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How about a thread on a great problem, like how the Southern GOP just voted to destroy the Midwestern economy?
All you have to do is ask (in most cases).
Wherein the Southern GOP votes to destroy the midwest economy.
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7 responses to “Wherein the Southern GOP votes to destroy the midwest economy.”
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Yeah I read the memo being passed around by the southern senators, the same ones who pushed hard for subsidies for foreign auto to come to their states, who now oppose this money.
I helped UFCW come to the meat processing plants in athens, but I could tell you all of here could’ve used some more help from national orgs and maybe with the initial success of bringing some in we could possibly ramp up how credible they see the south to be in the future.
It’s hard, the labor laws here are “Right to work,” which makes union organizing very difficult; in addition to that on a national level the Taft Hartley Act can always be invoked to shut down unions and unionizing. The economic team that Obama has put together is not particularly friendly to unions and some of his top advisers have already said they may plan to delay EFCA support for a while at least.
But when you look at the victory in Chicago and then this one that you posted, I think there are signs that maybe the historical pendulum is turning back in unions’ favor.
I remember I learned about Sweden once in a class, a comparative politics class, and about 90% of the people there are unionized, and not just working class people. White collar people have unions, too. Because of this, everyone has a seat at the table and someone to negotiate for them; there are rarely strikes, and pay and vacation time usually stays very high for everyone.
I think our unionization rate for private sector is what, 8%? That is low, of course, but that’s also about what it is in France, where unions are very capable and effective.
Either way, I think that the organized labor fight is a very good one to build civil society that can take on a lot of these issues.
Do you remember when the immigrant community went on strike? The agricultural industry got hit so hard that all the legislation in Congress to crack down on immigrants died overnight. If we had labor strong enough to organize enough people and do a general strike, what’s to stop national healthcare, or stopping wars we disagree with, or things like that?
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Also, holy crap. I think the world may be ending. This Detroit thing has me hoping for responsible action by President Bush (or at least Paulson), and almost agreeing with Bill Kristol.
Damn, politics makes strange bedfellows sometimes:
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Thanks, Catherine. Sessions and Corker’s union-busting really pissed me right the fuck off Friday.
At Zaid, as for unions in weak places, check out:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/12/12/105026/70
One of the most anti-labor industries in one of the most anti-labor states got a shop organized. It’s a hard push.
Also, you could almost argue the Southern foreign plants don’t need a union because the threat has them so scared they provide wages and benefits WAY above their local communities.
“It’s realpolitik plain and simple.”
Sometimes realpolitik has an emotional component when you have normal people involved. Also, having a dominant party go to the mat for you is (I would think) the whole reason to have your guys represent you in the first place.
Overall, the Southern GOP (although isn’t that becoming increasingly redundant? Sorry, guys) is playing with fire in order to break one of the few union strongholds left. And the Democratic party knows who’s buttering their bread right now, since union membership is the only thing besides an advanced degree that gets white males to vote Democratic.
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That’s why the democratic party and its allies should spend time empowering unions in places they are weak instead of just emailing me with SEND US MONEY every election without talking about any actual issues.
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It’s union busting. Unions are progressive forces, so they must go down.
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You know, both these parties are fighting eachother bitterly on this being very sanctimonious, but in the end it comes down to Detroit and its constituents being a Democratic stronghold the Dems are going to go to the mat for, and the GOP not having any incentive to save them.
It’s not about anyone caring about anyone’s economy. They wouldn’t have joined hands to give Wall Street a big fat blank check with little to no taxpayer protections if that was the case. They wouldn’t both be running into the arms of big insurance with their healthcare plans instead of putting a single payer plan out there (polling shows 60-70% of people back one, I guess we have to get to 100% before it’s shown as politically viable).
While I think we shouldn’t let Detroit die (although we can have a better plan than this one), I’m not buying the moralistic stuff here. It’s realpolitik plain and simple.
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You know, both these parties are fighting eachother bitterly on this being very sanctimonious, but in the end it comes down to Detroit and its constituents being a Democratic stronghold the Dems are going to go to the mat for, and the GOP not having any incentive to save them.
It’s not about anyone caring about anyone’s economy. They wouldn’t have joined hands to give Wall Street a big fat blank check with little to no taxpayer protections if that was the case. They wouldn’t both be running into the arms of big insurance with their healthcare plans instead of putting a single payer plan out there (polling shows 60-70% of people back one, I guess we have to get to 100% before it’s shown as politically viable).
While I think we shouldn’t let Detroit die (although we can have a better plan than this one), I’m not buying the moralistic stuff here. It’s realpolitik plain and simple.
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