New at Reason

Tim Cavanaugh | July 27, 2005

Think the AFL-CIO schism will hurt the Democrats? Bring a new profile to organized labor? Revamp unionism for a 21st-century work force? Guess again.

Comments

|7.27.05 @ 9:15PM|#

The funny part is that, in the past, unions really have done what union leaders claim they did (i.e. secured better work conditions, fairer compensation, greater security, and so on). I think that most of us can agree that we would not want to live in a country where unions never succeeded and corporate bosses still ruled the work areas with an iron fist thanks to help from the cronies in the ruling classes (wow, I sound like a commie there, don't I?). However, they have not acclimated themselves to modernity. Sad, really.

|7.27.05 @ 9:38PM|#

Unions like to talk about how they brought in the weekend, 40-hour work week and all the rest, but that was a long time ago and has since been turned into the law of the land. What have you done for me LATELY?

|7.27.05 @ 9:38PM|#

Katrina Vanden Heuvel, beloved editor of The Nation,

beloved...for me to poop on...

|7.27.05 @ 9:45PM|#

they brought in the weekend, 40-hour work week and all the rest,

And not only was this a long time ago as you point out, but it's routinely ignored, and largely irrelevant to large numbers of workers.

|7.27.05 @ 9:58PM|#

A willingness to break apart the labor behemoth is an encouraging sign, and there's nothing inherently wrong with workers pooling their resources in order to negotiate better contracts.

I agree 100%. The union I belong to (American Federation of Musicians) is decrepit. I would love to see my subset of employees (members of symphony orchestras) break off from the larger union to form its own; a study showed that we would pay far less in dues for more responsive service. The more narrowly focused an organization, the more effective for its members, and I think unions are no exception. The problem are those who view "labor" as a social movement, vs. someone like myself who wants simply to negotiate the best possible contract. The Social Movement types like these giant conglomorations, and since they are generally more gung ho, tend to be in the positions of power where decisions are made. While *those* people are whining that this week's split is a problem, I think it has the potential to be a big win for the people who actually belong to unions.

|7.27.05 @ 10:13PM|#

40-hour work week

What is this mythical 40-hour work week I keep hearing so much about?

|7.27.05 @ 10:58PM|#

Mo-

Ask a government employee, they can tell you all about it.

|7.27.05 @ 11:12PM|#

That's because many government jobs are union. See, they do work.

|7.28.05 @ 1:05AM|#

lumpenproletariat...what an outrageous word.

Good article, Tim.

|7.28.05 @ 8:14AM|#

Pshhaw. I've done more to improve the lives of the common worker than organized labor could ever dream of.

|7.28.05 @ 9:09AM|#

dead elvis,

Just curious, but what do you actually get from membership in American Federation of Musicians?

|7.28.05 @ 9:17AM|#

Ask a government employee, they can tell you all about it.

If you know some government employees who put in 40 hour weeks, you know some different ones than I do.

Most work a 35 hour week - Monday through Friday 9 - 5, with an hour off for lunch.

Brian Marks|7.28.05 @ 10:42AM|#

Well of the Union falls apart, than where will the mob go?

|7.28.05 @ 11:02AM|#

Well if the Union falls apart, then where will the mob go?

To work? Maybe to the bar after?

|7.28.05 @ 11:12AM|#

Please forgive the threadjack, but a bunch of regular posters from the Connecticut-New York-New Jersey area have been talking about meeting up in Manhattan some weekend, to drink, solve all the world's problems and find out how wrong we were when we imagined what the others looked like. So far I've got seven posters, one lurker and a Reason staffer on board--if anyone else is interested drop me an e-mail. Right now we're looking at a Saturday evening in the latter half of August, or early September.

You may now resume talking about how our country's going straight to hell.

|7.28.05 @ 12:16PM|#

Brett-

Depends on what your line of work is. If you're in a rock band, I'm not really sure. But basically, being a member allows you to play jobs that have union negotiated contracts, which are *generally*, not always, going to have better pay, better working conditions, etc. One also might occasionally get referrals for work through the local.

|7.28.05 @ 12:17PM|#

I work a 37.5 hour week for a private company - not bad, eh? Maybe I'm a lazy sod, but I decided a LONG time ago that working more than 40 hours a week just isn't worth it. I value my free time. Oh, and unions suck. Not only do the public-sector ones bankrupt cities, but they typically blackmail their way into ridiculously generous contracts. My favorite example was the 12 or so days that San Francisco bus drivers get to NOT SHOW UP to work with no explanation (this was around 1997). And the private-sector unions that I was forced to join had their own arcane rules as well, like the one where senior workers got to force you to switch shifts with them. I truly see no use at all for unions anymore.

|7.28.05 @ 5:07PM|#

Some interesting data which made shed light on the "future" direction of the Democratic party:

2004 Election Cycle State Party Contributions and
% to Democrats:

NEA $2.9m 93%
SEIU $4.7m 87%
AFL-CIO 2.4m 90%
IBEW 2.2m 98%
LIUNA 2.1m 90%
UAW 1.6m 100%
Teachers Unions 6.7m 92%

For Comparison:
MoveOn.org $21m (I assume 100% non-GOP)
SEUI Action Local Fund $46.7m

I think the New Democrats are likely to have a rather hard time given their competition.