Wednesday, April 24, 2024
Monday, April 22, 2024
The Rebirth of U.S. Labor
The stunning rebirth of the American labor movement
The pendulum is swinging toward countervailing power
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Friends,
On Friday, Volkswagen employees in Chattanooga, Tennessee, voted overwhelmingly to join the United Auto Workers union.
This is a truly big deal. The mainstream media — most of whom no longer have labor reporters — have barely mentioned it, but I believe it marks a major turning point for organized labor.
The victory in Chattanooga is the first successful organizing drive of an automaker outside of Detroit’s Big Three and the first major union victory in the South.
Volkswagen had told workers — in a very conservative Republican area — that the “UAW = Biden” and that the union would “turn Chattanooga into Detroit.” Six southern state governors attacked the union as a threat to “liberty and freedoms” and in a joint statement condemned the UAW’s push to organize in their states.
But the union and the workers triumphed anyway.
We are witnessing a historic rebirth of the labor union movement in America. Labor unions are not just an interest group. They are gaining the heft, solidarity, and passion to become what they once were — a movement.
And it’s about time.
For 30 years — from 1946 to the late 1970s — the American middle class expanded, largely because American labor unions won increases in wages and benefits that roughly tracked gains in overall productivity.
Non-union companies gave their workers similar raises because they knew they’d be targets of union organizing if they didn’t.
As American workers produced more, they got paid more. It was America’s postwar social contract.
As unions gained leverage at the workplace, they also gained political power. Unions supported major federal laws — Medicare and Medicaid, the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, the Family and Medical Leave Act. They became the major force countering the growing political power of large corporations.
But since the late 1970s, union power has been waning. As a result, the wages of production workers have been nearly stagnant, adjusted for inflation. And workers have lost pension benefits and job security.
Think about it. More than four decades of near flat wages, even though the United States economy is now more than three times the size it was four decades ago.
Where did the economic gains go? Mostly to the top.
Whenever I bring this up, some people accuse me of being a class warrior. I’m not. I’m a class worrier. For years, I’ve worried about what would happen to America as the middle class continued to shrink and most of the economic gains went to the top.
Well, I think we’re now seeing the results, as millions of Americans have grown so cynical and despairing about their chances to make it that they’re even willing to support an authoritarian sociopath for president.
As the voices of workers became muted inside corporations, their voices also became muted in Washington.
Why else would America enter into trade agreements that caused millions of working people to lose their jobs, without access to new ones paying them at least as much? Why else would entire regions of the nation be economically abandoned, without any concerted national effort to reverse the tide?
More states fell for the snake oil of so-called “right-to-work” laws, which should be called “right-to-work-for-less” laws.
Meanwhile, Wall Street was deregulated, allowing ever more of our economy to become dominated by the moneyed interests.
To add insult to widespread injury, Wall Street was bailed out after it brought the world to the precipice of economic Armageddon. Millions of people lost their jobs, wages, and homes in the financial crisis, but not a single major Wall Street executive was charged with a crime.
Corporate raiders got the right to mount hostile takeovers of companies and then demand bigger profits. And since payrolls comprise about two-thirds of corporate costs, the raiders forced corporations to limit wages and benefits.
To achieve this, corporations sought to bust unions — outsourcing jobs abroad and moving to “right-to-work-for-less” states. They also illegally fired workers who tried to organize — at worst getting their hands slapped by a National Labor Relations Board that might eventually order them to reinstate workers and give them back pay.
Ronald Reagan legitimized all this when in 1981 he fired more than 11,000 striking air traffic controllers represented by the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization.
The result was a dramatic decline in the bargaining power of ordinary workers — both inside companies and in American politics. And with this decline came a shrinkage of the American middle class. It’s estimated that between 1979 and 2017, the typical U.S. worker lost out on $3,250 in pay every yeardue to the decline of unions.
In the 1950s, over a third of all private-sector workers were unionized. Today, unionized workers comprise just 6 percent of private-sector workers (10 percent of all workers belong to a union, but many work in the public sector).
From 1946 through the early 1970s, unions staged hundreds of major strikes each year. Between 1981 and 2022, the number of major strikes dropped to a few dozen per year.
But here’s the good news: The pendulum is now starting to swing back.
