As Abraham Lincoln famously said, "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time." When you put enough dots in front of people sooner or later they will connect the dots. And Americans are connecting the dots.
Dots: Trade deals close factories, outsource jobs and pit workers against each other, then wages decline and unemployment is really high, while all the money goes to a few at the top. Then calls to cut the wages and benefits of the rest.
Dots: Unions squashed, then pensions disappear, then calls to get rid of public-employee unions because they have pensions.
Dots: Tax cuts for the rich, then panic over resulting deficits, then calls for cuts in the things government does for We, the People.
People are connecting the dots: Unions mean better wages, benefits and working conditions.
There is a joke circulating that goes like this:
A unionized public employee, a member of the Tea Party and a Big Corp CEO are sitting at a table. In the middle of the table there is a plate with a dozen cookies on it. The CEO reaches across and takes 11 cookies, looks at the tea partier and says, "Look out for that union guy, he wants a piece of your cookie."
Americans are waking up to the value of unions and government of, by and for We, the People.
The situation in Wisconsin is waking America up to the value of unions. At a time when so many of us are hurting, seeing this naked attempt to strip from Wisconsin's public employees the ability to bargain for a better life is resonating. A CBS/NY Times poll finds that "a majority of Americans say they oppose efforts to weaken the collective bargaining rights of public employee unions and are also against cutting the pay or benefits of public workers to reduce state budget deficits."
Further down in the story, "Americans oppose weakening the bargaining rights of public employee unions by a margin of nearly two to one: 60 percent to 33 percent."
On how to fix budget deficits, "those polled preferred tax increases over benefit cuts for state workers by nearly two to one."
Union Information Blackout In Corporate Media
Interestingly, though, from the polling story, "Labor unions are not exactly popular, though: A third of those surveyed viewed them favorably, a quarter viewed them unfavorably, and the rest said they were either undecided or had not heard enough about them."
Wow! More than 1/3 of the public hasn't heard enough about unions to know if they like them or not! This is not surprising: When was the last time you read, saw or heard from a union in the major media, explaining the benefits of joining a union? There has been a virtual blackout of information about unions in the corporate media.
So this Wisconsin story is bringing home to people that there is this thing called "collective bargaining" that can help them in their own jobs!
Strategy fail
The plan was to spend a year claiming that public employees and their pensions were responsible for state budget deficits, then go after the unions. The strategy also threw in a dose of resentment: People were reminded that their pensions were stolen in the 80's, but these uppity gubment workers still had pensions, so their pensions should be stolen too! But people are smarter then the plutocrats think, and they connected some more dots:
Dot: People in unions have good wages and benefits including pensions.
Well, that's only one dot, but it doesn't take a lot of neuron connections to realize this means that you should join a union, not be against unions! The resentment argument backfired, and people are waking up to the value of unions.
Unions Vital to Economy
Since the Reagan Revolution crushed unions wages for everyone except a few at the top have been flat. In the 'W' Bush decade even before the financial crash wages were declining and job growth was anemic. And wages have been stagnant since this "recovery" began. This wage stagnation is the result of of the loss of the bargaining power of working people.
Working people's share of the benefits from increased productivity took a sudden turn down when the Reagan Revolution crushed unions:
Wage stagnation resulted: (note boost in Clinton years, undoing some of the Reagan damage.)
Unions are vital to a middle class society. Corporations and the wealthy behind the corporate mask have so much power. The only forces that can counter that power and fight for the rest of us are the unions and democratic government. The Reagan Revolution began the elimination of both, bringing instead plutocracy -- government of, by and for the wealthy. The resulting weakness in the power of working people to bargain for a fair share has left us with an economy that didn't work when it was "recovering" under Bush, and now can't get out of the recession. To lift the economy we have to lift wages.
Families are not sharing in the rewards, but they are waking up and connecting the dots. America is waking up to the value of unions.
This post originally appeared at Campaign for America's Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture. I am a Fellow with CAF.
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The rampant, out of control politicization of the civil service through their public employee unions and their massive largesses to the campaigns of 'public union friendly' politicians in return for mathematically impossible benefits and promises was destined to FAIL.
Indeed, you can't fool all the people all the time. With an estimated $3 trillion in unfunded public pension liabilities nationwide, the general public has finally said ENOUGH.
There will be THREE main issues in the 2012 campaign: the economy, healthcare reform --- and public unions.
