Careful What You Wish For

133/98/73

Catch them early:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article5748674.ece

The AFL-CIO is once again, faithfully, believing the legislators are going to do their jobs for them in organizing the working class. This flawed vision has no end but failure, but back they go because this time will be different they assure us. The bill in Congress will allow an unorganized workplace to simply sign cards until a majority is reached and then the G will allow a union to form. This is very Canadian.

Oh! they are rallying and speechifying and promising golden days ahead, as if the new Democratic President is even going to do it. This will open the door to huge waves of people joining us, they imply. Hasn't any of these great minds in Labor figured out that a great many workers in this country don't want anything to do with the organizations they represent? They don't read the news and understand what is happening in California and the Health Workers Union? They know the AFL-CIO doesn't fight, it complies. Andy Stern doesn't want the field hands, he wants the house slaves.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not from the right-to-work society. I'm a union man for 30 years, a member of three currently. I know it's better to have a milquetoast union than no union at all. It is not better to be represented by a corrupt union, in fact, it's worse. It makes you ashamed of being a working person, being used by another force along with the employer. These same employers will bribe, entice and set up for conviction a union representative then tell the workers their union is corrupt and get rid of it. And you know what... they will.

Popular culture doesn't have a kind word about organized labor and that is labor's fault. They refuse to create a media press and rely on corporate news. Individuals in unionized sites see their closest partners working on their behalf, the stewards, as fools, inept and useless, using gossip and backbiting to enhance their stature in the company on the advocate's back. Any gains made through the years under the contract are considered their right and expected. The arrogance of many current union members is incredibly deep. But they do as they are told, that is a constant.

Decertification campaigns are going to be the results, if by some chance the Democrats don't back off their promise of passing this law. Shockingly to the AFL-CIO, I predict it will be a wash, as many will join as decide to leave their dinosaur operation. What holds so many unionized workers to their organizations isn't high-falutin' principles but the fact their pension plan is being held hostage. If you leave, refuse to pay the dues, you may lose it. Well, they haven't done a great job watching it and taking care of it, have they? Created their own bank during the last fifty years to protect it? and invest in our own labor? Naa, the bankers give us a good deal. When they go down the toilet along with everyone elses', the workingman will be free to work based on ideals, dignity and respect and not strictly on a money based value system.

The diaspora will re-organize along these lines because we always do. A combine of interests is valuable, it will be late to learn. Perhaps, they will plow back in and try to reform, not without results. These coming years, with uncertainty aplenty, will galvanize some minds to action, some destructive to the labor movement internally. They fought NAFTA hard and the night of the vote Lane Kirkland sat next to Clinton without a dagger. Working people who are paying attention do not need more bluster from these suits. They need a new economic system attending to their needs of housing, health, security. The International Vice Presidents have done as poor a job handling these desires as Wall Street has done with monetary policy. Blame is deserved and anger is just under the surface. Politicians won't stifle it.