Why Don't We Hear About Labor Issues Anymore?

Last week security guards working at Kaiser Permanente facilities in California went on strike to protest illegal anti-union activities on the part of their employer, Inter-Con Security. Instead of hiring security guards directly in California, or using a union-friendly security contractor, Kaiser contracts with Inter-Con. The strike lasted three days.

A few local TV news broadcasts covered the story, and there were a few newspaper articles announcing that there was going to be a strike. But there was almost no actual coverage of the strike except on progressive sites and labor outlets. What's up with that?

Why does the media barely cover labor issues?

Of course, when I write "the media" here I mean the newspapers, TV and radio that we usually call the "mainstream" media and lots of us call the "corporate" media. This is where most people get the news and information that forms the basis of their opinions and understanding about what is happening -- and why it is happening. And therefore for most people the information presented by this mainstream or corporate media necessarily forms the basis of their voting decisions, their opinion poll survey answers, and their overall acceptance of and consent for actions conducted in their name by government and other institutions of society.

When things are repeatedly reported in "the media" as problems, most people begin to become concerned and perceive that these "problems" need to be somehow "solved." We see cycles of this development of public concern. In recent years, for example, the media has done a great deal of reporting on the problem if children being kidnapped. And there is a great deal of concern about this among parents -- to the point that societal patterns are changing and children rarely are allowed out of the house unaccompanied. Fewer and fewer children walk to school, go to parks alone, etc.

In reality child kidnappings are extremely rare, which makes this a case study of the power of the major media to sway the behavior of the entire country. Over the years similar media-driven concerns about drugs, shark attacks and satanic cults have created waves of national hysteria.

If actual threats held sway, car accidents, guns, and other real threats would receive much, much more public attention and concern.

The other side of this ability to drive public attention is the power to hide real problems. The national debt is approaching ten trillion dollars, and interest on that debt is approaching half a trillion dollars per year, but is rarely mentioned as a concern. The military budget is greater than the military spending of all other countries in the world combined, much, much higher than when we faced down the Soviet Union, while a lot of people are making a whole lot of money from it with little public scrutiny. (This is not even counting Iraq/Afghanistan spending.) But this is never brought up.

And then there is the problem that labor unions are trying to address. This is the domination of our government by big-business interests and the accompanying concentration of wealth into the hands of a very few people at the expense of the rest of us. Workers like the Inter-Con security guards who are trying to organize to demand even minimal pay and benefits are absolutely invisible in today's mainstream/corporate media. The illegal tactics being used -- with the assistance of the Bush administration -- are not covered by today's mainstream/corporate media. But what else would you expect, as the media becomes further and further concentrated into the hands of a few very, very large corporations? Do you think for a minute that a large corporation would allow any kind of pro-labor stories to be carried on news media that it owns?

You hear that the reason for this is that "labor is declining." Well there are a lot more members of unions in this country than there are Fellows at neo-con think tanks, but you sure do hear from them a lot in the mainstream/corporate media. There are a lot more members of labor unions than there are members of the far-right Christian Coalition, but you sure hear a lot about their concerns the corporate media. And there are a lot more people who work for a living in jobs that pay too little, don't provide adequate health care or sick leave or other benefits and need to hear about the benefits of joining unions. That's for damn sure.

In fact any coverage of the plight of these security guards is necessarily pro-labor. When you hear about their living and working conditions you will understand what I mean. My next post will be about that, so stay tuned.

I encourage you to visit StandForSecurity.org.

I am proud to be helping SEIU spread the word about this strike.

Comments

[Sanity01]

HMMMM? I wonder if there was ever a time when labor issues received coverage by the MSM BECAUSE they were all union members?

[Mike169]

This is a rhetorical question I'm sure. It has been common knowledge that the only thing you'll ever see about labor in the news consistently is strikes, corruption or picket line violence.

[Gingerously]

My union had a demonstration recently, and it was covered a bit by local news, but none of the local blogs. The local blogs had hour-by-hour coverage of the recent entertainment industry strike, though.

[avraamjack]

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I am surprised you were allowed to post this story.
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Fear Mongering Gang Stalkers will be out of business if nobody is made fearful by sensational media hstories. Those are dangerous people. The portion of the police that are not corrupt never mess with these guys. The portion that are corrupt are worse than worthless.
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http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22gang+stalking%22
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[dadw5boys]

YOU CAN FILL VOLUME WITH WHAT IS NOT REPORTED!!!!!!!!

DOES NOT MEAN THERE IS NO NEWS TO REPORT ABOUT LABOR!!!!

