{"id":9826,"date":"2025-10-25T09:31:30","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T15:31:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uawlocal2250.net\/live\/?p=9826"},"modified":"2025-10-25T09:31:32","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T15:31:32","slug":"is-the-union-movement-ready-to-breakout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uawlocal2250.net\/live\/index.php\/2025\/10\/25\/is-the-union-movement-ready-to-breakout\/","title":{"rendered":"Is The Union Movement Ready To Breakout?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ike Gittlin, blogger and Steelworker, has given us On a Union Movement on the Verge of a Rebirth<\/a>…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On A Union Movement on the Verge of a Rebirth: According to Economic Policy Institute calculations, some sixty million workers in America would join a union if they could. That\u2019s almost 40% of the total American workforce. Currently about 16 million workers are represented by a union. If those 60 million frustrated workers were able to organize, it would represent a union movement 5 times its current size. That would be close to half of our 163 million workforce or a higher percentage of labor membership at any time in our nation\u2019s history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When labor unions represented just 30% of America\u2019s workforce, we were able to change the way government supported working families. It wasn\u2019t the Democratic Party or Franklin Roosevelt who were responsible for creating a middle class in America. It was the power of labor that made the American Dream reachable to a broad number of citizens. That 30+% of union members, their decades of struggles, strikes and activism, set the conditions for positive labor rights in the United States. Some historians have made powerful arguments that Roosevelt essentially brokered a compromise between labor and wealth, to bring the nation out of an economy that had been wrecked by greed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks for reading Ike’s Work in Progress! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.Subscribe<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those pre-New Deal union activists had no legal protection, no workplace rights and were barely holding on financially. With an estimated 47% of our current workforce earning less than a living wage, America\u2019s workforce is not that far from our forebearers economic situation. The decades of assaults on workers\u2019 rights have likewise taken away legal protections that were built to safeguard workers ability to challenge the boss. The weakening of the New Deal labor rights are why those 60 million would-be unionists have been blocked from organizing and building worker power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of this to explain how high the stakes are when trying to get labor law reform in this country. The wealthy and corporations know that a vibrant union movement can effectively curb their greed and power. That\u2019s why they spend billions on union-busting law firms and obscene amounts on political donations. Political influence buying, they were restricted in doing, prior to the Supreme Court handing them a huge anti-worker weapon in the Citizens United decision. It also explains why legislation to curb and correct the imbalance in worker power vs the power of money, hasn\u2019t gone anywhere in our Congress. In a disgusting sell out of their own citizens well-being, many States promote their cheap labor environment to attract businesses. They might as well put up billboards that say \u201cWe\u2019re screwing our workers for YOU\u201d. If you\u2019ve been paying attention, the majority of public investment in manufacturing is being put into non-union regions, further weakening the strength of the American union movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unions raise living standards (for both members and non-union workers). They fight for dignity on the job and a better quality of life overall. Unions teach the power of solidarity and collective action. They elect officers, in varying ways, giving people a say and a training ground to lead. Unions organize people around mutual needs. All of this is extremely dangerous stuff for those who want to impose their will on the majority. It\u2019s not in their interests for people to feel empowered or to have an effective voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

United Autoworkers President Sean Fain states that \u201cworkers need more than a Party, they need a Movement\u201d. He lists four unifying issues for America\u2019s workers as the heart of that movement. Wages, health care, retirement, and winning back control of time. He and a number of other labor leaders are saying labor needs to build to a general worker strike in May of 2028. Union and Non-Union. A proposal not heard of in this country since the New Deal was enacted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

America\u2019s economy is based on consumer spending. Economists wonder how long our economy can continue to be viable, as the income-inequality of working families (the consumers) erodes their ability to buy. These conditions begin to mirror the pre-New Deal era of a collapsed economy and working people activated by their struggles to survive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As current experiences are proving, the plight of America\u2019s middle class and working poor are not being helped by tossing people out of the country, firing people from government, stripping people of healthcare and retirement security or dividing people with culture wars. The resurgence of a vibrant labor movement will. It\u2019s clear that enough working people in this nation understand that. Now comes the part where we stand up and demand it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Image by Mohamed Hassan<\/a> from Pixabay<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ike Gittlin, blogger and Steelworker, has given us On a Union Movement on the Verge of a Rebirth… Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uawlocal2250.net\/live\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uawlocal2250.net\/live\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uawlocal2250.net\/live\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uawlocal2250.net\/live\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uawlocal2250.net\/live\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9826"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/uawlocal2250.net\/live\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9826\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9828,"href":"https:\/\/uawlocal2250.net\/live\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9826\/revisions\/9828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uawlocal2250.net\/live\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uawlocal2250.net\/live\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uawlocal2250.net\/live\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}