It’s not just the UAW. Recent contracts negotiated by Hollywood writers, UPS workers, Kaiser Permanente health care workers, and even university employees, among others, provide significant pay increases and more job security (writers even got some protections against AI).
Last year’s union contracts gave workers an average first-year wage increase of 6.6 percent — the highest raise since at least 1988. With signing bonuses and other lump-sum payments added in, 2023’s average first-year wage increase was 7.3 percent, also a record high.
Overall, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. union membership grew by 191,000 workers last year — although the share of employees represented by a union fell slightly as strong job growth outpaced organizing efforts.
More good news: Most Americans are solidly behind unions. Approval of labor unions is near 70 percent, the highest point in five decades. At the same time, confidence in big business is at its lowest point in decades.
What accounts for this burst of labor activism and public support?
Partly, I think, it’s the harsh inequalities exposed by the pandemic. The pandemic dramatically revealed how much easier it is for rich Americans to survive than everyone else and how dependent all of us are on average workers just doing their jobs.
Couple this with the rise in populist politics in a system looking increasingly rigged against average people — starting with Bernie Sanders’s surprisingly strong showing in 2016, while Donald Trump posed as the “voice” of workers.
Union victories have fueled a virtuous cycle — encouraging more workers to join unions and more unions to flex their muscles and demand wage hikes.
Then there’s the tight post-pandemic labor market, in which consumers are spending like gangbusters, the economy is surging, and employers worry about getting and keeping the workers they need.
Not the least is Joe Biden — the most pro-union president America has had in 60 years. And a National Labor Relations Board that’s the most pro-union board I’ve seen in decades.
“Congratulations to the workers at Volkswagen in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on their historic vote for union representation with the United Auto Workers,” Biden said Friday in a statement.
Don’t wait for Trump to say anything positive about what just happened in Chattanooga.
Finally, both good news and a sign of how resistant corporations have become to unions: The share of non-union workers who would like to have a union at their workplace is far higher than the share who actually have a union representing them.
This is good news in terms of potential organizing drives. But it’s also evidence of the continuing effectiveness of corporate union-busting and the need for much stronger federal labor laws.
I believe the pendulum will continue to swing toward unions. Which means better wages and working conditions, a larger middle class, and laws and regulations that benefit the many rather than the few. And the possibility that America’s working class will return to the fold of the Democratic Party, where it belongs.
At a time when there’s a lot to be disillusioned about, this is the clearest, most positive trend in America.
Americans Overestimate the Size of Minority Groups
Americans Overestimate the Size of Minority Groups
Taylor OrthDirector of Survey Data Journalism
March 15, 2022, 3:23 PM GMT-7
When it comes to estimating the size of demographic groups, Americans rarely get it right. In two recent YouGov polls, we asked respondents to guess the percentage (ranging from 0% to 100%) of American adults who are members of 43 different groups, including racial and religious groups, as well as other less frequently studied groups, such as pet owners and those who are left-handed.
When people’s average perceptions of group sizes are compared to actual population estimates, an intriguing pattern emerges: Americans tend to vastly overestimate the size of minority groups. This holds for sexual minorities, including the proportion of gays and lesbians (estimate: 30%, true: 3%), bisexuals (estimate: 29%, true: 4%), and people who are transgender (estimate: 21%, true: 0.6%).
It also applies to religious minorities, such as Muslim Americans (estimate: 27%, true: 1%) and Jewish Americans (estimate: 30%, true: 2%). And we find the same sorts of overestimates for racial and ethnic minorities, such as Native Americans (estimate: 27%, true: 1%), Asian Americans (estimate: 29%, true: 6%), and Black Americans (estimate: 41%, true: 12%).
Yougov poll.
Duane Campbell
Friday, April 19, 2024
Choosing Democracy: Republicans Attack Columbia University - and Win
Tuesday, April 16, 2024
Sanders: A Complicated Political Situation
Sanders. A complicated political situation.
If you believe in democracy, if you believe in science, if you believe in justice and workers' rights, let me be very clear: The next several months will be the most important in modern American history.
Unfortunately, we are confronting a very difficult and complicated political situation.
Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal released a poll showing Trump leading in almost every swing state. He leads by 5 in Arizona, 3 in Michigan, 4 in Nevada, 3 in Pennsylvania, and is tied in Wisconsin.
If Trump wins even two of those states, it's game over.
