Handful? Laborers, Carpenters, Teamsters, the old SEIU, DC37 in New York - it's a long list that goes back a century. Unions are supposed to be about solidarity and triumph over petty self-interest. Business is not about that - it's about making money. So this argument really doesn't cut it. Any serious pro-labor person should want to understand why unions are so weak in the US, and why we don't have a minimal welfare state. The fragmented structure, political conservatism, and deep corruption of organized labor over the course of more than a century are important reasons for that dire situation. It helps no one to deny it. Doug <<<<<>>>>>
hey, don't leave out other oldies but 'goodies' (if point is to cite examples of union corruption) previous hotel and restaurant union, uaw region 4 (illinois, iowa, wisconsin), building trades, east coast longshoremen (ilu)...
two decades ago (maybe longer) richard freeman and james medoff - in their book _what do unions do_ - asserted that historical circumstances in which u.s. organized labor operated made instances of union corruption unsurprising, rather, what was surprising was that there wasn't more of it...
so-called 'business unionism' - of which gompers was major proponent/ practioner and which c.w. mills called 'anti-democratic conspiracy' - bred both corruption and cynicism, but neither condition was/is inevitable (i'd add what lenin considered unions' 'natural tendencies' toward political conservatism to list as well), 1920s fur and and leather workers union from offers solution to corrupting influence of business unionism as well as corrupt union activities, flwu was controlled by 'ganstas' until members elected communists to leadership and the commies ran mob guys right out of town, er, the union... mh