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Unions Should Organize, Not Politicize.
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Unions Should Organize, Not Politicize.
Unions Should Organize, Not Politicize.
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| Jeff-Hulk-Hemp |
Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 6:52 pm
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Joined: 10 Feb 2006 Posts: 448 |
www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion
LAST MONTH, the Chicago City Council voted to require all big-box stores — those with at least 90,000 square feet of retail space — to pay their employees a "living wage": $9.25 in 2007, $10 in 2010, and inflation-indexing thereafter. Although the move will affect large retailers such as Sears and Home Depot, the primary target of the ordinance is nonunion Wal-Mart, the largest private-sector employer in the country. Not surprisingly, AFL-CIO leaders heralded the vote as a triumph for workers who barely scrape by on Wal-Mart wages while scrambling for meager benefits. For the labor movement, Wal-Mart is the prime symbol of both "low-road" capitalism and the decline of American manufacturing.But this may be only a partial victory for progressive forces in Chicago. The American labor movement is using political power to make up for its own failure to organize new unions. It's unclear whether this trend is a sign of weakness or strength. |
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| SFway |
Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2006 11:17 pm
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Joined: 26 May 2006 Posts: 573 |
J H-H I hope all is well.
I cannot say that I agree, at least not completely. Unions need to organize and politicize; they need to politicize in order to accomplish organizational goals and organize to achieve political purposes. The two are not mutually exclusive, nor should they be. Each has a rightful and productive place as long as they integrally involve the Members of the Union. |
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| Plutodog |
Posted: Sat Aug 19, 2006 12:16 am
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Joined: 06 Feb 2006 Posts: 300 Location: Oregon |
I agree politics is bread and butter important -- however endorsing a candidate or a party is a mistake that fucks with unity, the life blood of union (at least in these polarized days it surely does). Far, far better to use union money to endorse issues with candidates of every stripe, lobby for issues with one and all, and work to have the kind of solidarity that backs up that push. Candidates all come with their own baggage and because they're politicians with power (and you know what that means), they can be corrupted, bought, etc -- and not stay bought.
I may disagree to high heaven with the brothers and sisters about this or that hot political potatoe, but we can pretty much be expected to agree on wages, benefits and working conditions. With all the caveats about how hard it will be to get a union willing and able to be democratically run and do all this stuff, whatever we get that fulfills the role we think or thunk unions were supposed to must concentrate on the fundamentals of work or all the other life fundamentals hit the crapper because all too many folks have too much to worry about keeping their own body and soul together to have a decent thought for their brothers and sisters. Hope I don't sound too preachy... _________________ "I'm not a humanitarian,I'm a hell-raiser" -- Mother Jones |
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Unions Should Organize, Not Politicize.
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Unions Should Organize, Not Politicize.
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