The Politics of Building Union (Unity)

 

The day is long gone when union political involvement as we have it now was effective for unions or the brothers and sisters who work for their living.  The strategy of “buying” candidates and political allies with endorsements, campaign contributions and foot soldiers for partisan political campaigns has become increasingly counter-productive to our core issues of wages, benefits and working conditions.

 

This has been increasingly true for close to 40 years.  In the late ‘60’s and early 70’s when the baby boomers were dealing with Viet Nam and the whole hippie scene, our predecessors, who came up in the WWII generation were already seeing problems with the folks unions were endorsing.  They found the anti-war attitude of the Democrats as deeply disturbing, and the support of hippies for that attitude as unpatriotic, self-centered and wrong. 

 

Conservative religious bodies and leaders were just beginning to get politically active with any real effect against the left-leaning political party, and we were already losing ground. 

 

Corporations, many of whom were making big bucks funding the military‑industrial complex, had a two-fold vested interest in taking on unions and shrinking salaries, benefits and working conditions.  They wanted to continue to profit from the military-industrial complex and even greater corporate profitability  at the expense of workers pay.

 

I say all this as a liberal, believing deeply in many positions that my more conservative union brothers and sisters deeply disagree with.  In the past, I felt the rightness of the liberal issues as much as the strictly union issues.  Therefore I felt they went well together, and would always best be part of the same battle. 

 

I rather blindly followed that assumption up through the last election.  I can only assume that many of my brothers and sisters union-wide still feel this way and they tend to congregate with like-minded folks down at the union hall.  The active conservatives in those places are outnumbered and outvoted by active liberal unionists.  The system is stacked against unity today by union structure, tradition and leadership.

 

We have all known the labor movement was losing ground, and yet we have continued our misguided charge in the same failing direction.  Liberal, conservative, and all shades of workers in between  have suffered increasing financial insecurity as a result.  Almost inexplicably in hindsight, we have all felt sorely the need for a unity that we were not able to achieve.  We get better unity around contract time and make some inroads in some places, but it’s been all too spotty and the union movement has continued to decline. 

 

The onslaught of so-called free trade agreements has dramatically increased the stakes and made stark the cost of our failed political strategy.  Jobs and whole industries (but not a better life for the new employees) have begun to pour out of America to the cheapest labor markets worldwide. 

 

We are left with declining lifestyles and insecure social security.  The American Dream itself is in scandalous decline for the rank and file worker.  Even the technical skills of information technology, which until recently kept some workers riding high, has begun the decline--fueled by outsourcing and declining buying power among the rank and file of this and other industrialized countries.

 

We can be sure that our more conservative brothers and sisters have enjoyed this situation no more than our more liberal brethren.  They have families and hopes and dreams as well.  Yet they hold their political and religious beliefs as legitimately as any liberal.  So they can’t be expected to change or suppress them for the sake of unity.  It would be just as unfair to ask liberal brethren to change their beliefs.  Let’s face it, we’re all human and they’re all beliefs.  Truth may be different than either side – or any point in between – believes it to be. 

 

The point is, it’s not necessary for anyone to change or suppress their political or religious beliefs in order to support unions that help workers balance the power of management at the bargaining table.  We don’t have to spend money or unity on endorsements to engage elected politicians on the political issues that affect workers pay, benefits and working conditions. 

 

Indeed in many cases, we should become increasingly influential on issues that affect the vast majority of American citizens when half the politicos don’t see us as the “enemy” when we come to talk.  The party that has not enjoyed the benefit of our dollars or endorsements and has been on the receiving end of our attacks is always going to hold a greater or lesser measure of the balance of power.  We need them to hear our core issues and help carry our fairness “water”.  That can’t effectively happen while it’s coming from the poisoned well of political partisanship.

 

This one issue of political action which adversely affect our wages, benefits and working conditions – is one of the core issue that resonates most strongly among our disaffected brothers and sisters.  It's an issue that still needs to be addressed among union rank and file and union leadership.