If unions are good(and they are) Why don't millions of workers rush to join them?

By Harry Kelber

LaborTalk
February 6, 2008

Union Leadership Remains Passive and Silent
While Workers Feel Impact of Economic Crisis

You would think that Congress would call on national labor leaders to give
their views on what should be done to help our country recover from the
deepening economic crisis. After all, those leaders represent some 16
million workers who play an important role in providing us with the goods
and services that enable us to survive.

Since the government is considering a package .of outlays to stimulate the
economy, it should be important to hear from the victims of the housing and
credit crisis. .Many thousands of working people have lost their homes and
others are barely able to hold off foreclosures, Mass layoffs are
increasing as employers seek to cut their labor costs,

Surely, any package of stimulants must focus special attention on helping
struggling workers who have lost their homes and jobs. Whatever financial
aid they receive will almost certainly be poured back into the economy.

Yet the fact is that labor leaders have not been invited to testify before
congressional committees on how to revive the economy. They have not
appeared on popular talk shows or in televised press interviews, even though
they know as much or more than the pundits and commentators who are invited
as guests to talk about the economy and who represent only themselves. When
was the last time you saw AFL-CIO President John Sweeney or some other
prominent labor leader on national television?

It is worth noting that both the AFL-CIO and the Change to Win have been
largely ignored by the elite media, but labor leaders have not objected to
being ignored. In fact, a great many of the 48 members of the AFL-CIO
Executive Council have not spoken publicly on a labor issue since they were
elected and re-elected in the past dozen years. Union members have no idea
what most of them look like or their background or what they think or do.
Council members appear to treasure their silence, leaving it to Sweeney to
speak for them, which he rarely does on radio or television.

After weeks when the housing crisis was front-page news and Congress was
talking about a package to stimulate the economy, the AFL-CIO waited until
Jan. 18 to issue several proposals. that included extension of unemployment
insurance, food stamps for the poor and needy and financial aid to states
that were in distress.

But the AFL-CIO and Change to Win never put up a fight for these proposals
when the House omitted them from its stimulus package or when efforts were
made to restore them in the Senate.


Labor's Image Is Damaged by Weak Response on Issues

It is hard to remember the last time that the two labor federations called
for a mass mobilization on any issue of importance to working families. It
is no accident that the labor movement has become marginalized and
increasingly irrelevant to workers, union and non-union.

If labor expects to organize even a part of the 50 million workers who say
they want to join a union, it will have to reform many of its current
policies and practices. Are their any labor leaders who are prepared to
undertake this important but very difficult task?

The final article of this series, "Why Workers Don't Join" will appear on
Wednesday, February 13. You can download the entire series by visiting our
web site: www.laboreducator.org