[WorkingClass]

Just take a look around this blog Mr. Johnson. Its all about the women against the men and the blacks against the whites and what to do with those nasty working class white people. All of the above are workers. Until they are united they will continue to be exploited and oppressed.

[PatCroft]

We have become a slave state! If you owe anything to anyone you"re either indentured or a slave and you have given up any kind of leverage to a fair wage. Hence the less you own the more rights you have and less likely you will not be leveraged with someone taking it away.

Reagan not only brought down the unions but cleverly fixed it where most corporations scrubbed the pension plans and replaced it with the 401k opportunities. Yet lower wage earners rarely sign up for 401k's. The Unions are in bed with the employers so we are screwed either way.

This government under the illusion of this constitution has historically been adverse to labor. This manifests itself through our representation, through the judicial and through the executive. Hence for a long time we have been sending the wrong types to congress and electing the wrong people to the executive. And they turn around and put in place the wrong types for the judicial. This is why we end up with a federal minimum wage set to what 5.45 cents an hour. It is ludicrously funny. While the members of congress are pulling in what 150,000.00 a year with a per diem that most of us could bath in.

Somewhere there is a mystery plan.
Keep wages down.
Keep medical expense up.
Keep legal expense up.
Raise the cost of education.
Nullify the 40 hr WW.
Screw Labor.

White collar is as vulnerable as the blue collar.

[Rule Of Law]

The plan is no mystery, Pat. It's called the Crisis in Democracy and was penned for the Trilateral Commission in 1975. Google it. In this plan they lay out everything you neeed to know about how to destroy the middle class and the threat it represents to the oligarchy; dumber schools, destroy unions, lower wages, and most important given today's headlines--make it harder for working people to own a home--way too much power in home ownership. Check it our. And remember that the Rockefellers, who are behind the New World Order movement--are the founders of this group as well.

[Rule Of Law]

The international media oligarchs who control our news are anti-union, pro-class warfare and the mouth piece of the Corporate fascist who are working to destroy the middle class. We've become too wealthy, too educated, and too powerful and we threaten with our very existence their plans for the establishment of a new feudal class. You will never read about rights for the working man and the need for union protection in any of today's ruler owned mouth pieces.

[WorkingClass]

The "pink tide" that has engulfed South America will soon sweep over Mexico and then the United States. When Americans, in their distress, learn about the power of solidarity they will come together and free themselves. When the working people begin to fight back, then we will have class war and finally victory. Now we are merely oppressed.

[Rule Of Law]

Workers in the 30's were oppressed--today it's something much worse.

[Rockyman]

The MSM deserves being beaten-up over their unwillingness to mention the continued inequity in the labor/employer balance. Along with many other abuses of the airwave priveledge, we need to re-think how we can re-generate a news-media that actually informs us about issues that TRULY affect our way-of-life.

[Lefty Larueaux]

I remember when George Meany spoke, it made front page of the major newspapers with a picture to boot!! I also remember the pictures of all those fat cigar-smoking labor leaders at Bal Harbor (spelling) at their annual meeting. The rise and fall of the American Labor Movement; a great book. Has it been written yet? The American labor movement did an astonishing amount of good for all Americans economically. How did it come to this? How did they let it slip away? Even today though, they are still
one of the few fully funded, fully staffed, fully functioning liberal advocates for economic justice. I believe that Organized Labor's demise would be calamitous for democracy in America. I do hope that the next Democratic administration will give Labor an assist with new laws to help them organize more workers. I have often thought that American Labor should have its own national newspaper. After all, if the Washington TImes can publish a daily newspaper with hardly any advertising to support it, why can't organized labor"? I would expect it to be "fair and balanced", of course.

[NABNYC]

If the politicians represented the people, then we, working people, would be able to get laws passed and enforced to represent our rights. But now that all our politicians are on the take, part of an official system of bribery and corruption, they keep selling us out. So labor has been crushed.

As individuals, working people in the past 30 years have seen their vacation, sick, and holidays cut back, pensions eliminated, health and dental eliminated, and job security is gone. Most companies have a policy of firing workers before they turn 50 just because young workers are cheaper and more willing slaves. The 40-hour week is history, and most jobs now give people a b.s. title and a salary and demand a 60-hour week. So when we hear reports about what the average worker earns, remember that this is generally for more than 40-hour week.

The Democrats abandoned labor, and Republicans led a direct assault. It's interesting that one of the first groups rounded up by the Nazis and put into work camps (predecessor to the concentration camp) were trade unionists, union organizers. And Reagan, representing the beginning of the most recent right-wing assault on our government, went first after the unions, firing the air traffic people and hiring permanent replacements. The unions were targeted for destruction the same as the black panthers were: it was a federal, institutional, officially sanctioned program to eliminate workers organizations.