Obama is smart enough to know to make the right noises, but basically sit on the fence as far as public unions are concerned. He knows that going all out for public unions will cost him 2012 for it that would make him lose the independents. So he's going to play them, and throw them under the bus while at the same time taking their public union money for his 2012 campaign.
It this is true--and it's not, despite the right's concerted union destroying efforts--then the Democrats will do quite well in the upper midwest. What's morally "impossible", is allowing crooked bankers and politicians to lead these workers into investing their pensions into a mortgage backed securities ponzi scheme, making those workers and other tax payers bail out the banks when the whole thing crashed, then saying it's the workers' fault when the pensions lose money because of the scheme that they led them into. It's the same reason state budgets are in the shape that they're in. It's isn't because of workers, yet, Republicans viciously opposed any efforts to hold the real crooks responsible. Now, they're going after teachers, and rejecting basically all investments in our future, to make sure that millionaires and billionaires don't have to pay any more in taxes (while proposing actually raising taxes on the poor and the middle class, per Rep. Ryan's "budget plan").
The general public doesn't like the banksters and Wall St. crooks. But it doesn't see that issue as being related to public unions, except insofar as also disliking them as well.
Public unions are simply wrong, and have made too many abuses. Time to bury them once and for all. And then move on the banksters and Wall St. crooks.
It really amazes me how even the middle class have been duped by some of these new representitives. Didnt you listen closely...or did they just spring these new deals on us??? Well we can fix that...Recall them.......maybe we can do just that
Unsustainable. Unfortunately, someone has to pay for those "higher", much higher wages and pensions and in most cases that's the public. How long can any company survive when it pays its workers to not work? Huge unsustainable pensions and benefits when they do not produce a thing? Absolutely insane.
Not about changing minds... rather help with an economic awareness. The reason the cost of goods and services are more expensive is based on our decision to remove backing from our currency, called fiat based. The decade has shown a remarkable 38% decline in the dollar. This debasement in our currency is from printing to many dollars, however it levitates our markets...especially since most commodities are traded in dollars (think quantitative easing and ZIRP zero-interest-rate-policy). When those dollars move around the economy quickly (velocity) it is inflationary (good for markets and wealth). This is why consumption, at any cost has ruled our society (and promted to all). Coupled with the above facts has been a unique time, whereby many decisions to legislate on behalf of corporate interests have resulted in many dire consequences for "the people": outsource jobs, less benefits, cheap credit schemes (non-productive financial innovation), corporate and wealthy tax havens, massive debt are just a few (i would like to think the consequences were unintended but watching through a very engaged global lens, me thinks not). Also during the last, let's say 10 yrs the amount of corporate corruption, greed, compensation, fraud, inefficiency, deceit and waste, has been historic and left mostly unchecked in the name of "business friendly". All this has left the very wealthy doing just fine, thank you (globally).
There, fixed that sentence for you, Dave. Now you can see why public sector unions deserve our unfavorable sentiment ... can you see the lunacy in the above? You'll get little argument from me about private-sector unions, though.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/11/24-2
Firms See Long-Sought Goal in Sight: Major Pay Cuts | CommonDreams.org
"...These firms are systematically implementing a major strategy to permanently drive down wages far below anything considered "middle class." The key tool for corporations: forcing acceptance of permanent two-tier wage structures and the insertion of nonunion casual workers into union plants to drive down union pay to levels unimaginable a couple years back. Big business is essentially trying to take back the hard-won gains of working people won over generations.
[snip]
Expect the downward wage spiral to continue under relentless pressure from corporations who see an endless surplus army of labor with 9.6% unemployment and benefits running out for two million in December.
For example, "Toyota 's goal has become $12.64 an hour, the median wage for comparable manufacturing in Kentucky, where it has its largest plant, or $10.79 in Alabama, where it is building a new plant," reports UC-Berkeley Prof. Harley Shaiken, a long-time scholar on labor issues and the auto industry..."
Government workers work for the democratic government not the corporate monster. Why do they need a union to protect them from one of the only two forces that can counter corporate power?
SCOTUS decision on Citizens United has rendered your suggestion to be one that is no longer based in reality. Sadly.
Places like Germany, with their BMW's that the right love to drive, have far more unions, far lengthier paid vacations, good pay, medical benefits than American companies yet they make money. So why can't American companies? They can, but they're greedy. Until American workers are paid a liveable wage, like they were in the 50's to 80's, when the unions were strong and many, the workers will be cheated like all the workers in third world countries, where unions are forbidden.