Are Labor Unions Ready for Prime Time?
According to CounterPunch.org:
Despite the AFL-CIO's prodigious efforts to attract new members-not to mention the existence of 35-40 million "working poor," desperately in need of livable wages, pensions and medical coverage-union membership continues to slip. What was once a robust 35 percent (during the 1950s) is now hovering at a precarious 12 percent.
It's been reported that the AFL-CIO has spent, literally, hundreds of millions of dollars on its organizing efforts. That's a lot of money, with precious little to show for it. The recent Wal-Mart organizing drive stands as a perfect example of labor's grim struggle to increase its membership.
With more than 3,600 Wal-Mart stores in the U.S. to choose from, and despite bringing to bear all the financial and strategic resources at its disposal, the mighty House of Labor couldn't persuade a single one of the giant retailer's stores to join the union. Not one store. That's not just disappointing, that's scary.
While the AFL-CIO has to assume responsibility for the Wal-Mart debacle, nobody is really "blaming" them. Ask anyone who's ever done it, and they'll tell you that recruiting new members is the toughest, bleakest, most thankless union job there is. But labor's woeful track record may be evidence that a new approach is needed, something to reinvigorate the organizing effort...click to continue.
