What The Afl-cio Break Up Means To You!

[usair_begins_with_u]

At last we are beginning to see dismantling of organized labor as a disruptive force in american politics. The true irony is that niether of the two separated groups will embrace strategies that will increase workers survial in todays growing global environment.

These whack job union cats are still stuck in a time warp spouting crap left over from the Industrial revolution, greedy managers, exploitation, seniority over quality of work, job actions..

Until labor unions can offer their members more than lip service about the man trying to screw him, unions will continue to lose influence. What the labor needs is an infusion of forward thinking leaders who understand the realities of global comptition. Rather than favor restrictive trade barriers and tarrifs to save the jobs over paid workers in industries like textiles, visionary union leadership would work to reform education and job training so the labor base could evolve to compete in todays increasingly services based economy.

Are there any highly profitable union based industries??

Nope.

 

[700UW]

First of all the AFL-CIO did not break up. Two unions left.

Don't let the facts get in your way.

 

[usair_begins_with_u]

Haha.. split, break-up, divide... you are talking samantics.. you are always one to split hairs 700.

Face it, labors situation today caps a long story of decline. Union membership peaked at about 35 percent in 1955, the same year the AFL-CIO merged. Since then, union jobs have disappeared as manufacturing has moved overseas, and unions have been largely unable to get information or service workers to unionize.

The country's largest employer, Wal-Mart, isn't unionized.

It never helps the unions have been in the pockets of democratic party brokers, while the party has been centered around the fringe of american politics. Keep spending your union dues to get hillary elected.. lol How ironic it was your boy clinton who championed NAFTA?

Oh.. Happy 50th though....

 

[700UW]

Wrong again,

And I am not talking symantics, why don't you go find out what really happened instead of spewing your anti-union venom.

There are a couple of Wal-Marts that are unionized in the US and Canada.

Like I said, don't let the facts get in your way.

 

[ClueByFour]

First of all the AFL-CIO did not break up. Two unions left.

[post="284485"][/post]​

That represent anywhere between a sixth and a fifth of the AFL-CIO's annual budget and like 3 million members.

If UNITE HERE and the UFCW bolt, that's a third of the membership.

The two unions that bolt represent >25% of representation elections from last year.
The SEIU had the best success rate in elections.

Sweeney is an idiot for not realizing that the key is organization, not tossing money at democrats who have proven wholly unable to do anything about the anti-labor steamroller in the last 10 years in the federal government.

Perhaps now he'll get the message, and Ted Kennedy can find campaign money elsewhere.

 

[delldude]

i find humor in the blind faith relationship labor has given to the democratic party over the last ten or more years............
daily we see a disintegrating party with no obvious vision unless you wish to kiss hillary's fat ass......
even under clinton, labor thought they had a friend and attempted to get a striker replacement ban into law...BJ bill said if it came across his desk he'd sign it into law........he knew it would never come to pass.
all those dues monies spent joyously on failed labor reforms....

 

[PITMTC]

Wrong again,

And I am not talking symantics, why don't you go find out what really happened instead of spewing your anti-union venom.

There are a couple of Wal-Marts that are unionized in the US and Canada.

Like I said, don't let the facts get in your way.

[post="284490"][/post]​

Firt of all.....Ah never mind!

 

[usair_begins_with_u]

In another wonderful turn of events, the senate approves CAFTA!! What a great boon to US workers, farmers and small businesses!

Yet another MAJOR victory for the GW & Co.. God I love that guy.

Graphic in the sprit of 700, Im trying not to let the "facts" get in the way... Unions best days are well behind them unless they embrace globalism.

 

[PITbull]

Haha.. split, break-up, divide...  you are talking samantics..  you are always one to split hairs 700.

Face it, labors situation today caps a long story of decline. Union membership peaked at about 35 percent in 1955, the same year the AFL-CIO merged. Since then, union jobs have disappeared as manufacturing has moved overseas, and unions have been largely unable to get information or service workers to unionize.

The country's largest employer, Wal-Mart, isn't unionized.

It never helps the unions have been in the pockets of democratic party brokers, while the party has been centered around the fringe of american politics.  Keep spending your union dues to get hillary elected.. lol  How ironic it was your boy clinton who championed NAFTA? 

Oh.. Happy 50th though....

[post="284487"][/post]​

I would rather stick with the devil I know, than the devil I don't know. Conservatives have never been proponents of Labor, Labor movement, infact, employees in general.

They won't be happy until we are all living in tents with our kids.

 

[Boomer]

I would rather stick with the devil I know, than the devil I don't know. Conservatives have never been proponents of Labor, Labor movement, infact, employees in general.

They won't be happy until we are all living in tents with our kids.

[post="284535"][/post]​

---------------------------------

That's the reason that the AFL-CIO has been marginalized into inconsequence.

If Labor actually rode the middle: punishing anyone that failed to help and really turning out for those that produced results instead of slogans, we wouldn't be where we are today.

The AFL-CIO failed to intervene in PATCO by staging a nationwide shutdown: just like they did at US Air.

Power is all that those posessing it seek to perpetuate: taking away their power by refusing to re-elect them is all they understand.

 

[Bagbelt]

Yes what a victory for all of us usair-b. We have the the worst labor laws in the industrialised world. Maybe in a few years we can go back to a feudal system. I'm sure those towns in central america can't wait to buy their first American car.