[dadw5boys]

DEMOCRATES DID NOT ABANDOND LABOR!!!!!!!!!

WHAT PARTY HAS BEEN IN CHARGE OF CONGRESS FOR 25 YEARS??? REPUBLICANS!!!!

REGEAN WAS A REPUBLICAN!!!!!!!!!

[Mike169]

In 1977 when Jimmy Carter was in the White House and the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress, the Democrats refused to vote for the Labor Law Reform Act which would have put teeth in the NLRA.With regard to the 25 year control of Congress, the Republicans had control of the house from about 1994 to 2006 and the Senate from 2002 to 2006.I think that's right. Part of the Clintons' agenda has been to snatch up business support that was running away from the Republicans due to their insanity on the extreme right. While it was a good tactic for the Democratic Party so they could get back in power, it screwed the labor unions.

[geobushono]

While I agree with the general tenor of your post, let's not forget that many of the higher wage (building trades) unions were solidly behind reagan......as we're the teamsters.
Don't get me wrong, I want Amy Goodman to be the head of the FCC, but the Unions just like everything else has good and better.

[RealistDem]

I was thinking the same thing. Im mid 40s but I remember as a kid you would regularly seen the head of the AFLCIO, the coal miners on the national news. Now their rarely even invited on the pundit shows, maybe like 2 a year, and thats only to talk about endorsements. They never talk about labor issues.

[Jules1]

http://www.stopbigmedia.com/ Check it out, YES!!!
'They are on their way down!

[Bluedog12]

One issue not mentioned within your piece is the organizing philosophy some labor unions espouse. One in particular envisions a single "local" union representing low wage workers nationally. Strangely these workers are not enjoying improved wages and benefits. Why not? This one particular union is attempting to solve the lack of benefits issue with state assistance. They want to organize employees and have the taxpayers pick up their benefits. If this sounds odd it should? Especially for a worker.

[Cathexis]

Mr Johnson raises an important point: With the myriad exploitations imposed on labor, these days, why isn't it publicized? I have two theories:

1. "Labor" has been successfully demonized by the Right, over the past few decades. They have instilled an image of corrupt bosses and "groups of workers all getting paid to stand around, due to some bureaucratic technicality of their contract." They have won the Propaganda War, so far.

2. The Media, itself, has come more and more under Corporate control. Thus, there is purposeful intent not to publicize things that could prove troublesome to the home office's Corporate Control.

[Rockyman]

You are right on the money. The employee is in weak position with employers and weakening. They can send jobs overseas or find a replacement who is really "hungry". The employee has lost leverage and I can't see it being regained any time soon. The middle-class.....soon to move down another "notch"!

[Moose49]

"Why Don't We Hear About Labor Issues Anymore?"

1) Corporate domination of the mainstream news media.

2) Virtual elimination of the labor beat and exile of the minimal labor coverage that remains to the business pages.

3) The elitism of upper-middle-class news decision-makers and their patronizing, condescending attitude toward rank-and-file union members (ironically, even though many of them are members of The Newspaper Guild-CWA).

4) Right-wing domination of the media agenda, as Arianna Huffington has documented.

5) No op-ed columnists who give a shit about unions, except for Harold Meyerson of The Washington Post and, perhaps a couple of others, though I'd be hard-pressed to name them. And certainly no editorial boards.

[WorkingClass]

6) No support from the Democratic party.

[dadw5boys]

25 YEARS OF A REPUBLICAN CONGRESS WHAT DO YOU EXPECT?

[BigBen]

It takes two to talk. Imagine Obama talking about poor white working class people?

[3fingerbrown]

There's a total big-media blackout on labor stories and discussion. It's been in effect since Reagan. When's the last time the so-called History Channel presented the history of the American labor movement? Imagine, a story with every dramatic element one could wish for: violence, intrigue, good guys, bad guys, and featuring a cast that includes John L. Lewis, Jimmy Hoffa, Gene Debs, Clarence Darrow, Lucky Luciano, and dozens of other amazing, colorful characters. And yet, somehow the HC has missed the dramatic possibilities. PBS is no better. Where's the Ken Burns labor series? Where's the American Experience film? Where's the cable outlet anywhere devoting even a half hour a week to serious discussion of labor? Corporate media have colluded to erase organized labor from the American memory bank. How else do we explain so many otherwise bright media people ignoring this endlessly compelling story?