US Public to Unions: Drop Dead

[Jimmie Higgins]

With the levels of large-strikes down this year... here's some more bad news for US labor.


http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010/images/labor_union_favorability.gif


http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010/maisano030310.html

[Nolan]

Damn, Glenn Beck and O'Reilly are good at what they do.

[Jimmie Higgins]

Yeah and Sweeney and Hoffa are sooo bad (or good depending on your political outlook) at what they do.

[ZombieGrits]

goddammit. its cuz people never hear the good things about unions anymore, only about corruption and bureaucracy. but then again, unions ain't what they used to be :(

[Martin Blank]

Not surprised. After what we saw over the last few years with the UAW, AFT, Teamsters, IAM and other business unions, is it any surprise that people are sick of the betrayals and stoogery?

[The Red Next Door]

Yeah here is a little clip to show, what union leadership have come to these days. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvYsnjSGnzA

[syndicat]

well, there have been polls showing that former union members are less supportive of unions than people who have never been members. that says that something is wrong with the unions, that it isn't a good experience.

there is in fact such a thing as working class anti-unionism in the USA. partly this is because of bad images or bad experiences with unions. and this is also encouraged by the corporate media and employers. a lot of it has to do with experiences of being manipulated, of unions as distant service agencies that aren't interested in your opinion. the counter to this is to develop forms of unionism in which workers have the experience of actually controlling campaigns and controlling the decisions. some local unions can do this but it sort of goes against the grain of American bureaucratic business unionism.

[Red Commissar]

It doesn't really surprise me. A combination of union corruption at the top levels and the perception that union members are "holding out" for more cash, this is bound to happen.

But instead of just acting together as an alternate union, they just bend over and accept what's coming. How is it that many states could pass "right-to-work" laws with out public antipathy to unions? It's exactly this that has benefited them. Class-consciousness is at such a point that people are more self-centered and being played.

[Lynx]

What % of workers in the United States are unionized?

[Red Commissar]

What % of workers in the United States are unionized?

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm

2008 Bureau of Labor Statistics report has it at 12.3%. Unionization rates are higher in public sector jobs- 37.4% of total public workers compared to 7.2% of private industries. New York state has the highest amount of its work force unionized- 25%.