News
Union membership at all-time low
Record public-sector job losses have helped drive the rate of union membership for U.S. workers to an all-time low, according to new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Huffington Post reports that union membership now stands at its lowest point since the bureau started collecting the data in 1983.
The new figures show that the rate of union membership in the public sector fell in 2012 from 37 per cent to 35.9 per cent of workers, a drop of more than a full percentage point. Private-sector union membership dropped from 6.9 per cent to 6.6 per cent of workers.
The combined rate of American union membership now stands at 11.3 per cent. That’s the lowest figure ever, down from 20.1 per cent when the bureau began tracking the data 30 years ago.
The losses have come overwhelmingly in the public sector, particularly on the local level. Since September 2008, cities and counties have chopped more than 500,000 positions, the greatest reduction on record.
Wisconsin recorded the greatest year-over-year drop in public-sector union membership in 2012, according to an analysis by CEPR, the Center for Economic and Policy Research. The union membership rate among public workers in Wisconsin dropped by nearly 13 per cent, compared with a national average decline of 1 percent.
In 2011, the Wisconsin legislature passed a law that stripped public employees of most collective bargaining rights. Other states have also passed measures curbing both public and private unions, including so-called “right-to-work” laws allowing workers to opt out of paying union dues. Last month, Michigan became the 24th state to enact right-to-work laws.
The loss of organized labor
The loss of organized labor is not just an effect, it is a matter of cause. And we need to be talking about that.
Plutocrats have been hard at work for some 30 years undermining the effectiveness of the American government at all levels. And they did not waste much time convincing the people that organized public workers are the reason that all governments by and for the people costs too much to maintain.
This effort to destroy public unions began on the heals of the success of outsource private sector jobs because American workers cost too much. In particular unionized manufacturing shops were the first to be attacked.
But outsourcing wasn’t enough. Corporations set their sights on eliminating private corporate pensions, corporate sponsored health care benefits and more as soon as they had outsourced enough union manufacturing jobs to leave worker vulnerable. Why? Because American employees cost too much. It was just a matter of time before the same Plutocrats turned those disenfranchised private workers against government workers. The private sector workers did not notice that they went from having a seat at the table to becoming pawns in the Plutocrats perverse war. And we, the workers have remained so clueless that we continued increasing our productivity in both the public and private sector.
So again who is gaining? Working people? I don’t think so.
Check out the profit and loss statements of American corporations, private investors and governments. Remember who got a bailout. But more important, guess who did not.? The governments by and for the people. We no longer have roads in repair, bridges that are safe to traverse, dams that will hold back floods or state of the art education. Our infrastructure will soon lay in ruin and the uninformed and uneducated peoples of the nation are surpassing 20th century gains. And our plans for the future? I don’t know about you but I don’t see any possibility of major improvement unless we organize again.
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If you don’t believe me ask your parents, “Are we better off now that organized labor is almost gone? Or were we better off when organized labor fought for and secured our right to fair wages, benefits, guaranteed retirement plans, quality education, the possibility of owning an affordable home that would increase in value and an era where corporations weren’t considered people with the right to vote.
Even the employees who were not organized benefited from the might of people coming together in support of fairness and justice for those who worked everyday.
“Right to work laws?” I think this is a misnomer. 24 states really mean “Right to bring the middle class to their knees laws?” What’s next, the repeal of the 13th amendment that ended slavery? Don’t laugh. 24 states have taken away women’s right to make decisions about their reproductive health. 11 states tried to rig the last election with voting rights barrier laws that left citizens in lines for up to 10 hours. And now a group of states want you to believe that the electoral college rule of winner takes all must be changed to mute the people right to express their will in this nation.
Wake up people. The story is not about the effect. The story is about the cause.
Best argument I’ve read in a
Best argument I’ve read in a long time, but who/what are the plutocrats??
Big Brother is alive and well
Big Brother is alive and well and the majority of Americans are clueless. We were better off in 1984.
I live in a used to be GM
I live in a used to be GM (General Motors) town. We were also home of the very best cash registers ever made (NCR). We were one of the top 5 in the printing industry, We were 3rd in the tool and dye industry. This little/big city had some of the very best and smartest industrial minds the world had to offer. Why are these companies gone? GM left one of their most modern assembly lines behind before they were bailed out due to constant bickering between the management and unions. The printing industry is gone due to one of their 25 unions were always on strike and holding up production. NCR relocated their manufacturing from here a long time ago – too expensive to produce their products, eventually sold out all together and were practically asked to leave by the Governor (Democrat) because they wouldn’t do what it took to keep them here so NCR moved the corporate offces to GA. A similar experience came for the tool and dye industry. So tell me how it was better when the unions were stronger? All those families that were left behind by union leaders that fought for much more than these companies could afford or have done cheaper elsewhere without as many problems all went somewhere else. Who are the greedy ones? The so called Plutocrats also include some of the laborers anymore, all you have to do is invest in the public company you work for and you get some of the profits! You can retire more comfortably also! You can also develop your own retirement! Do the unions teach you how to invest your money this way? I doubt it. Glad to see the unions are losing power. They once had a good cause, I don’t see it anymore.