Are there specific reasons to why labor unions became a commdified service in America

[FriendorFoe]

A lot of jobs have employees that pay a third party to form a union within that job...

Are there specific reasons to why third party unionization is the choice of today?
Do today's unions differ much from unions of yesteryear? (with the mob doing union busting and all that)

What led to the change?

Or am i wrong all together?

[AntifaAustralia]

it's efficient? like capitalism! that is not on!

We have the construciton forestry mining and energy Union (CFMEU)sponsering capitalist NRL (rugby league) teams in australia.

Perhaps the day the Unions govern this nation or receive governement support we may see a relaxation in union issues.

[Bud Struggle]

A lot of jobs have employees that pay a third party to form a union within that job...

Are there specific reasons to why third party unionization is the choice of today?
Do today's unions differ much from unions of yesteryear? (with the mob doing union busting and all that)

What led to the change?

Or am i wrong all together?

I am unaware of his whole issue. If anyone could please link me to articles about how and where this is being done I would be most appreciative.

[TheCultofAbeLincoln]

To me it looks like the unions became just another arm of the capitalists, making deals which did guarantee workers some privlidges, but of course never took too muchh away from the bottom line.

Another thing is when a union really does fight for workers, everyone turns against it, especially the union.

I know that sound contradictory, but take a look at Ron Carey:



As the August 1, 1997, strike deadline approached, the talks broke down. On July 30, the company presented its final offer, which the union rejected.[73] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/#cite_note-Yearlong-72) Officials with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (http://www.revleft.com/wiki/Federal_Mediation_and_Conciliation_Service_(USA)) met with the two sides on July 31: Both sides agreed to return to the bargaining table, and the union agreed to extend its strike deadline by four days.[73] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/#cite_note-Yearlong-72) Carey presented a new proposal to the company on August 2, but UPS officials rejected it.[73] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/#cite_note-Yearlong-72) Talks resumed on the evening of August 3. UPS officials later said they offered to make significant compromises similar to those contained in the eventual contract (including withdrawal of its pension proposal), but Carey disputed that account and said the company's last proposal contained little that was new.[73] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/#cite_note-Yearlong-72)

Carey's strike preparation efforts paid off when talks between the company and union broke down and 185,000 union members struck on August 4, 1997. The strike involved more workers than any other strike in the 1990s.[48] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/#cite_note-SustainStrike-47)[75] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/#cite_note-AncientEnemy-74) Carey focused on just a handful of contract issues: That UPS create full-time positions rather than part-time positions in the future, convert several thousand part-time workers to full-time, increase part-time pay significantly, and remain in the union's multi-employer pension plan rather than create its own.[76] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/#cite_note-NoTalks-75) UPS executives asked President (http://www.revleft.com/wiki/President_of_the_United_States) Bill Clinton (http://www.revleft.com/wiki/Bill_Clinton) to invoke the Taft-Hartley Act (http://www.revleft.com/wiki/Taft-Hartley_Act), which would force the union back to work, but the President said that the conditions required by the Act had not been met.[76] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/#cite_note-NoTalks-75) Some Hoffa supporters claimed that Carey had forced a strike to draw attention away from his legal troubles, but most observers concluded that the union could not accept the company's final offer (which included a 1.5 percent raise for full-time workers, no raise for part-timers, and withdrawal from the Teamsters' multiemployer pension plan).[75] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/#cite_note-AncientEnemy-74)

Because the Teamsters' strike fund had run out in 1994, UPS officials believed that the union could not sustain a strike for more than a week.[73] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/#cite_note-Yearlong-72) But on August 12, the AFL-CIO (http://www.revleft.com/wiki/AFL-CIO) announced it would loan the Teamsters $10 million a week until the strike ended.[48] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/#cite_note-SustainStrike-47)
Pressure on UPS to end the strike increased swiftly. The company lost $30 million to $50 million a day as it continued to pay non-striking workers to keep the company running.[48] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/#cite_note-SustainStrike-47) On August 13, Secretary of Labor (http://www.revleft.com/wiki/United_States_Secretary_of_Labor) Alexis Herman (http://www.revleft.com/wiki/Alexis_Herman) privately intervened in the strike with the support of President Clinton, and was able to get the two sides talking again.[77] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/#cite_note-76) Carey and the Teamsters also undertook a sophisticated public relations effort. They depicted the union members as average people (the union's spokespeople were often rank and file Teamsters),[78] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/#cite_note-StrikeBattle-77) and mobilized the public's sympathy for UPS drivers by having strikers drive their regular delivery routes to give their customers information about the strike.[citation needed (http://www.revleft.com/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)]

They also made strategic use of the Internet, using the union's Web site to issue updates and put pressure on Congress.[78] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/#cite_note-StrikeBattle-77)[79] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/#cite_note-78) UPS also engaged in a strong public relations effort (using full-page newspaper advertisements and pressuring customers to ask the President to invoke Taft-Hartley), but most observers as well as some UPS officials agreed that the union had the better P.R. effort.[78] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/#cite_note-StrikeBattle-77) A Gallup poll (http://www.revleft.com/wiki/Gallup_poll) found that 55 percent of respondents supported the union.[78] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/#cite_note-StrikeBattle-77)
UPS had seriously underestimated the union's capacity to wage a strike. Most importantly, UPS officials simply did not believe a strike would occur.[73] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/#cite_note-Yearlong-72)
But company officials also did not realize the importance of the union's early mobilization efforts, believed the union was too divided between the Carey and Hoffa camps to wage an effective strike, and believed thousands of Teamsters would cross the picket line to return to work.[73] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/#cite_note-Yearlong-72) As the strike began, many UPS executives felt they could pressure Carey into offering the company's final offer to the Teamster membership and that the members would accept this offer.[73] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/#cite_note-Yearlong-72)

