To fix inequality, Democrats are pushing unions

[Omaha Steve]

X post in GD & Socialist Progressive

At a time when GOP is gaining ground in very public attacks on labor, the left is coming to the defense of collective bargaining



Mary Will, left, with Local 68, and Corey Smith, right, with Local 113, chant during a rally inside the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison as the state Assembly debated the right-to-work bill March 5. (AP Photo/Wisconsin State Journal, Amber Arnold)


http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/03/13/to-fix-inequality-democrats-are-pushing-unions/

By Lydia DePillis and Jim Tankersley March 13

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) was reclining in his Capitol hideaway, ticking through ideas to improve education, immigration, infrastructure and government-funded research, all in hopes of reviving the middle class. It was a five-point plan, and the fifth point, which he conceded needed some political messaging help, was this: “I’d make it easier,” the third-ranking Democrat in the Senate said, “to form unions.”

“I think the Republican destruction of unions just kills the middle class,” he said. “And as people start sinking and earning less and less, they’ll be more open to that.” Expanding union membership, he added, “is gaining more currency” as a policy solution, “because the statistics are becoming clear and overwhelming about the middle-income decline.”

In recent months, a collection of left-leaning politicians, economists, and public intellectuals have started making a renewed case for collective bargaining as a tool to heal the ailing middle class. The pitch doubles as an effort for Democrats to preserve a key constituency they’ve long relied on to win elections, at a time when conservatives are making strong gains in often very public attacks on union power.

Increasing the ranks of labor unions has long been a goal of Democratic lawmakers. It’s also been a losing fight -- union membership has been shrinking for decades -- and often, a low priority for the party when it is in power. That appears to be changing, at least rhetorically, for Democrats and their allies as they hone a middle-class message for the 2016 elections.

FULL story at link.