A few votes toward something Republicans or Democrats want can be traded for support on union issues.
In conclusion, I’d like to appeal to all working Americans to support any union that takes this path. If you belong to a union let your leaders know your sick of the division and blind faith in the Democratic Party, that you want change that is effective. I like balance in anything to do with our government, as it stands right now, corporations are getting way to powerful. We desperately need a Labor Party that looks out for our interest to help bring balance back to the market. Walmart would be a great place to start. H.C.
Posted in political on June 1st, 2006
Unions in America are slowly waking up to a reality. For the past 30+ years, labor has been the Democratic parties’ bitch. In 1975, at the peak of union membership in the U.S., manufacturing by itself sported 22.2 million members. By 2005 the number for ALL union members had been reduced to 15.7 million and only 13% of private manufacturing was being done by union members, down from a high in 1973 0f 38.9%. The truth is, despite dumping millions of dollars into Democratic coffers, unions in America are dying a slow death. The question that I have for any union member is why are you still supporting union leaders that swear allegiance to the Democratic Party who are doing next to nothing to save your ass? Is it because you enjoy getting your monthly union periodical showing your leaders partying with Al Gore?
One thing that I’ve learned about politics over the years is that the worse thing you can do is swear allegiance to one party. Look at how badly that has played itself out for blacks and anti-abortionalists. If you become your parties’ base you will be forever ignored. The Democrats have convinced the Unions that if they were to leave, the bleeding would be profuse instead of slow. This I believe is a total lie. Lots of Republicans would be willing to support Unions if it meant winning in their district, especially if it meant bumping a Democrat out of that spot. Different candidates have different agendas; some of them are all about social issues such as banning gay marriage, or limiting abortions and actually support a strong labor market. Don’t assume all Republicans are anti-union.
Part of the answer, I believe, to this problem is for the unions to become more independent and more focused on increasing membership. Unions have allowed themselves to be divided by an assortment of issues. They pit blacks against whites, women against men, and retirees against current workers. What part of UNION don’t they understand? Business loves all this infighting as it almost always plays out in their favor. Racial issues and gender issues have absolutely no place in a union where everyone should be seen as a union worker only! Stand together or fall apart! These issues have a place, and they should be dealt with as they are in the non-union sector, through Federal, State and Local Laws. Let the employee handle that part himself while the union supports better retirement, wages and worker rights in general. This will benefit everyone in a more positive way than division could benefit the few.
Some of you, particularly in the manufacturing sector have had it very rough in the past, and I sympathize, but you have to understand, things are changing in an irreversable fashion. The Global economy has changed everything for you and as much as I hate to say it, it’s only going to get worse. The truth is, it’s much cheaper for products to be manufactured overseas and those jobs will continue to leave for the forseeable future. Anyone who’s telling you different is selling you a pipedream. Too much money is being made for the U.S. to go backwards into isolationism or to erect trade barriors.
Another big part or the solution for unions as I see it, is to focus on the service sector for recruiting. That’s right; I’m talking about Walmart, Autozone, and any other big business that sells overseas manufactured parts and supplies here in the U.S. While it’s true that unions in manufacturing drive the prices up too high to be competitive, I don’t think that’s true about the service sector. Think about it for a minute, that clerk in the checkout line at Walmarts is dragging in thousands of dollars an hour. How could it effect the price of your end products for them to be paid an additional 1 dollar an hour? Or 5, Or even 10? Good stores like Krogers and Meijers have unions, and still manage to stay competitive. The reality is, unlike manufacturing where every person on down the line is driving up the price if the product, service industry is affected far less.
But by far the best thing that unions could do to accomplish what needs to be done, is to separate themselves from the Democratic party. The unions can do this in much the same way that the Service Employee International Union and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters has separated themselves from the worthless AFL/CIO to form Change to Win. One by one they should leave these umbrella organizations (who are fat and bloated on union dues and way to close to the Dems) to form their own, non-committed union organizations. Together they could then form a REAL Labor Party with a new focus on throwing their support towards whoever supports their agenda. This new Labor Party could support candidates from either party, or in absence of a candidate willing to support labor, put up their own candidate. Much like the Whig party of the mid 1800’s, even a small section of the House or Senate can be very powerful if they use their swing votes to gain advantage. A few votes toward something Republicans or Democrats want can be traded for support on union issues.
In conclusion, I’d like to appeal to all working Americans to support any union that takes this path. If you belong to a union let your leaders know your sick of the division and blind faith in the Democratic Party, that you want change that is effective. I like balance in anything to do with our government, as it stands right now, corporations are getting way to powerful. We desperately need a Labor Party that looks out for our interest to help bring balance back to the market. Walmart would be a great place to start. H.C.
2 comments:
It is interesting to me that we should take each person in the union as "just a union member" and not a black or white or male or female. It almost feels like there are other places this would be beneficial as well.
Great article!
Hey Will,
You've touched on the main reason the "unions" are doing so badly. I really believe that corporations support "diversity" and Affirmative Action as it's practiced, as a way of separating blacks from whites, women from men, and so on. Divided we fall. Thanks for commenting.
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