[lbo-talk] Boycotting the unorganized?

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Wed Jan 19 13:36:18 PST 2005


Paul paul_ at igc.org, Wed Jan 19 10:48:29 PST 2005:
>The union is asking customers to "Buy Union" - and NOT buy non-union
>from similar stores, when practical. This has been a long-standing
>union request and has some impact.

How much impact? Has anyone actually studied it?

According to Liza, "[t]heir [unions'] own members shop at Wal-Mart, making at least 30 percent of union credit-card purchases at the retail giant" (Featherstone, "Will Labor Take the Wal-Mart Challenge?" The Nation, June 28, 2004, <http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20040628&s=featherstone>).

That's just one example, and buying habits can change, but "Buy Union" campaigns, while better than "Buy American" or "Buy Blue [i.e. Democrat]" campaigns, seem to me to be futile if they aren't coupled with ongoing organizing campaigns or strikes (of relatively short durations). -- Yoshie

* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/> * "Proud of Britain": <http://www.proudofbritain.net/ > and <http://www.proud-of-britain.org.uk/>



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