I subscribe to the Railroad Workers United newsletter and like clockwork there are notices of railworkers killed and injured on the job. Nolan, there can be no mention of the Democrats and unions without mention of the betrayal of Biden/Harris and the entire Democratic Congressional delegation and corporate Dem establishment of the railworkers and their plans to strike.
Have the Democrats done a few things to help unions? Yeah, sure. But when the moment came for the opportunity for a union to make a huge difference and show workers across the country the true power they have through the generosity -- or withholding -- of their labor, Biden and the Democrats revealed themselves and betrayed them like a bunch of slimy Wall Street Republicans.
That betrayal at such a critical point is the true nature of the Democratic Party. They will talk some fluffy stuff and hand out the occasional cold chicken wing to workers, but when the real moment for solidarity arrives. they always skedaddle back to their Daddy Donors and Republican compatriots.
At this time of real, true fascism, trying to nudge the fascist-enabling minority party into giving a damn about workers is doomed to failure. Labor needs to tell both parties to F-off and strike (literally) out in a new path, demonstrating to all workers from the tomato field to the software designer's desk that this country, this economy and all of our futures depend upon the generous labor of American workers, a resource that will no longer permit itself to be exploited and shit upon by the oligarchs and the Republican/Democrat corporate uniparty.
The fascist purge is going to be brutal and there will be need for true brother and sisterhood among labor. It won't take long for many workers who voted for Trump to realize he will betray them as bad as the Democrats do. There is an opportunity for a labor movement outside both corrupt, bought-off parties. That is where the focus needs to be, not in trying to transplant a vertebrae or two into the shriveled, jellied spine of the Democratic Party. The left has been trying that for decades and when Harris/Walz blew it, who did the DNC establishment blame? Properly, themselves? No. Of course not. They and MSNBC boxheads blamed the progressives and liberals ... whatever the hell those terms mean anymore in relation to the Democratic Party.
Screw the Democratic Party. Time for something completely new.
An effective union is an educating union -- about workers' rights, politics, solidarity, labor history. And if members get engaged and are empowered, they talk to their friends, family & neighbors. This builds grass roots credibility with other workers and opens the door to organizing -- which only works if unions are willing to spend the cash and train effective organizers & communicators.
I would wager that if you pose to non-union workers the question: ‘What is the main difference between union and non-union workers?’- the majority of answers would revolve around wages, benefits, dues, strikes etc. I would be surprised if many people answered that the main difference is centered in contracts and whether you do or do not perform your work under a contract.
And I would also wager that if you ask non-union workers whether they have a work contract with their employer, you would get a range of responses. Some would hesitantly say that they do, some would say no, some would say they think so, some would say they don’t think so, some would say they have no idea. I would make this wager b/c I’ve asked this question of non-union workers.
This should change. If we change the narrative, I believe we will be better positioned to grow a union movement.
This excellent argument is vulnerable to at least one thing, and that is the quality of the unions.
The unions must be *good* unions, perceived that way not only by their members but also by their non-members. That means getting rid of corruption and featherbedding, and standing up not only for workers' right but also for workers' excellence.
That in turn means not only union support for education, retraining, health (including mental health), but also for disciplining and purging members who bring the union, the workers, or the work into disrepute.
Imagine a world in which some corporation wants to do something unethical, exploitative, or greedy, or malicious, and when the union objects, the public at large immediately and uncontroversially supports the union's stance — because the public knows that the union stands for the workers and for society at large. I'd love that kind of world.
A missing step in "Go organize a union at your workplace" is labor education. You mention "political education." But labor education, or labor studies, is both broader and more focused than that. I want to see it happening in all adult education contexts, from apprenticeships to literacy programs to ESL to workforce development trainings to community colleges, and so on.
I've long had this idea that the for all non-union employees with individual contracts with their employers (in at-will states, etc), they have only one de-facto labor union representative: The Democratic Party. Except it's been more of an HR manager: https://frompovertytoprogress.substack.com/p/kamala-harris-is-the-future-of-the/comment/76166698 Enter Bernie Sanders: America's collective labor union representative.
