Nathan Newman wrote:
>Folks bash the union leadership on this list a lot, but then they often
>don't even engage in the basic solidarity of supporting organizing
>campaigns. General boycotts may not be particularly useful, but avoiding
>companies actively being organized and engaging in union-busting tactics
>seems the most minimal solidarity called for by leftists.
-Nathan, no one "bashes" the union leadership here. It's criticism, -which is not personal nor is it unwarranted... And -it's only Woj who was willing to overlook WF's antiunion behavior -because they're the retailing equivalent of NPR. I suspect if you put -it to a vote, you'd get over 90% support for the organizing campaign.
Hey, I went through this in Berkeley when all these supposed greenie liberals crossed the UFCW picketline around Whole Foods, telling me their organic tofu was more important than workers rights.
My point is that for all the criticism of union leaders by a lot of progressives, those same progressives often do little to advance union strength in their personal support for campaigns. Whole Foods is in many ways the litmus test case, since its clientele is targetted at a whole wing of progressives, who just ignore the whole issue of unionization. The issue is not voting, but practicing real solidarity.
-- Nathan Newman