to form a more perfect Union, the Bushministration encourages illegal union-busting

from The New Republic Online:

Union membership has plummeted from 23 percent in 1979 to 12.5 percent today. Some of that drop is due to a shift from unionized manufacturing industries to nonunionized whitecollar services, but most of the decline stems from the NLRB's acquiescence to aggressive--and often illegal--employer tactics. American workers are, of course, the principal victims of labor's decline. (Union workers enjoy a 15.5 percent advantage in wages over nonunion workers with comparable skills and are 18.3 percent more likely to have health insurance.) But our democratic system as a whole is also a victim. Unions are an interest group, but one whose scope and concern allows it to speak for the public interest. And, because of its numbers and electoral influence, labor has been able to check the often narrow interests of Washington's powerful business lobbies. Without labor's clout, it's unlikely that Medicare would have been enacted in 1965 or that the minimum wage would have been raised repeatedly over the last 50 years.

With labor's power ebbing, business has increasingly been able to dominate public policy issues, from taxes to environmental protection to Social Security. That might not bother Bush, Tom DeLay, and Karl Rove. But it's not a good thing for the rest of us.

Where would workers in this country be without labor unions? There has been some major revisionism and mendacious "debate framing" on the issue of unions. America, you need to do your homework on this issue (see previous post re: "economic interests"). Don't be fooled by those who claim that unions are anti-business. Ridiculous. Without business, there would be no work. Duh. The right to organize in this country has been so eroded that there needs to be a serious effort undertaken to educate workers again and counteract the effects of decades of well-organized right-wing propaganda.

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