Carey won a major contract victory on August 18, 1997. Talks had resumed on August 7 but ended two days later. After five days of silence, talks began again on August 14 under the personal supervision of Labor Secretary Herman at the Hyatt Regency Washington hotel across the street from the Teamsters' headquarters.[73] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/#cite_note-Yearlong-72) After two days of nearly continuous bargaining, UPS withdrew its pension demand.[73] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/#cite_note-Yearlong-72) President Clinton personally spoke to both parties over the weekend to encourage them to continue bargaining, and a final tentative contract emerged on Monday afternoon, August 18.[73] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/#cite_note-Yearlong-72) The pact included several major concessions by the employer: Starting pay of part-time workers would increase for the first time since 1982, 10,000 part-time jobs would be converted into full-time jobs, UPS would stay in the union's multi-employer pension plan, most workers would see significant benefit increases, and five-sixths of all new full-time jobs would be filled by existing part-timers.[80] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/#cite_note-Agree-79) The union agreed to a five-year contract rather than the proposed four-year deal.[80] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/#cite_note-Agree-79) The company had lost more than $600 million in business during the strike,[80] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/#cite_note-Agree-79) and fears of even larger losses had finally led it to concede.[81] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/#cite_note-BiggerLosses-80)

The 50-person Teamsters bargaining committee and conference of 200 UPS locals ratified the agreement on August 19.[81] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/#cite_note-BiggerLosses-80)
The UPS strike was a major boost for Ron Carey. His opponents agreed that he had emerged politically stronger from the battle.[81] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/#cite_note-BiggerLosses-80) Carey quickly announced plans to boost organizing efforts at Federal Express, using the gains won in the UPS contract as a major selling point for the union.[82] (http://www.revleft.com/vb/#cite_note-81)


I know that's a bit much to read, but it was a great victory for the workers at UPS.

Now, that of course was too much for the establishment.



You’re dead, Carey, and you will pay for this, you s.o.b.
—Dave Murray, chief UPS negotiator44


What UPS couldn’t win on the picket line, it would try to win with its political influence. Carey wrote several years later:

I recall an incident, which occurred in the last hours of those strike negotiations that illustrates the level of animosity the corporate community felt for me: One of the negotiators for UPS said, in the presence of then-Secretary of Labor Alexis Herman, “Okay Carey, we agree on the union’s outstanding issues,” and he proceeded to leave the conference room. As he was leaving, he leaned over the conference table and said to me, “You’re dead, Carey, and you will pay for this, you s.o.b.” I looked at Ms. Herman, and asked, “Did you hear that?” She responded, “I heard nothing.”45
UPS mobilized all of its political muscle along with other transportation companies, the reactionary anti-Carey Teamsters officers, and congressional Republicans. This “get Carey” alliance brought enormous pressure on the U.S. Department of Justice, which monitors the elections in the Teamsters union, to overturn the 1996 election in which Carey defeated Hoffa in a very close race. Carey and his advisers were charged with violating campaign fundraising rules. The justice department overturned the 1996 election and ordered a rerun. Carey was disqualified from running for reelection and was subsequently expelled from the union. Carey was vindicated in federal court in the fall of 2001, but remained barred from the Teamsters. Taking advantage of chaos in the union caused by the government’s assault, UPS nullified the full-time jobs provision of the contract in the late spring of 1998—despite its record profits.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Carey_(labor_leader)#UPS_strike
http://www.isreview.org/issues/55/bigbrown.shtml (great article from 2007, When Big Brown Shut Down)

The softening up of the unions didn't just happen. It was largely caused by Reaganomics and the dismantling of the American work force, but to act like its been a natural process (as many people do) is a joke and an insult.

The unions have been destroyed from the top down by a very well organized and very determined force.

And fuck Jimmy Hoffa Jr. He ought to be buried next to his dad.

[AntifaAustralia]

To me it looks like the unions became just another arm of the capitalists, making deals which did guarantee workers some privlidges, but of course never took too muchh away from the bottom line.great union troubles info.

There was another completely different incident that happened in australia. In some casino workers union in QLD the head Union leaders would bargain mostly in favour of the bosses. And as you said they become the pacifist union org that became right wing lovers, but only from the leadership. the union leaders didn't work democratically.

That UPS stuff might work too, trying to break up the capitalist system from within is a great idea. I lot of propagandering happened with the UPS stuff, marvellous, and the mobilisations and support worked!

[RGacky3]

The unions have been destroyed from the top down by a very well organized and very determined force.

And fuck Jimmy Hoffa Jr. He ought to be buried next to his dad.

You hit it RIGHT on the head man. As soon as Capitalists stoped trying to FIGHT the unions and instead started trying to just take them over, started to undemocratize them, or take advantage of some of the centralized structures of some unions to essencially make them no longer representatives of the workers instead only an arm of the bosses.

Now I"m not saying all the unions, many many unions are still worker controlled and actually are a good voice for the workers, the best of which in my opinion, at least in the US, is the IWW, more unions need a deeper democratic structure like the IWW, with such a democratic structure a union can not be corrupted.