Someone to Speak Up:
The Value of Unions

August 31, 2007

One unsuspected interest that was sparked by my visit to Dearborn, Michigan earlier in August was the landscape of labor activism. Just as the Civil Rights movement has its hallowed sites, so American Labor has its storied places. Walter Reuther, leader of the United Auto Workers, graduated from Fordson High School in Dearborn. As I mad my way to Dearborn's Southend for an interview I drove along Miller Road, bordering the giant Rouge River plant. I later learned that this was the site of the "Battle of the Overpass" in which Reuther and other labor activists were badly beaten by Ford security men. It would not be difficult to put together a Labor pilgrimage (in fact it has been done, see here).

Today over at the Washington Monthly Kevin Drum defends the value of unions.. even if their overall benefit can be overstated:

However, if you're interested in government policies that actively favor the working and middle classes, you need to have some kind of substantial political interest group fighting on their side. That's Politics 101, and right now unions are pretty much all we've got.

A couple of weeks ago when I opened a biography of Reuther (The Most Dangerous Man in Detroit by Nelson Lichtenstein) I came across the photograph that heads this post. That is Reuther testifying before Congress and his chart reads: "Employment Gains Smaller than in Previous Recovery Periods". What an amazing fact! Once there were powerful men in this country who shoved around their weight to get a fairer share for the middle and working classes.

Unions still advocate these things, but they are hardly as visible. I can't even imagine a nation in which unions were genuinely powerful.. but that strikes me as a loss. It is a good thing to have someone like Reuther to speak for your interests.

And for a chart like that demonstrating inequality you would have to turn to.. well, Kevin Drum.. he and other bloggers are getting good at these kinds of graphic presentations. One way to view the net is as a replacement for the genuine places at the table that have been lost to the left.