Thank you for this. I live in a right to fire state and I'm really interested in union membership and I have no idea how to reconcile those two things. I was really hoping the dem candidate for labor commissioner (an IATSE member) would win, but unfortunately he was one of the statewide dem candidates that lost. So...more questions than answers at this point, I guess.
I think that most people don't realize that the unions exist to HELP and PROTECT them; that they are definitely FOR you and work hard to make sure that some money grubbing Zillionaires don't get away with just using the workers as horses to pull their wagon full of gold. It says a lot about this country that it is now in the "oh, he's so rich that he can buy a whole bunch of Supreme Court justices who hate women", so create or join a union to prevent the pigs from eating your soul.
Why unions? Why not something BIGGER!!!??? We can't rely on separate siloed unions, one for each sector or profession or locale, as a framework for pulling together millions of American workers into a massive, formidable, potent force for change. We need one BIG entity that is open to ALL people who work for a paycheck. Define "worker" as one whose main source of income is from earned wages – not stocks, dividends, etc. Just WAGE-EARNERS. People who are at the mercy of their employers for their survival. That covers millions of Americans, and there is no way to build enough new unions or expand the current ones fast enough or at scale enough, to get them into workplaces, follow all the rules, and get them certified in time to save the working class! This is an emergency! I get it, unions are all people know, they are THE framework everyone buys into, they are the only ones who can truly speak for workers, look at all they've done for us blah blah blah. Unions have been great, unions are beautiful, there IS power in a union. But it's 2024, fascism is breathing down our necks, workers are about to lose every meaningful workplace right they have now (slim as they are), and unions are SLOW, CLUNKY, MIRED IN OLD WAYS, and bound by hoary old federal labor rules and regs. (Plus there's "right to fire" states, etc.) We need something massive, sleek, simple to join, powerful in numbers and influence, that encompasses ALL existing union workers AND brings in EVERY single person who gets a paycheck, ANYWHERE, in ANY job. A membership organization like the Chamber of Commerce or AARP or what have you, but much bigger and devoted entirely to WORKERS' interests and needs. Fighting for employee contracts that expand EVERYONE's security, safety and livable income. Please, PLEASE, those of you in the world of unions, just think about it. Don't immediately reject it. What we've been doing for decades is NOT WORKING. This might. No, it absolutely WOULD. It would transform American life. I'll shut up now, but goddamn I hope somebody reads this who is open to the concept and even (gasp) SHARES it. Bless you, whoever you may be. P.S. Years ago, both Michael Moore and Robert Reich personally told me this was a great idea. Seriously.
OMG, this. A thousand times this. But the NLRB is going to go down, thanks to Trump’s SCOTUS. I’ve read Project 2025; my public sector union will be outlawed and even if it isn’t our only real tool, the right to strike, is already essentially nonexistent. Employers can use any kind of hardcore anti-union tactics that they want and the worst possible consequences they’ll face is a tiny fine. Everything that is already stacked against us is about to get much, much harder. How do we organize more or better in the face of that?
I think we do a disservice to working people by not making explicit the fundamental differences between union and non-union workers.
What is the main difference between a union and a non-union worker? The main difference is a contract and the ability to perform your work each day under the protection of a contract. And what does a contract do for a worker? A contract has to be renegotiated every 4-5 years, and it is during that renegotiation process that workers have the ability to leverage their numbers to negotiate for improvements to the terms and conditions of their employment.
Do we buy houses and other major purchases without contracts? Do companies merge and consolidate operations without negotiating and signing contractual agreements? Why not?? Because contracts are intended to protect the interests of both parties who come together to agree upon terms and conditions of the agreement.
I think we need to change the conversation from one of ‘a union is good for workers’ to a conversation that explains WHY a union is good for workers: ‘a union is good for workers because it gives us the opportunity to work under a contract, which allows us to exercise our power in numbers to negotiate for improvements and also protects us from employers making our jobs worse.’
