Tuesday, December 13, 2016
The Union leadership and the The Team Concept. A disaster for workers
The Team Concept
The Team Concept is the worldview held by the strategists of organized labor. It argues that the bosses, or the capitalist class, and the working class have the same economic interests. This worldview is the root cause of the failure of the trade union hierarchy to organize a fight back and their outright collaboration with the bosses to the detriment of their own members' interests and the interests of the working class as a whole.
They believe there is no alternative to capitalism, that the working class cannot govern society, so mobilizing the power of their members, using our ability to shut down economic activity, is pointless. For them, it can only lead to chaos. So they offer concession after concession in order to make us more competitive and keep the profits rolling in. This takes us in one direction only and that's backwards.
Correction: I say in this video that the head of the Labor Council in Alameda County is on the state Democratic Committee but I meant the head of the San Francisco Labor Council. I also mistakenly referred to Jeff Goldstein as Jeff Nussbaum at one point.
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3 comments:
An excellent commentary that will unfortunately be completely lost on liberals who fail to understand the meaning of the rise of Trump. I would add that in my own union the so-called "leadership" has colluded with management to not prioritize equity, and instead shoot for raises for the top wage earners. This gets the union more $$$ , keeps the union bosses and management both nice and fat. This is why I voted for Trump, even though I'm a registered Green. Not because I care for Trump, but when I see working slogs like myself keep getting ripped off by unions, by top wage earners (over a $100 K ) who get preferential treatment by the union, at the cost of everyone else. When I see that - well I do hope that someone will come along and at the very least dismantle the unions. It may not benefit me in the short run, but at the very least I won't have to pay union dues - that they forcibly take from me without giving any real representation. As Michael Moore said it is a FU - because that is all that people like me can do - everything else has been taken away.
The fact that the DNC fought having a $15.00 minimum wage and universal health care in their platform proves your point. It is also why Trump was elected. I watched as did many people the debates on what should be included in the DNC platform, I watched Labor fold to the establishment and then come to the workers and tell us that we had to vote for a party that wouldn't even include health care for all or a living wage in their platform. Why would I vote for a party or candidate that demanded concessions before they were even elected to office. If you can't commit to improving working people lives before being elected, how committed are you going to be after you are elected. Unfortunately many workers voted for Trump because they believed the lies and still the DNC won't admit to their complete failure in this election and neither do the unions. Pelosi stated that there is no need for a new direction. Time for a workers party.
Tom, where are you located? The only Tom Voneitzen I can find is a real estate guy in Brisbane Australia. I'd like to send you another piece. The e mail for the blog is:
we_know_whats_up@yahoo.com
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