And I think sometimes we slouch off the idea that Trump can win. It's hard to imagine that someone who was such a menace to the working class of this country could be popular enough with them to win a second term -- especially after we all lived through his first. I also believe sometimes we don't think enough about just how bad it will be policy-wise if he is re-elected.
Take one issue for example: Climate change.
Trump does not believe in climate change.
So what does that mean?
It means that not only all of the work we have done in trying to transform our energy systems away from fossil fuel will be undone, but every other country in the world is going to say “Hey if the second largest emitter in the world is giving up, than we're not going to do it either.”
And that really means dooming our kids and future generations to a very, very unhealthy, perhaps uninhabitable world.
So you don't need to know anything more than that to understand how dangerous Trump is.
But obviously the danger is much greater than just climate change.
Take another issue for example: American democracy.
Trump does not believe in, or care about, the future of American democracy.
So what does that mean?
It means that if he wins, you can expect more extreme gerrymandering, more laws and regulations making it easier for billionaires to buy elections, more efforts to keep people of color and young people from the ballot box, more election workers being harassed and threatened, more refusing to accept the outcome of election results, more political violence and, as a result of his policies and lies, more and more people increasingly believing democracy itself does not work for them.
I happen to believe that what this really means is that if Trump wins, the almost 250-year experiment of American democracy is all but over.
But obviously the danger is much greater than just that.
Trump has already tried to take away health care from tens of millions of people. He’ll try again in a second term.
Trump signed tax cuts where almost all the benefits went to the top 1 percent. He’ll try to make them permanent in a second term.
Trump brags about appointing 3 justices to the Supreme Court who helped repeal Roe v. Wade. He and his supporters have escalated their attacks on women’s’ rights across the country. In a second term he’ll try for a national abortion ban.
Other issues like education, gun control, criminal justice reform, income and wealth inequality, the cost of prescription drugs, workers rights, LGBTQ rights and more will all move backward.
Bottom line: We have to appreciate how unbelievably severe this current moment is.
Many of us believe that while the Biden administration can lay claim to some significant accomplishments, they are simply not enough given the very serious crises facing the working families of our country. Further, millions of us strongly disagree with the President’s position on the war in Gaza.
So what are we as progressives to do in this election?
First, we must all acknowledge that sitting out this election or even voting for Trump is definitely not the answer. That leads to catastrophe.
So then what?
In this unprecedented moment in American history we must make clear to the Democratic leadership and everyone else that we cannot return to the same old, same old establishment politics.
We must make it clear that if Democrats are given another chance after this election we cannot continue to ignore the needs of tens of millions of working families. We cannot continue to accept a political system where billionaires buy elections and an economy which has more income and wealth inequality than at any time since the 1920s. We cannot accept a government where the very rich get much richer while a majority of Americans live in economic desperation. We must go further on climate change. And we must restore faith in American democracy.
We must make it clear that we will fight for a strong, progressive agenda that represents the needs of working people, and not just the billionaire class, lobbyists and wealthy campaign contributors.
How do we do that?
It means supporting not just Joe Biden, but progressives who will fight for that agenda in Congress. It means donating, volunteering, posting on social media about your desire not just to beat Trump, but that your expectation for what a second term would look like for a Biden administration.
