Maybe unions should be taking a page from Occupy and the IWW.

[backscatter712]

What I mean is that the current fights, such as fighting in a particular company to form a union in the company, are losing battles. The psychopathic scumfucks have the laws rigged in their favor, and they want to push unions out.

It's time to adapt.

So in my view, unions may have to organize outside of workplaces, Wobbly style. The IWW doesn't attach itself to specific workplaces, they make themselves available to anyone, employed or not, that wants to be part of the movement.

Unions shouldn't be for particular types of workers at particular workplaces, they should be representing anyone who works for a living or supports workers. Unemployed people should be able to join a union, just by showing up.

Hold the formal organization. A formal organization becomes vulnerable to legal coercion, and leaders can be targeted, which is why the leadership of the ILWU had to constantly cover their asses, declaring they're not supporting strike-actions, while their workers did what was essentially a strike, but had to be lampshaded as a "safety shutdown" in the Port of Oakland.

While a union that is not formally organized might be technically illegal, it opens the door for unlimited direct action, while traditional unions are hamstrung by laws like Taft-Hartley.

Unions should use direct democracy, Occupy style so that their leadership shouldn't be able to be singled out. They could have Occupy Denver's Shelby the Dog as a leader.

And what happens when a company abuses its workers? The beauty of organizing outside, rather than inside the workplace, is that you can bring in far more people. Fire 20 people at a company for union activity? Two thousand union activists, many of them unemployed or working elsewhere, show up at your doorstep and blockade the facility. With a large amount of manpower, dues isn't quite as much of an issue - the organization can subsist on volunteer donations, as Occupy movements continue to do, and the extra people can do blockades and sit-ins, organize rallies, community out-reach, etc.

Am I off-base on this?

[Zalatix]

1. Also find ways to cut funding for the police gangs

or else they'll be there to fight the blockades.

Without the cops the rich have no way to defend themselves.

[NewEngland4Obama]

2. Keep the Unions the way they are and call for Occupys help when needed..

[WonderGrunion]

3. So Unions should stop protesting when it's cold, inconvenient or the Super Bowl is on?

You are way off base on this. Unions achieved what they have throughout the decade by having strong leadership and focused protest. Those things lead to the 40 hour work week, vacation time, safe work place laws, child labor laws, Lily Leadbetter, the legal right to protest on private property to issue their grievances against a company, overtime pay, pensions for workers and so much more.

Comparatively speaking OWS hasn't achieved anything tangible. They may claim to have shifted the conversation...unions actually accomplished things.

[pintobean]

4. +1

[JNelson6563]

6. Indeed!

And unions sure do not need organizing advice from Occupy. As a Democratic activist in Michigan I can tell you those people in labor are very smart. They know what they are doing, they've been at it for a long time/ To be honest some of them are the smartest people I've known.

One of my very dearest friends was a UAW organizer, let me tell you, they are really good at what they do. I wouldn't dare insult her or the others I know by suggesting they get some tips from Occupy.

Julie

[pinboy3niner]

7. Too "cold, inconvenient" is RW spin

You're adding when "the Super Bowl is on"? That's a new one to me.

Occupy never stopped when encampmentments across the country were shut down. From Occupy Congress to Occupy the Courts to Occupy Our Homes, Occupy has continued its protests. Anyone following Occupy knows that that Occupy never stopped.

[mmonk]

10. Yeah, we suck.

ALEC will save the unions.

[pinboy3niner]

11. LOL!

You have a way with words.

[Robb]

12. But what have unions done for public camping laws?

[justgamma]

5. They have a Union for the unemployed and anyone who wants to join.

http://www.workingamerica.org/

Sponsered by the AFL-CIO

[NAO]

8. We need "ONE BIG UNION"

We could have brought Reagan to his knees if, when he fired PATCO air-traffic controllers, every flight attendant, every tarmac worker, , every baggage handler, every public union employee - garbageman, teachers, janitors, city, county, state, and federal employees went on strike, along with auto workers, steel workers, plumbers, bank tellers - everyone who was unionized went on strike too in a massive, unified show of solidarity.

The country would have been brought to a miserable halt and the Ray-gun would have been forced to concerted to the demands of The Union (the conglomeration of all the unions).

We did not have to stop with re-instating PATCO controllers. We could have demanded that Ronnie personally apologize to each of the PATCO employees and make a speech before the world that he was so sorry to have made such an evil power grab.

He would have been destroyed, early in his first term.

The history of the US would be different if the Reagan had been bitch-slapped and publicly humiliated; and the story of American labor would also have been quite different.

[Magoo48]

9. Who needs the Right when we have plenty of armchair critics here on the Left lobbing cyber stones

at Occupy? What purpose does this negativity serve? I was a union member and rep. Our leadership never once had the courage to say and take the actions Occupy has. Our actions were stymied by a fearful leadership and regulated into impotence by tptb. Fuck that. Unless one has better ideas, and is taking action on them, criticism is useless. Let others fight to be free in the ways that move them. like Lennon said, " We're all doin' what we can." Sitting back and talking shit probably doesn't count as doing. Unions are doing...I support them. Occupy is doing...I support them. Every group that is doing should be given the dignity to make mistakes and evolve.