‘There is Power in a Union’: The past, present and future of America’s labor movement

[marmar]

from In These Times:




‘There is Power in a Union’
The past, present and future of America’s labor movement

By Steve Weinberg


For the millions of Americans who do not read In These Times, labor unions have probably been relegated to the realm of the anachronistic, if not downright unpatriotic. For the much smaller number of Americans who do read In These Times, writing about the virtues of labor unions probably falls into the realm of preaching to the congregation.

But in his new (and at 784 pages, massive) book There Is Power in a Union: The Epic Story of Labor in America (Doubleday, September), Philip Dray provides plenty of information about the virtues of unions for labor evangelists to draw upon.

Dray offers a grand context for thinking about labor-management relations in a society beset by ill will in millions of workplaces. He notes that the saga of organized labor in the United States is “much more than a catalog of strikes, picket lines and flailing police batons. The debate about work and industry and the struggle for workers’ rights and dignity have been consuming subjects since the birth of our nation; they have shaped laws and customs, acted as a crucible for social change, and ultimately helped define what it means to be an American.”

Taken as a whole, the book is a celebration of organized labor. Dray is clear-headed, so he knows the valentine is ephemeral. Although he wishes it were not so, the book carries the seeds of a eulogy. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/6328/there_is_power_in_a_union

[yurbud]

1. present the need for labor unions in the context of a free market:

companies are able to combine and merge for greater bargaining power, and to even form de facto monopolies like Walmart.

The law should not prevent unions from doing the same.