That is the work I will be doing over the course of the next several months, but it will take all of us to get it done. So I am once again asking for your financial support:
Bernie Sanders
Reich: How to Survive This Election
How to survive the next 280 days (and help America survive beyond them) Putting your outrage to constructive use
Friends, ( See the organizations at the end of this post. ) Fewer days now. The 2024 election is 280 days away. How can we survive until then? How can we help America survive beyond it? Many of you tell me or write in the comments section of this letter that you’re already filled with outrage. I am, too. Trump is still not locked up, although he incited an attack on the U.S. Capitol more than three years ago, which resulted in several deaths and could have cost the lives of many more, including members of Congress. He did it to overturn the results of the 2020 election. If he’s able to delay his trials and he gets elected, he may never be held accountable. He hasn’t stopped lying that the 2020 election was stolen from him, causing Americans to be more divided than at any time since the Civil War. He’s on the way to winning the Republican nomination, and polls (unreliable as early polls are) show him beating Biden. He has turned one of our two major political parties against democracy and toward neofascism. He embodies moral squalor — bragging about sexually assaulting women, being found in a civil trial to have raped a woman, lying constantly about everything, claiming immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of America, calling for a “termination” of the Constitution, describing political opponents as “vermin.” And on and on. All good reasons to be outraged. But do me a favor right this moment. Take a deep breath and consider what you’re doing with your outrage. Outrage on its own is exhausting (take this from someone who’s spent the better part of the last 77 years feeling outraged about one thing or another). It can also lead to two disempowering states: despair and cynicism. I know many who are in despair about the possibility of another Trump presidency. Their despair follows them around during the day and wakes them at night. It is robbing them of most joy in their lives. I know others who have sunk into deep cynicism. The system is rotten to the core, they tell themselves. Why even worry about Trump? Nothing can be done in any event. They’ve stopped listening to or reading the news. Why bother? Maybe you fall into one of these camps. I don’t mean to criticize you. I understand completely. Hell, I’ve been there myself. But despair and cynicism can be self-fulfilling prophesies. They can stop you from taking political action. As such, they make it more likely that Trump will become president — and that neofascism will prevail. Outrage can be a positive force if it fuels activism — if it gets people off their butts to do any number of things that individually don’t seem like much but taken together can have a big impact. What sort of things? Forgive me if I’ve suggested this before, but for example: 1. Becoming even more politically active. For some of us, this will mean taking more time out of our normal lives — up to and including getting out the vote in critical swing states. For others, it will mean phone banking, making political contributions, writing letters to editors, and calling friends and relations in key states. 2. Starting now to organize. Even if you cannot take much time out of your normal life for direct politics, you will need to organize, mobilize, and energize your friends, colleagues, and neighbors. A number of effective groups can help you (I’ve added their names and web addresses at the end). 3. Countering lies with truth. When you hear someone repeating a Trump Republican lie, correct it. This will require that you prepare yourself with facts, logic, analysis, and sources. 4. Not tolerating bigotry and hate. When you come across it, call it out. Stand up to it. Denounce it. Demand that others denounce it, too. 5. Not resorting to name-calling, bullying, intimidation, violence, or any of the other tactics that Trump followers may be using. We cannot save democracy through anti-democratic means. 6. Being compassionate toward hardcore followers of Trump, but remaining firm in your opposition. Understanding why someone might decide to support Trump is fine. But you don’t want to waste your time and energy trying to convert them. Use your time and energy on those who still have open minds. 7. Not wasting your time complaining. Don’t gripe, whine, or kvetch about how awful Trump and his Republican enablers are. Or about how ineffective Biden and the Democrats are in communicating how bad Trump and his Republican enablers are. None of this will get you anything except an upset stomach or worse. 8. Asking everyone you know to vote for Biden and not sit this election out or vote for a third-party candidate. Even if they don’t especially like Biden — even if they’re tired of voting for the “lesser of two evils” or fed up not “voting my conscience” — they still have to vote for Joe Biden. He may not be perfect, but Trump is truly evil. 9. Demonstrating, but not confusing demonstration for political action. You may find it gratifying to stand on a corner in Berkeley or Cambridge or any other liberal precinct with a sign asking drivers to “honk if you hate fascism” and elicit lots of honks. But this is as politically effectual as taking a warm shower. Organize people who don’t normally vote to vote for Biden. Mobilize get-out-the-vote efforts in your community. Get young people involved. 10. Not getting distracted by the latest outrageous Trump post or speech or story. Don’t let Trump’s hunger for immediate attention or the media’s complicity with that hunger divert your eyes from the prize — the survival of American democracy during one of the greatest stress tests it has had to endure, organized by one of the worst demagogues in American history. You probably have many other ideas (please feel free to add them in the comments). My point is to use your outrage. Please don’t let it wear you down. Don’t try to smother it. Using it will make you feel and be powerful. And your power is desperately needed right now. If you’d like more specific guidance on what you might do, check out these organizations: Swing Left: https://swingleft.org/ VoteForward: https://votefwd.org/ MoveOn: https://front.moveon.org/ Indivisible: https://indivisible.org/ Data for Progress: https://www.dataforprogress.org/ Stand Up America: https://standupamerica.com/ Common Cause: https://www.commoncause.org/ Sister District: https://sisterdistrict.com/ Justice Democrats: https://justicedemocrats.com/ If you know of other highly effective groups, please alert us in the comments. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||