I disagree with Marv's analysis in almost every aspect. In the first place, regarding the Communists. During WW II they actually scabbed on strikes. During the war, there was an outbreak of both shop floor wildcat strikes and also of racist "hate strikes" against the promotion of black workers. Back in the '80s I knew an older retired auto worker who had been a steward during the war. I asked him how explained this contradictory development. He explained to me that where the bureaucracy and/or the Communists played a strong role at the shop floor level, then the frustration broke out in the form of the hate strikes. Where the Communists were absent, then there were wildcat strikes. As for their role more recently: I knew a number of delegates to my central labor council who were in the Communist Party. They were indistinguishable from the rest of the delegates.
As to the difference between the craft unions and the rest of the labor movement, let's start with the UFCW: I used to talk regularly with a UFCW member who was a clerk at the grocery store where I shopped. She described to me how her union rep regularly went behind her back to side with management. then, during Occupy Oakland's "general strike" I met a couple who were UFCW members who had come down there because (1) the supported Occupy and (20 they were furious at their union official leadership which "supported" Occupy while collaborating with the employer in attacking wages, pensions and working conditions. That leadership has completely bought in to the idea that they have to help the unionized employers compete with the non-union stores, exactly as McCarron operates in the carpenters union. Now let's look at SEIU. At theSea-Tac airport, David Rolf, a leader of a SEIU local pushed through a $15/hour minimum wage for workers at the airport. However, that referendum contained a "union exclusion" clause; unionized employers at the airport were exempt from having to pay that minimum wage. You know why? Because, in Rolf's own words, he wanted to "offer an olive branch" to the unionized employers. So, I suppose their motto could be "organize a union and take a pay cut." Meanwhile, at the SEIU janitors local a female member was sexually assaulted by her employer. She went to the union for help and the president fired the staffer who insisted on trying to help her. Then there was an election campaign against that local president. He used bureaucratic maneuvers to kill off that campaign. He was backed up by the international president, Mary Kay Henry. SEIU was not alone. When Kshama Sawant was trying to push through a $15/hour minimum wage for all of Seattle, HERE said they'd only support it if the unionized hotels were excluded. As for UFCW, their leadership didn't support it under any conditions. Now let's look at the UAW. A few years back, they tried to organize a Nissan plant in the South. You know what their motto was? "Pro union and pro Nissan"! There is no need to say more about them. Marv claims that the real underlying reason for the loss of militancy is the contracting out and automation. Well, any effective leadership must have a strategy to combat any attacks. I suppose one could say the present leadership does have a strategy. That strategy is to double down on the team concept in order to make the labor of their members more profitable. There is a clear alternative, though: That is to raise the demand for 15 for 40 - a 15 hour work week for 40 hours pay. I figure that workers are about 3 times more efficient now than they were decades ago, so why shouldn't we reap the benefits from that efficiency. 15 for 40 would tremendously increase the number of jobs. But the union leadership would have to do something else: They'd have to build the campaign internationally. Anybody who thinks there's one chance in 100 that the present leadership would take up this approach please write me off list. I have 2 very nice bridges to sell you. John Reimann I could write an entire book with such examples, but I'll leave it there. The point of my experiences in the carpenters union is that it gave me a vantage point from which I could spot this team concept approach from miles away. John Reimann -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#42470): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/42470 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/120140354/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
