General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: If the Union Members are going to not support themselves then why should I continue to support them? [View all]rucky
(35,211 posts)The labor market is global, and if it makes business sense, companies will take the whole operation off shore. Workers know this and are afraid to fight back - to the point where even the threat to move off shore sends them retreating. So when their unions press on for wages and benefits that make sense in the US, many union members get skittish - or even blame their union for risking negotiating away their jobs completely.
Unions need to drive home a path to business growth that is tied to a well-skilled, well-paid labor force.
Now that the attack has moved into the public sector, the debate has moved to what skilled labor is worth to taxpayers in this country. Kochsuckers are implying the question, but doing so by attacking public employees. We're not stating our counter-position in a positive way because we're playing defense and counterattack.
Public employees unions need to drive home a path to community growth that is tied to a well-skilled, well-paid labor force.
I'm pretty sure that behind the scenes, smart union reps take the current reality offshoring and autsterity into account when they're negotiating, trying to make the business case for keeping a skilled union labor force and paying them a living wage. But that case is often hard to make in the current economic climate, especially when there are many workers willing to be employed without union protections - out of fear of the alternative (unemployment). I don't blame them. I was unemployed for two years. It sucks.
Part of the problem is that this is never publicly try to prove the worth of union labor - to the point where unions fail to convince their own members. When we don't address offshoring and austerity except to denounce it, our demands appear unreasonable and from a position of entitlement without a solid business case attached to it.
That's the public perception, but it doesn't have to be. There are simple ways to make the case for employing union labor, using historical data and common sense. Those arguments are all over DU and other progressive sites, but haven't really filtered into the mainstream.