Militant History

The wages and benefits of union workers in the U.S. are on average 30% higher than non-union wages and benefits. Safety at work and job security is also better for unionized workers.

These are the reasons big business and its press try to turn workers and youth away from unions. They continually portray union leaders as dictators and the unions themselves as centers of Mafia activity.

Smears

Despite these smears, support for labor unions far outweighs the number of workers organized in unions. In a July 1985 poll in Business Week magazine it was shown that 73% of Americans agreed that unions improve wages and conditions. Even in the South, 68% agreed wth this. This shows a huge level of support for labor and an understanding of the key role unions have played in raising living standards for workers.

In 1985, however, only 18% of the workforce is organized in unions. Big business and its press have been attempting to prove that unions are a thing of the past and no longer relevant. To prove this they point to a fall in the percentage of workers organized from 35% in the 1940s to 18% in 1985.

But these figures hide the most important process in the last 40 years. The workforce has increased from 64 million in 1946 to 110 million in 1985. Most of these jobs appeared in new industries, especially the service industries, which were not unionized. Thus the growth in the size of the working class must be taken into account when considering the reduction in the percentage of workers organized.

19 million

There are 19 million workers organized in unions today. This is 4 million more than were organized in 1955 at the time of the merger of the AFL and CIO. This makes the labor movement potentially the most powerful force in American society today and the largest organized trade union movement in the world.

The responsibility for the low level of organization lies not with an anti-union workforce but with the policies of the trade union leaders. The labor leaders failed to mount a campaign to organize this new growing workforce. During the post-war period the AFL–CIO spent only 3% of its budget on organizing while they spent 25% on “international affairs.”

Post-war boom

During the last 40 years the policies of the labor leaders have been based on “labor–management co-operation.” This policy had a certain base due to the post-war boom. The boom allowed the corporations to make huge profits, enabling labor to win increased wages for workers. With a powerful working class on one side, and super profits on the other side, union leaders won improved contracts and increased prestige. A vast section of the working class reached living standards never before dreamed of while the living standards of the union leaders rose above those they represented.

Organize

The present crisis and the attacks on labor have caught the labor leaders unprepared. But pressure is growing on them to organize the millions of workers outside organized labor. SEIU spent 30% of its budget on organizing in 1985. At the 1985 AFL–CIO convention Lane Kirkland, president of the AFL–CIO, said, “A new labor force has grown up around us and the trade union share of it has dropped. But the good news is that we have a hell of a lot more people to organize, and we mean to organize them.”

Labor must mobilize its huge resources to reach the ear of millions of workers and especially the young workers facing poverty wages, poor conditions and job insecurity in fast-food restaurants, the service industry, small shops, sweat shops, and other non-union workplaces across the country. The main message of this campaign should be: “Wages and benefits of union members are 30% higher than non-union.”