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miter's avatar

Great insights into current union trends, I had no idea. Also- great playlist!

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Shaggy Snodgrass's avatar

Interesting question. Though "resurgence" (long overdue) is in the air, there remains a deep and yawning disconnect within the union movement between the professionalized, politically "wired-in" administrations of many unions and their shop-floor leadership and rank & file. It often seems as though those administrations are put and kept in place to control the movement, rather than grow it. My union has managed to carefully seal its leadership off from any bottom-up internal dissent whatsoever; while its top officials routinely hobnob with members of Congress and patrons of super-PACs. The problem is not merely that I cannot complain to them; but that I cannot talk to them at all.

Many people who work union in the US experience this, and think about it as they see these pushes in new economic sectors for union representation; and wonder if those folks are also trading one set of remote, unreachable "leaders" for another. The impetus to reform unions from within is rarely more than sporadic, as it means taking on two system fights instead of one. Most modern workers just don't have that time and energy, and the defenders of the systems know it.

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