in the news

[Doug Henwood]

A couple of items from today's papers suggest that all those folks looking
to a crash to revive the fortunes of the working class may be missing the
charms of a strong economy. First, the SEIU has succeeded in organizing
home health care workers in California, archetypes of the low-wage side of
the "new economy." And second, Saturn workers have voted out the old
cooperative leadership and replaced them with old-fashioned (as corporate
journalists like to characterize them) confrontational leaders. Cooperation
- "jointness" - was born of fear; fear of insolvency on auto management's
part, and fear of job loss on labor's. It's resulted in lots of overwork,
with all the flexibility and concessions coming from labor's side. But
several years of a sub-5% unemployment rate have calmed those fears, and
the Saturn workers are obviously feeling bolder. And with the home health
care workers, there can be little doubt that a low unemployment rate has
partly dispelled their fears of signing a union card. I'll bet Alan
Greenspan is not looking kindly on these developments.

Doug