For the vast majority of workers, we know what a union is, but we don’t have a clear understanding of the mechanism by which a union changes our relationship to our work. But we understand intuitively what a contract does and how contracts function to confer both power and protection (I’ve come to call it the 2 p’s). Ask workers: ‘Would you buy a house without a contract?’- when the resounding answer is an emphatic ‘NO!!!’, follow-up and ask non-union workers: ‘Then why do you perform your work each day without a contract?’. Many questions follow from this, including: ‘Do you think our CEO’s perform their work without contracts?’
To win workers, we need a massive rebranding, so that the idea of contracts holds equal power in people’s minds as the idea of unions, and we see unions as the mechanism by which we achieve contracts.
Unions=contracts=power & protection
And I say all of this as a non-union worker who has never been a union member in 20+ years of working, and had an ‘aha’ moment about a year and a half ago, after starting a socratic line of questioning about why a massive invisible ceiling is keeping healthcare workers barely treading water while CEOs in the industry are making millions and millions.
You have to hand it to the GOP for getting out the vote and for fooling all this people who voted Republican into thinking that they will now be better off
Liberals will write unions off as useless at mobilizing the electorate, which is sad because an invigorated union movement would have vaccinated plenty of white, black, and Latino working class voters from MAGA.
Just wanted to let you know that I joined my local yesterday in no small part because I love your work and I listen to you. :)
Love it.
I'd like to take a moment to think of Darrin Polansky.
Darin, 58, a husband and father of two children, was a railworker recently killed on the job. A passenger was injured. ( https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/bnsf-worker-killed-when-vehicle-is-struck-by-train/ )
I subscribe to the Railroad Workers United newsletter and like clockwork there are notices of railworkers killed and injured on the job. Nolan, there can be no mention of the Democrats and unions without mention of the betrayal of Biden/Harris and the entire Democratic Congressional delegation and corporate Dem establishment of the railworkers and their plans to strike.
Have the Democrats done a few things to help unions? Yeah, sure. But when the moment came for the opportunity for a union to make a huge difference and show workers across the country the true power they have through the generosity -- or withholding -- of their labor, Biden and the Democrats revealed themselves and betrayed them like a bunch of slimy Wall Street Republicans.
That betrayal at such a critical point is the true nature of the Democratic Party. They will talk some fluffy stuff and hand out the occasional cold chicken wing to workers, but when the real moment for solidarity arrives. they always skedaddle back to their Daddy Donors and Republican compatriots.
At this time of real, true fascism, trying to nudge the fascist-enabling minority party into giving a damn about workers is doomed to failure. Labor needs to tell both parties to F-off and strike (literally) out in a new path, demonstrating to all workers from the tomato field to the software designer's desk that this country, this economy and all of our futures depend upon the generous labor of American workers, a resource that will no longer permit itself to be exploited and shit upon by the oligarchs and the Republican/Democrat corporate uniparty.
The fascist purge is going to be brutal and there will be need for true brother and sisterhood among labor. It won't take long for many workers who voted for Trump to realize he will betray them as bad as the Democrats do. There is an opportunity for a labor movement outside both corrupt, bought-off parties. That is where the focus needs to be, not in trying to transplant a vertebrae or two into the shriveled, jellied spine of the Democratic Party. The left has been trying that for decades and when Harris/Walz blew it, who did the DNC establishment blame? Properly, themselves? No. Of course not. They and MSNBC boxheads blamed the progressives and liberals ... whatever the hell those terms mean anymore in relation to the Democratic Party.
Screw the Democratic Party. Time for something completely new.
I remember the Railway Union betrayal.
Couldn't agree more.
Sonofabitch, you’re one of the few honest motherfuckers out there. Love.
