"George Cleveland" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 11 May 2005 08:17:37 -0500, "Wolfgang"
wrote:


"George Cleveland" wrote in message
. ..
...I just got back from a
AFL-CIO training seminar. While they still suggest that a person "Buy
American" they feel that it is more realistic to put increased
emphasis on expanding union activities in developing nations. If the
corporations have to meet minimum decent standards for the workers and
the environment (which will of course increase their costs) they may
have fewer incentives to move overseas.


It's tough to decide whether that's a pitifully lame strategy or a
pathetically transparent admission of impotence. Either way, Hoffa must
be
spinning in his foundation.

Wolfgang
who remembers a time when a union could be something other than just
another
"not for profit" corporation.



While I'm sure its not seen by them as a "pathetically transparent
admission of impotence" it does mean that they have come to the
conclusion that globalization is not going to be stopped by Buy
American ad campaigns. One of the examples they used was of the "Look
for the Union Label" campaign of the ladies garment workers from a
couple of decades ago. It turned out, as should be no surprise, that
most people looked for the price label instead. It might be nice if
Buy American campaigns worked but the objective reality is that they
don't. So what does Labor (capital L) do? The stratedgy of reaching
out to other Labor organizations in other countries seems to be a
reasonable effort. After all, after China, the U.S. is probably the
least Labor (there's that capital L again) friendly country in the
industrialized world. If you buy a KPOS fly reel it most probably was
made in a Unionized shop and the Unions in Korea have real respect and
power (they were deeply involved in overthrowing the late
dictatorship). I think it is a hopeful trend, this recognition that
workers of all countries have much in common. During one of the breaks
I asked (with a smile on my face) whether this means that I should
renew my IWW (Industrial Workers of the World, ie. Wobblies)
membership. The speaker thought I was joking. I wasn't.

Labor's notion that unionization in the rest of the world, with it's
concomittent increase in the cost of goods, might prove a boon to the
American work force isn't necessarily a bad idea. However, the AFL-CIO is a
rapidly diminshing force even in American politics; the only thing that
saves their implicit suggestion that they are serving their membership by
promulgating this idea from being sheer hubris is that it helps to maintain
the illusion that their primary interests are the same as those of their
constituents. Moreover, unionization (wherever and whenever it has
occurred....even as far back as medieval trade guilds) has typically
accomplished as much for the employers who tried to stamp it out (stopping
at nothing, including mass murder.....and often with cheerful assistance of
local and state law enforcement....not to mention the United States Army) as
it has for workers, by being a positive force in the development of
increased efficiency and quality through various means. Unionize China and
it becomes an even more threatening competitor in the long run. On the
other hand, if Chinese labor doesn't become organized China becomes a more
threatening economic competitor in the long run anyway.

Wolfgang
the 20th was "The American Century".....this one most certainly won't be.