About one in three In These Times readers are members of union households, according to our own 2003 survey. Those readers rarely see unions and union members depicted in a favorable light in news reports — but they understand some fundamental truths about the importance of organized labor that may escape notice by the rest of us. Unions, as the bumper… return to article
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Reader Comments (9)Page 1 of 1 pagesIs there a reason the union bosses make the decisions as to who to support? Why can’t they be democratic and have their members vote?
A vast majority of unions supported Gephardt and Dean in Iowa. They wasted the hard earned dues that they force their members to pay and they delivered….what exactly?
Unions pathetically extort money from its members for political gain. If you want to instill a tiny notion of respect, equity, and democracy union PAC’s should be funded solely from voluntary contributions.
Oh, and maybe they could follow the law for once and report political spending on its tax returns like everybody else? Can you show me more than 3 unions that do this? Is it illegal not to?
EVERY country that has a greater % of union membership has higher unemployment than the US. You may get a quarter of a year in vacation in France by joining a union but you also end up with a pretty pathetic economy.
Posted by Ty on Jan 21, 2004 at 4:38 PM I’ve seen corruption in many labor unions in my lifetime. So have many union members. We see the teamsters support people like Nixon and Reagan. What are to think by their actions? Bribes to them by companies to get away with violations of union contracts. How can we not view unions as not being corrupted? Time to start over.
Posted by jeff on Jan 22, 2004 at 5:21 PM As a union member for over 20 years, I agree about media bias. Much of it is subtle use of language. My pet peeve is that during negotiations, management proposals are always referred to as “offers”, whereas union proposals are called “demands.” Also, the unions are somehow depicted as acting independently of the employees, even when the rank-and-file is well represented on the bargaining committee and stands solidly behind their proposals. The media never portray management against employees; just management agains “the union.” Often the name of the union isn’t even mentioned, adding to the impression that the union is a scary, shadowy force of evil. During a strike, the only issue sure to be mentioned is the inconvenience to the public caused by the work stoppage.
Posted by ELLEN BULF on Jan 22, 2004 at 9:39 PM Jeff,
Thanks for fleshing out a story that has an eerie persistance. I write for my union bi-monthly magazine, the Motion Picture Editors Guild Magazine, and have been collecting a range of stories that show just how ignorant, indifferent and even hostile the corporate media is to labor issues. Probably the easiest way to make the case is to notice how frequent and how well-researched the AFL-CIO’s bread-and-butter press releases are. Then take a good look in the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle et al and see how often the AFL-CIO statements are quoted, or even mentioned. It’s almost zero.
Frankly it’s amazing to me that the AFL-CIO hasn’t tried to partner up with Al Frankin or some other progressive media person to help get labor’s message out.
Anyway, before I go off on an endless rant, I do want to thank you for adding some good, solid research to this often neglected idea.
Best,
Jeff Burman
Posted by Jeff Burman on Jan 23, 2004 at 2:55 AM Re: Offers / demands
I have heard union officials “demand” certain terms. That is the word they use when addressing the membership (and the media), “We demand…”
I never heard the bosses saying they “demand” workers accept their terms.
Posted by Nus on Jan 26, 2004 at 6:52 PM Ty,
“If you want to instill a tiny notion of respect, equity, and democracy union PAC’s should be funded solely from voluntary contributions. “
They already are. Check your facts. Unions also file LM-2 Reports to account for their spending, and union COPEs and PACs have to file reports, as well. Members have the right to see these documents.
Unemployment figures in the US are underreported b/c of “discouraged” workers, and the consequences of unemployment in other industrial democracies are far, far less severe than they are here, do to gains won by workers in those countries (e.g. higher unemployment benefits, universal health care).
Posted by Nick on Jan 30, 2004 at 6:30 PM Yeah, I’m gonna go ahead and have to disagree with you there Nick.
In Iowa, where one in four voters is in a union, over 90% of union political spend came from dues- not voluntary contributions.
Please name me 1 union that actually polled its membership on which candidate they wanted to support. Union bosses decide and completely throw away the dues they extracted. Unless you think they did wonders for Dean and Gephardt? Do you think it’s right for voters in the union who want to vote for Kerry pay money to run ads attacking him?
NEA even has a lawsuit filed against it by the Landmark Legal Foundation for failing to report spending and failure to pay taxes. I could sit here for an hour listing every shady financial deal from the old days of the Teamsters to todays Service Employees union. But it would be a waste of time. And I’m cutting out early…
Posted by Ty on Jan 30, 2004 at 11:04 PM Thanks for running a story that needs attention, but I have a different experience with the Chicago media. I was a communications director of a 22,000 member SEIU local there for 7 years. It took some work, but in time every story I pitched got into the Trib, and sometimes the much more anti-union Sun-Times.
I know freelance and train union leaders how to think like a reporter so you can get your union mentioned in all kinds of good ways. Union leaders need to take it a little less personally when the story doesn’t go their way - it’s not always because they’re anti-union. (Most reporters don’t know enough about unions to be against them.)
And to Ty - Voting is not always a sign of what people want, because so many don’t bother to vote. Witness the election of George W. I can name at least two unions - SEIU and AFSCME that spent many thousands of dollars polling their members before their endorsement. And by the way, you’re playing fast and loose on those figures in Iowa - it is not only illegal that “90 percent of political spend (sic) came from dues” but unwise - unions know John Ashcroft is breathing down their necks waiting for them to screw up. Your figures are wrong.
Posted by Suzan on Feb 2, 2004 at 3:18 PM Yes, organized labor brought the weekend/40-hour week and the other policies you cite. Similarly, the Republicans (Lincoln, et al) brought us the abolition of slavery and a number of other social programs. Rooseveltian Democrats brought Social Security and government helping those who were willing to work to help themselves.
The point to be made is that these movements morphed into something less desirable as they became more entrenched in our social fabric. The Republican Party has become more the party of the WASP than the party of Lincoln. The Democrats have become a mutant offspring of Karl Marx and Robin Hood. Organized Labor has been linked to organized crime and are politically corrupt, doing at least as much harm as good.
By the way, I was long a member of the Culinary Union and after watching how that was run would never join another one.
Posted by Dennis Cohen on Feb 2, 2004 at 4:00 PM Page 1 of 1 pages -
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