10 Reasons Why Labor Unions Are Going to Win

[Judi Lynn]

10 Reasons Why Labor Unions Are Going to Win
by David Macaray / December 30th, 2011

Yes, congressional Democrats and President Obama have been major disappointments, and yes, the forces arrayed against organized labor have done considerable damage. But despite the damage, despite the hype generated by Fox News, and the self-serving propaganda disseminated by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the anti-labor crowd has run out of steam. They’ve lost their momentum. Here are 10 reasons why organized labor will prevail.

1. Ideology. The dynamic that exists between management and labor hasn’t changed since the Industrial Revolution. Despite those catchy slogans about “synergy” and “team-building,” people who earn a wage and people who pay a wage don’t necessarily want the same thing. They want different things, divergent things. One wants a larger slice of the pie for themselves and their families, the other wants to keep the whole pie. Hence, workers collectives.

2. Numbers. Despite the hand-wringing over declining union rolls, there are still (as of 2010, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics) 14.7 million union members in the country. That’s twice the population of Israel. On November 15, 1969, when an estimated 500,000 people participated in an anti-war demonstration in Washington, D.C., it was billed as a historical turnout. Think what 14 million could do if mobilized.

3. Citizens. Those “heroic” workers in the community—cops, firemen and nurses—are going to step up to the plate and remind the public that unions aren’t the horrible monsters the Koch brothers and Mitch McConnell wing of the Republican Party make them out to be. They’re our neighbors, our friends, our benefactors. Demonizing the firefighters and nurses is a tactic that’s guaranteed to backfire.

More:
http://dissidentvoice.org/2011/12/10-reasons-why-labor-unions-are-going-to-win/

[PETRUS]

1. #10. Money.

"This time around, labor will take the reported $400 million it spent on getting Obama elected in 2008, and spend it all on congressional and senatorial races, winning decisive majorities in both chambers, gaining chairmanships of all the committees, and eliminating the threat of Republican filibusters."

A tall order, but that would be fantastic.

[Rochester]

2. Solidarity Forever!

[tk2kewl]

3. 5. Politics. (this is my greatest hope)

Obama will win re-election (Get serious. Who’s going to beat him….Romney?) and, as a lame duck president with nothing to lose, Obama will surprise and delight his earlier detractors by making the “Reinvigoration of American Labor” the centerpiece of his second term, proving that those inspirational promises he made on the campaign trail in 2008 weren’t just empty rhetoric.

[Wellstone ruled]

4. Backlash

Noticed persons whom lost their bargaining rights are waking up. It's starting to sink in with the Joe Six-Pack crowd. They love to vote against their best interest,then piss and moan about their rights going down the toilet. Man,I have seen this garbage so many times,when their families begin hurting,then the eyes start to open.

Spent most of my life as a Union organizer,thought I had heard every ridiculous reason not to better your family until I retired to the South West. These Right to Work states are bruttel to their Union members. Sad to say,80% of these folks continually vote for GOP candidates,and these same politicians screw them every way possible.

When they see their pensions and benefits start going away next year,I hope the sheep start to wake up.

[yurbud]

5. I'd like to see unions win, but even better would be replacing corporations with co-ops.

[Populist_Prole]

6. They will due to the plutocracy overplaying their hands

Other than the most lunatic fringe fundies, at the rate the working class is getting marginalized, and how many of them are....and how obvious it is, I can't see stupid social non-issues or identity politics bullshit being able to hold sway enough for working class types to vote against their interest much longer. We are fighting inertia, but that can work in out favor as the pendulum reverses direction.

[Earth_First]

7. Yet the cops and firefighters continually take an anti-ows stance

The *very* people who are fighting to ensure their longevity...