Refreshingly, he also provides critical assessments normally avoided by labor analysts of a whole series of union tactics that have grown enormously popular over the last several decades. For example, he examines and reviews the mixed results of boycotts, temporary strikes of very short duration and corporate campaigns. Even organizing the unorganized membership drives come under his scrutiny for a bit of criticism, especially when they are mistakenly cast as the main formula for reversing labor’s rapid descent. Membership will only increase, Burns believes, once labor adopts a more militant strategy, outlined in the book, which successfully leads to substantial economic gains for workers. Here, the author refers to the experience of the 1930s when millions flocked to fledgling unions only because they were seen as immediately capable of improving the everyday lives of working people.
It will be similar victories, Burns strongly emphasizes, and not any secret-weapon ingenious organizing techniques that will boost union membership. But Burns reserves most of the blame for labor’s alarming decline on the last several generations of union leaders who have largely abandoned labor’s most powerful weapons of striking, of establishing national industry contract standards and of standing for solidarity with others under attack from capital. And, of course, the author particularly deplores the virtual disappearance from today’s labor scene of classical strikes that totally shut down production.
Anjeunna nyebatkeun statistik yén "taun 1952, aya 470 mogok utama (anu leuwih ti 1000 pagawé) ngalibetkeun 2,746,000 pagawé. Sabalikna, ayeuna, taun 2008, ngan aya 15 lirén pagawéan utama, ngalibetkeun 72,000 pagawé.
Reclaiming Sajarah urang
Of course, workers engage in strikes only as a last resort, when all other forms of negotiations have broken down, because it is well understood the conflicts involve such big personal commitments. Harry Bridges, International Longshore & Warehouse union (ILWU) founder and leader of the 1934 San Francisco General Strike, compared a strike to a small revolution in his oral history, “Centennial Retrospective.”: “You see, in a small way, temporarily, a strike is a small revolution. It simply means a form of revolution because you take over an industry or a plant owned by the capitalists and temporarily you seize it. Temporarily you take it away.”
The Flint, Michigan auto sit-in strike and numerous other factory occupations spreading throughout America in this same period, underscored Bridges’s warning of the powerful challenge posed to capital. Burns fully describes the strategy and tactics of this militant depression-era and does a good job explaining how terrified corporate magnates and compliant government officials hurriedly pushed through a series of laws primarily designed to smother the fiery social rebellion. As a result, even before the mass upsurge reached its zenith, labor was confronted with a maze of legal restrictions and penalties begun with the 1935 Wagner Act that substituted sluggish mediation for impassioned class struggle.
Watesan dina mobilizing kakuatan kaanggotaan salaku arbiter final dina sengketa kuli inténsif jeung 1947 beurat 1959 "Buruh-Buruh" Act Taft-Hartley jeung XNUMX panerapan Landrum-Griffin. Pamiarsa kedah mendakan éta rada pikaresepeun pikeun diajar detil kumaha militansi tenaga kerja sareng kamampuan pikeun ngerjakeun kaanggotaan éta beuki dibatesan ku peraturan pamaréntahan ieu.
Stratégi Anyar Ganti neunggeul
“To traditional trade unionists, the point of a strike was to ….stop production or otherwise inflict sufficient economic harm to force an employer to agree to union demands. That simple, commonsense notion formed the basis of labor economics for the first one hundred fifty odd years of American trade unionism. “By the 1980s, however, conventional wisdom had reversed, and stopping production had become a fringe idea. That, more than anything else,’” the author concludes, “explains the weakness of the modern union movement.”
Hasilna, Burns ngabantah, kalolobaan serikat pekerja parantos ngantunkeun lengkep mareuman majikan salaku bagian tina strategina. Salaku disebutkeun tadi, sababaraha ngadopsi jangka pondok hiji-, dua-, atawa tilu poé panarajangan salaku alternatif; batur ngadopsi kampanye perusahaan nu shifts fokus malah leuwih jauh ti picketing massal di situs gawé.
Sanaos sababaraha kameunangan parsial parantos dimeunangkeun ku taktik ieu, khususna kampanye perusahaan JP Stevens dina ahir taun 1970-an, sareng kameunangan serikat hotél anyar anu ngagunakeun boikot sareng mogok jangka pondok, teu aya pendekatan ieu, panulis negeskeun, tiasa ngabalikeun tenaga kerja. terjun ka poho. Burns henteu langkung seueur diskon pendekatan ieu salaku bagian tina program umum, anjeunna ngan ukur nampik aranjeunna salaku gaganti strategi anu langkung militan anu dimimitian ku mareuman produksi. Anjeunna nyerat, contona, "bari kampanye perusahaan tiasa, dina kasempetan, damel babarengan sareng strategi mogok, éta moal pernah ngagentos mogok anu ngeureunkeun produksi."
Anjeunna boga titik.
Recent public employee battles in Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, and California are inspiring and unprecedented in so many ways but they also beg the question of why the fights bogged down. Why was the tremendous energy and popularity of mass protests not converted into strikes where labor’s power could have been most powerfully exerted, something not even seriously considered by national union leaders? The answers are, of course, very complicated but Burns provides a lot of insight by explaining both the onerous legal penalties and complex political obstacles discouraging labor from utilizing strikes as our most basic and powerful weapon of self defense.
The dilemma of our times is that unions react defensively rather than offensively to the numerous and myriad undemocratic restrictions on our freedom of mass assembly, of free speech and of our rights to express solidarity through secondary boycotts and sympathy strikes. Unjust laws must be aggressively challenged that prevent people from organizing massive picket lines capable of shutting down production and stopping scabs from taking their jobs. This is the history of labor and it is well documented by Burns. In fact, it is the history of America in general where progress has only resulted from violating unconstitutional and undemocratic laws enacted by the business class; legislation that has nothing to do with justice and everything to do with keeping the rich in power. All is explained by Burns. He has written a primer for every trade unionist tired of being the victim.
Z
Carl Finamore nyaéta Machinist Lokal 1781 utusan ka Déwan Buruh San Fransisco, AFL-CIO.