Love for Labor Lost? Little to Celebrate This Year for Unions

[xchrom]

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/09/03-2


Demonstrators march in a Labor Day parade, Monday, Sept. 3, 2012, in Charlotte, N.C. Demonstrators are protesting before the start of the Democratic National Convention. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)


On a day set aside to honor the sacrifices and accomplishments of organized labor in the US, this Labor Day, according to many observers, may well be noted as the one in modern history where labor unions looked around and found the fewest reasons to cheer.

"It's not a bright picture for labor this Labor Day," Harley Shaiken, a professor of labor studies at the University of California, Berkeley, said to the Detroit News. "Unions are facing not only unprecedented employer opposition, but also the opposition of leading political figures."

"This is a very difficult Labor Day for union leaders. All they can really do is talk about labor history -- what there was rather than what there is or what there will be," echoed Gary Chaison, professor of industrial relations at Clark University, speaking to Reuters.

As labor fights the most virulent rightwing anti-labor campaign in decades in the form of so-called "right-to-work laws" in states across the country, led by an army of intransigent and disciplined Republican governors and state legislatures, it also comes to grips with the stark reality that the Democrats have done little to defend their interests when the battles come to the fore.

[LiberalEsto]

1. Maybe we neede a union for the unemployed

Heaven knows, there are enough of us

[99Forever]

2. ***This***

"As labor fights the most virulent rightwing anti-labor campaign in decades in the form of so-called "right-to-work laws" in states across the country, led by an army of intransigent and disciplined Republican governors and state legislatures, it also comes to grips with the stark reality that the Democrats have done little to defend their interests when the battles come to the fore."

There is no party with the interests of us at heart.