An effective union is an educating union -- about workers' rights, politics, solidarity, labor history. And if members get engaged and are empowered, they talk to their friends, family & neighbors. This builds grass roots credibility with other workers and opens the door to organizing -- which only works if unions are willing to spend the cash and train effective organizers & communicators.
I would wager that if you pose to non-union workers the question: ‘What is the main difference between union and non-union workers?’- the majority of answers would revolve around wages, benefits, dues, strikes etc. I would be surprised if many people answered that the main difference is centered in contracts and whether you do or do not perform your work under a contract.
And I would also wager that if you ask non-union workers whether they have a work contract with their employer, you would get a range of responses. Some would hesitantly say that they do, some would say no, some would say they think so, some would say they don’t think so, some would say they have no idea. I would make this wager b/c I’ve asked this question of non-union workers.
This should change. If we change the narrative, I believe we will be better positioned to grow a union movement.
This excellent argument is vulnerable to at least one thing, and that is the quality of the unions.
The unions must be *good* unions, perceived that way not only by their members but also by their non-members. That means getting rid of corruption and featherbedding, and standing up not only for workers' right but also for workers' excellence.
That in turn means not only union support for education, retraining, health (including mental health), but also for disciplining and purging members who bring the union, the workers, or the work into disrepute.
Imagine a world in which some corporation wants to do something unethical, exploitative, or greedy, or malicious, and when the union objects, the public at large immediately and uncontroversially supports the union's stance — because the public knows that the union stands for the workers and for society at large. I'd love that kind of world.
Yes. The work to make the unions good is just as important (and hard) as the work to get more people into the unions.
A missing step in "Go organize a union at your workplace" is labor education. You mention "political education." But labor education, or labor studies, is both broader and more focused than that. I want to see it happening in all adult education contexts, from apprenticeships to literacy programs to ESL to workforce development trainings to community colleges, and so on.
I've long had this idea that the for all non-union employees with individual contracts with their employers (in at-will states, etc), they have only one de-facto labor union representative: The Democratic Party. Except it's been more of an HR manager: https://frompovertytoprogress.substack.com/p/kamala-harris-is-the-future-of-the/comment/76166698 Enter Bernie Sanders: America's collective labor union representative.
Thank you for this. I live in a right to fire state and I'm really interested in union membership and I have no idea how to reconcile those two things. I was really hoping the dem candidate for labor commissioner (an IATSE member) would win, but unfortunately he was one of the statewide dem candidates that lost. So...more questions than answers at this point, I guess.
This is really helpful; I will consult your book. Thank you.
I think that most people don't realize that the unions exist to HELP and PROTECT them; that they are definitely FOR you and work hard to make sure that some money grubbing Zillionaires don't get away with just using the workers as horses to pull their wagon full of gold. It says a lot about this country that it is now in the "oh, he's so rich that he can buy a whole bunch of Supreme Court justices who hate women", so create or join a union to prevent the pigs from eating your soul.
Thanks for helping me to stay sane.
Why unions? Why not something BIGGER!!!??? We can't rely on separate siloed unions, one for each sector or profession or locale, as a framework for pulling together millions of American workers into a massive, formidable, potent force for change. We need one BIG entity that is open to ALL people who work for a paycheck. Define "worker" as one whose main source of income is from earned wages – not stocks, dividends, etc. Just WAGE-EARNERS. People who are at the mercy of their employers for their survival. That covers millions of Americans, and there is no way to build enough new unions or expand the current ones fast enough or at scale enough, to get them into workplaces, follow all the rules, and get them certified in time to save the working class! This is an emergency! I get it, unions are all people know, they are THE framework everyone buys into, they are the only ones who can truly speak for workers, look at all they've done for us blah blah blah. Unions have been great, unions are beautiful, there IS power in a union. But it's 2024, fascism is breathing down our necks, workers are about to lose every meaningful workplace right they have now (slim as they are), and unions are SLOW, CLUNKY, MIRED IN OLD WAYS, and bound by hoary old federal labor rules and regs. (Plus there's "right to fire" states, etc.) We need something massive, sleek, simple to join, powerful in numbers and influence, that encompasses ALL existing union workers AND brings in EVERY single person who gets a paycheck, ANYWHERE, in ANY job. A membership organization like the Chamber of Commerce or AARP or what have you, but much bigger and devoted entirely to WORKERS' interests and needs. Fighting for employee contracts that expand EVERYONE's security, safety and livable income. Please, PLEASE, those of you in the world of unions, just think about it. Don't immediately reject it. What we've been doing for decades is NOT WORKING. This might. No, it absolutely WOULD. It would transform American life. I'll shut up now, but goddamn I hope somebody reads this who is open to the concept and even (gasp) SHARES it. Bless you, whoever you may be. P.S. Years ago, both Michael Moore and Robert Reich personally told me this was a great idea. Seriously.