 

[RDU Jetblast]

Listen folks,

In the old days, unions went on strike, even wildcat strikes to prove their relevance to the bottom line. The workers back then sacrificed everything for the benefits we all enjoy today. If there were a strike today, workers wouldn't be able to feed themselves let alone their families because of the average household debt load- credit card, auto, mortgage.

Want to secure the future for American children? You have to be prepared to make the sacrifice. It is no less patriotic than joining the military. Instead of fighting enemies, we'd be fighting for the economic future. The end result will be determined by the willingness to make a sacrifice.

 

[Bob Owens]

In another wonderful turn of events, the senate approves CAFTA!!  What a great boon to US workers, farmers and small businesses!

Yet another MAJOR victory for the GW & Co..  God I love that guy.

Graphic in the sprit of 700, Im trying not to let the "facts" get in the way... Unions best days are well behind them unless they embrace globalism.

[post="284522"][/post]​

Forget the percentages. How much in actual members has the movement lost?

Has the labor movement shrunk or stagnated? My guess is that an expanding workforce has dimished the percentage of unionized workers but the number has not changed that much.

As far as power unions have as much economic power as they ever did. Why. Because Transportation and communication are highly unionized. While communications have become highly automated Transportation is still labor intensive. If you shut down the ability of a society to move people and things you shut down the economy.

The problem is that the workers are all split up between many poorly led unions.

The Teamsters leaving could offer Transportation workers hope. Or it could simply be a big bluff to scare some of the other unions into giving Sweeney more power.

By the way I agree with your view on embracing globalism. The first step for us as workers is to unite into one national union then join together with other unions worldwide. Greed, exploitation, etc, still exist and working people must still unite to struggle against those who have insatiable appetites for money and power at our expense.

 

[Dea Certe]

I think the AFL-CIO has been missing the point for a long, long time. They haven't stepped up with support for its unions. Oh yeah, you might get a notice on the AFL-CIO web-page to boycott such-and-such product, but you don't see any calls to real action.

It takes a heck of a lot for any worker to walk a picket line. The AFL-CIO should demand and expect that *no* union worker crosses that line for any reason. Not for deliveries, pick-ups or to use the rest room. Shut the place down until the issues are worked out.

That's the quickest, cleanest way to end a strike.

So, the company calls for a lock-out. Let them. If the AFL-CIO had any gumption, not a single union worker any where would have anything what-so-ever to do with that company. Again, no deliveries, no pick ups, no potty breaks.

The AFL-CIO outlived its usefulness when it fell into the trap of its own inside politics, when it got people in power who forgot who they were supposed to be serving! When the membership became secondary to golfing with politicios, when the biggest single issue for the AFL-CIO became collecting dues, that's when it became worthless.

A union worth its salt shouldn't have to spend mega-bucks on organizing. The services it provides and the contracts it negotiates should speak for themselves, and sadly as of late, they do. That's why it's hard to get anyone interested in joining a union.

A classic case of "What have you done for me lately?"

Dea

 

[Bob Owens]

I think the AFL-CIO has been missing the point for a long, long time. They haven't stepped up with support for its unions. Oh yeah, you might get a notice on the AFL-CIO web-page to boycott such-and-such product, but you don't see any calls to real action.

It takes a heck of a lot for any worker to walk a picket line. The AFL-CIO should demand and expect that *no* union worker crosses that line for any reason. Not for deliveries, pick-ups or to use the rest room. Shut the place down until the issues are worked out.

That's the quickest, cleanest way to end a strike.

So, the company calls for a lock-out. Let them. If the AFL-CIO had any gumption, not a single union worker any where would have anything what-so-ever to do with that company. Again, no deliveries, no pick ups, no potty breaks.

The AFL-CIO outlived its usefulness when it fell into the trap of its own inside politics, when it got people in power who forgot who they were supposed to be serving! When the membership became secondary to golfing with politicios, when the biggest single issue for the AFL-CIO became collecting dues, that's when it became worthless.

A union worth its salt shouldn't have to spend mega-bucks on organizing. The services it provides and the contracts it negotiates should speak for themselves, and sadly as of late, they do. That's why it's hard to get anyone interested in joining a union.

A classic case of "What have you done for me lately?"

Dea

[post="285802"][/post]​

Back in early 2003 Jim Little, head of the TWU-ATD sent out an E-mail containing a news article about how a bankruptcy judge was going to throw out UALs contracts unless they agreed to concessions. My reply was "When the first contract is voided we (all unionized workers in the airline industry) should walk out".

Jim Little demanded that I retract that statement. I refused, several months later Jim Little had me removed from office.

The sad fact is as you have correctly pointed out the AFL-CIO will not call for action. The AFL-CIO is controlled by union Presidents. Most of these guys have very limited educational backgrounds yet earn very high salaries. Real actions put them and their comfortable existance at risk.

Dea, with the breakup of the AFL-CIO we may have the opportunity to change the airline labor movement. The Teamsters, one of the few uions that does not cross picket lines, left the AFL-CIO. They too are dissatisfied with the performance of the AFL-CIO. Perhaps all the airline workers should use this as an opportunity to unite under one union. Lets all go Teamsters, everyone, mechanics, stores, ramp, cargo, passnger service, etc, so we can finally speak as one. Or would you rather stay within a structure where the leaders of one union remove elected officials who say that we should all stick together?