UNIONS TO THE RESCUE
 by Jay R. Mandle A proposal to weaken the federal government, enabling Trumpists to rule as they please in states where they dominate politically, has been suggested as a solution to Trumpism’s continuing threat to democratic norms. Writing in the New York Review of Books, Steven Simon and Jonathan Stevenson advocate a version of states’ rights they call “purposeful defederalization.” With it, they believe, Trump acolytes would focus on governing red states, leaving the rest of us alone. There is a lot wrong with this idea. First of all, there is no reason to believe that empowering Trumpism in this way would satisfy the ambitions of the former president. His authoritarianism and advocacy of violence would not long remain confined to states where Trumpism would be powerful. But more importantly, the authors are unconvincing that without “defederalization,” the United States is ungovernable. There is reason to doubt their argument that the country is “already virtually a binational state with two sharply opposed national communities comparable in size and political strength that effectively operate as confederations under a single federal government.” Their pessimism about the country ignores a new potential source of strength in the fight against Trumpism. In the future it is likely that that struggle will be joined by a rejuvenated labor movement. Its growth will enhance the capacity to convince union members that Trump is a fraudster who has falsely promised to defend their interests. The fact is that Trump’s hostility to workers is clear. His presidential appointees to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) were consistently anti-union. According to the Economic Policy Institute, during Trump’s presidency the NLRB “systematically rolled back workers’ rights to form unions and engage in collective bargaining with their employers….” As a result, the percentage of private sector employees belonging to unions fell to 6.1 percent, the lowest since before the 1930s Depression. That decline has been politically damaging to progressive politics. As Sean McElwee writes, “unions not only give their members a voice at work but also can have much broader political effects. By mobilizing voters and contributing to campaigns, organized labor is in effect the only lobbying group operating in the interest of ordinary Americans.” Optimism concerning the future of the union movement, and with it an increased opposition to Trumpism, comes in three forms: polling data; actions at the work place; and support from the Biden Administration. With regard to the first, Gallop reports that the national support for unions has steadily increased. Today it stands at 72 percent, while in 2014 it was 53 percent. And a recent CNBC survey indicates that even among Republican workers, 46 percent are in favor of “increased unionization at their workplace.” Second, workers are taking action. Union organizing victories at firms such as Amazon, Starbucks and Chipotle are well known. But according to Cornell University’s Labor Action Tracker, these are not isolated events. The number of “labor collective actions” in the first nine months of 2022 exceeded those in all of 2021. In addition, there has been a comparable increase in the number of union representation petitions received by the NLRB. Submitting these petitions is the first step before a union representation election can be held, and thus they are a reliable indicator of ongoing organizing efforts. A third source of optimism concerning organizing is less certain. On the campaign trail, candidate Biden declared that he would be “the most pro-union president you’ve ever seen.” And once in office, Biden did move to fulfill that pledge by appointing a task force to “identify executive branch policies, practices and programs that would support worker power, worker organizing and collective bargaining.” But the final task force recommendations fell far short of that goal. As the report itself indicates, “our work serves as a reminder that existing law is heavily tilted against the rights and needs of working people.“ All of this suggests that there is a basis for cautious optimism on the union front. The public is supportive, organizing efforts are increasingly underway, and even if the government provides only limited assistance, it will not act to oppose worker empowerment as so often has occurred in the past. With the union movement’s growth, the fight to end Trump’s corrosive influence on American politics may become more powerful than ever. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jay Mandle is the W. Bradford Wiley Professor of Economics, Emeritus,at Colgate University. His many books include Change Elections to Change America: Democracy Matters Students In Action, and Creating Political Equality: Elections As a Public Good,. Mandle’s regular monthly editorials, Money On My Mind, appear on the Democracy Matters website, and explore the role of private money in politics and other critical social issues. The views expressed in Money On My Mind are those of the author, (not necessarily those of Democracy Matters, and are meant to stimulate discussion. |