Will American Unions forge new unity with progressive community groups? Will it welcome community groups into the AFL-CIO as members?
Listen to Jack Rasmus’s September 18 radio show, Alternative Visions, for a discussion with AFL-CIO convention attendees, long-time union officers, Steve Early and Carl Finamore, on this topic.
Dr. Jack Rasmus welcomes Steve Early of the CWA and Carl Finamore of the Machinists, who attended the recent AFLCIO convention where delegates recently discussed and voted on whether to bring community groups (NAACP, La Raza, Sierra Club, etc.) into the union federation as a new kind of membership.
Both Steve and Carl have more than 30 years each of experience in the US labor movement, which they bring to the discussion.
Jack introduces the show and discussion with an explanation of the dimensions of the deep decline in union labor in the USA, its failing organizing and bargaining strategies at the company level and the political level with its alliance with the Democratic Party, as well as the consequences of both. Steve and Carl discuss the resolution and scope of the decision at the AFLCIO convention to forge a deeper partnership with community organizations. How can union labor stop and reverse its slide? Jack and guests debate whether some kind of new grass roots organizational structure uniting labor and community organizations must occur if union labor in the US is to survive and grow.
Url for the radio show is: http://prn.fm/2013/09/alternative-visions-091813/
Dr. Jack Rasmus @drjackrasmus
Jack Rasmus 
TRADE AND SERVICE UNIONS
DEFINITION: A number of persons joining together for some common purpose.
TYPES OF UNIONS: Private and public
FACTS: Private and public unions negotiate with employers to obtain specific goals for those persons being represented.
Subjects for negotiations include wages, benefits, and working conditions.
If negotiations result in additional costs to an employer:
a. A private employer will absorbed those costs or will pass some or all to the customers.
b. A public employer will have its “rainy-day” funds reduced or will raise additional revenue from its taxpayers.
ANALYSIS:
a. If a private employer absorbs additional negotiated costs, margins will be affected, which will reduce taxable income, which will cause a reduction in the value of the employer’s business. If the employer passes on the additional costs to its customers, it would be inflationary and the customers would have less spendable funds for other expenditures, which may adversely affect the economics. In most instances of higher costs, those costs will be passed on to the customers.
b. If a public employer raises additional revenue from its taxpayers, the taxpayers will have less spendable funds and that may adversely affect the economics.
c. When a politician, economist, or anyone else calls for high-paying union jobs, they are implying that there be a shift of wealth from customers to the high-paying union jobs.
mz
mikiesmoky@aol.com
February 26, 2011