Back in the day, union dues supported a social and political movement to effect change in an industrial system that was stacked against the individual.
Spend some time today in the operations of major manufacturing and service industries with line workers or their non-union supervisors. U.S. autoworkers trust neither the union or their corporate leaders. They will tell you that the unions have taken on a spirit and life of their own that serve to perpetuate and sustain American unions, not American workers. By allowing the unions to speak for them, American workers have forfeited the right to speak for themselves.
Union politics is complicated. Local unions are the foot soldiers for the national organization. For unions like the UAW, they also span multiple auto manufacturers and suppliers, so that one company's representation is no longer linked to the best concerns of its workers, but to a national agenda more confusing than the idea of new conservatism.
Still, the allure of unionized workforce attracts the attention of so many working Americans--in part because the unions have understood how to tell stories that depict their cause as a righteous one.
The proposed card check bill, cleverly named the Employee Free Choice Act, enables unions to target and harass workers to sign union cards more vehemently and more personally than a collection agent calling your home day and night.
The potential for intimidation already exists under the rules for secret or private ballot votes for union organizing, but the National Labor Relations Board has rules against it and punishment and reinforcement for violation of organizing rules.
Under the card check bill, a union can approach employees away from the workplace, at home, in the community, at the store and even at church. It can spend months working under the radar to ask workers to sign a union card. The irony of this organizing approach for solidarity is that workers can be hunted down and picked off by separating them from the herd.
Unions like the rest of us are facing a cash crunch. A steady habit of supporting political campaigns and D.C. based lobbying efforts is costly. And as more and more workers fail to understand the relevance of today's unions, membership is steadily declining. The proposal on the table to abolish secret ballots for unionization is a silver bullet to foist union membership on workers and fill union coffers with the dues to keep the machine running.
Politicians, and even Presidents, have a vested interest in the passage of this bill. President Obama--who received $27 million alone from The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) for his presidential campaign--was co-sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act and has vowed to sign the bill when it crosses his desk.
What do you think?
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