While the massive protests in state capitals last week are a great start, Americans still have a long way to go to achieve an Egyptian-style revolution that will restore working democracy in the US. To begin with, American workers need to be better organized. There’s no question that Mubarak’s departure was hastened by the threat of a general strike by Egypt’s independent trade union association. The US media neglected to mention the general strike, as well as the years of sustained organizing by Egyptian workers that made the mass mobilization in Cairo and other cities possible.  While the contagious effect of mass movements overseas will greatly speed up the process, real change in the US will require major commitment to organizing and movement building.

Personally, I don’t believe it makes a bit of difference which organization people join. Millions of Americans are already active in a broad range of antiwar, social justice and environmental groups fighting battles that are just as critical as the issue of jobs and union rights. However I also think that it makes sense for low income and unemployed Americans to either join a union or the Union of the Unemployed, as jobs, decent wages, and looking after their families is obviously their highest priority.

The Unemployed Union

Ucubed: the Unemployed Union

Ur Union of the Unemployed, nicknamed UCubed, is a community service project started last January by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace workers. Its goal is to unite the unemployed and underemployed with union workers, building a coalition similar to the one the pressured Roosevelt to enact far-reaching New Deal legislation in the 1930s.

Membership is free, with UCube organizing members by zip codes. The idea is for each new member form a “cube” in their local area, thus multiplying their political and economic power by 6, by 36 and eventually by 29 million. Members receive action alerts on federal and state legislation affecting workers, as well as general tips on surviving as an unemployed person. UCubed members also receive generous discounts at the Machinists Mall, a kind of on-line shopping center:  http://shop.machinists.mallnetworks.com/

Who Can Join Ucubed?

The website mentions no restrictions whatsoever on membership. It specifically mentions “underemployed” workers, which seems to cover a lot of territory. In addition people working 1-3 part time jobs because they can’t find full time employment, this would also cover struggling students, people forced into early retirement or unable to get off welfare or disability because no one will hire them, as well as self-employed contractors and business people whose earnings are inadequate to provide for their basic needs. I would also encourage working people unable to form a union in their work place (either for logistical reasons or because it’s forbidden under the Taft Hartley Act) to join.

Obviously for people in full time jobs, joining and becoming active in your own local union will be much more helpful in addressing problems in your own workplace. The National Labor Relations Act guarantees every American worker the legal right to form a union, even domestics, office cleaners and temporary clerical workers who work in separate homes and offices. The AFL-CIO operates a web page http://www.aflcio.org/joinaunion/how/howto.cfm with instructions how to go about forming a union.

As you well see from the AFL-CIO website, creating new unions has become extremely complicated and cumbersome owing to Taft Hartley restrictions forbid supervisors and independent contractors from joining unions and allow employers the right to intimidate and harass employees who are trying to unionize. Thus I would recommend that full timers also join UCubed until they have their own union to represent them.