What about a third party (very risky) called
????????
What about the Working Families party organizers “wage earners” to promote their own candidates and not just endorse the candidates from wherever?
Just a thought
I don’t know what else would fill the bill?
You're right. I've been saying this too.
more thoughts (old, needs updating, but the gist of it is here): https://www.americanwageearners.org/_files/ugd/7de634_b47589fbe85c4cc196e8f5382b9cccad.pdf
OMG, this. A thousand times this. But the NLRB is going to go down, thanks to Trump’s SCOTUS. I’ve read Project 2025; my public sector union will be outlawed and even if it isn’t our only real tool, the right to strike, is already essentially nonexistent. Employers can use any kind of hardcore anti-union tactics that they want and the worst possible consequences they’ll face is a tiny fine. Everything that is already stacked against us is about to get much, much harder. How do we organize more or better in the face of that?
Keep going.
Jenny and Karen, see my note further down in the thread.
I think we do a disservice to working people by not making explicit the fundamental differences between union and non-union workers.
What is the main difference between a union and a non-union worker? The main difference is a contract and the ability to perform your work each day under the protection of a contract. And what does a contract do for a worker? A contract has to be renegotiated every 4-5 years, and it is during that renegotiation process that workers have the ability to leverage their numbers to negotiate for improvements to the terms and conditions of their employment.
Do we buy houses and other major purchases without contracts? Do companies merge and consolidate operations without negotiating and signing contractual agreements? Why not?? Because contracts are intended to protect the interests of both parties who come together to agree upon terms and conditions of the agreement.
I think we need to change the conversation from one of ‘a union is good for workers’ to a conversation that explains WHY a union is good for workers: ‘a union is good for workers because it gives us the opportunity to work under a contract, which allows us to exercise our power in numbers to negotiate for improvements and also protects us from employers making our jobs worse.’
For the vast majority of workers, we know what a union is, but we don’t have a clear understanding of the mechanism by which a union changes our relationship to our work. But we understand intuitively what a contract does and how contracts function to confer both power and protection (I’ve come to call it the 2 p’s). Ask workers: ‘Would you buy a house without a contract?’- when the resounding answer is an emphatic ‘NO!!!’, follow-up and ask non-union workers: ‘Then why do you perform your work each day without a contract?’. Many questions follow from this, including: ‘Do you think our CEO’s perform their work without contracts?’
To win workers, we need a massive rebranding, so that the idea of contracts holds equal power in people’s minds as the idea of unions, and we see unions as the mechanism by which we achieve contracts.
Unions=contracts=power & protection
And I say all of this as a non-union worker who has never been a union member in 20+ years of working, and had an ‘aha’ moment about a year and a half ago, after starting a socratic line of questioning about why a massive invisible ceiling is keeping healthcare workers barely treading water while CEOs in the industry are making millions and millions.
You have to hand it to the GOP for getting out the vote and for fooling all this people who voted Republican into thinking that they will now be better off
Liberals will write unions off as useless at mobilizing the electorate, which is sad because an invigorated union movement would have vaccinated plenty of white, black, and Latino working class voters from MAGA.