[lbo-talk] Wal-Mart unit rejects union

John Lacny jlacny at earthlink.net
Fri Mar 4 14:40:17 PST 2005


Wojtek (I think) writes:


> Of course, we can speculate about possible reasons of that
> decline -- hostile legal environment, capitalist propaganda,
> intimidation, etc. My favorite explanation is that there is little
> pride and status related to being "working class"

No, it's pretty much about intimidation.

Ask any union organizer. I know of very few cases where unions have actually lost a card-check, for example -- when the intimidation factor is not there.


> everybody wants to be a "professional" - a professional
> truck driver, a professional janitor, a professional sales clerk
> aka "associate."

I can GUARANTEE you that no janitor on earth thinks of himself or herself as a "professional," especially not in the way you're talking about. The same thing goes for Wal-Mart cashiers. Other aspects of ruling class ideology -- chiefly futility and resignation -- may affect their attitude to unions, but the illusion that they're "professionals" is not one of them. This is the case with other kinds of workers -- teachers or nurses, for example -- but it's just not the case with the lowest-paid workers whose jobs don't require formal education. "Professional" workers are part of the working class, but their consciousness is very different from that of lower-paid workers. Anti-union workers among "professionals" -- to the extent that they are motivated by ideological and status concerns and not by pure intimidation and boss demagoguery about dues and such, just like everyone else -- dislike unions because they associate them with "blue-collar" people, because they may view union membership as a step down in status, and because their aspirations are turned "upward" on the social scale, even if in a warped way. When lower-paid workers are anti-union, the ideological problem -- more than anything else -- is that their expectations are so abysmally low.

- - - - - - - - - - John Lacny http://www.johnlacny.com

Tell no lies, claim no easy victories



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