One of Fitch's laws of American unionism: they don't care about the workers, they care about dues. He doesn't pay dues. Fuck him. Doug <<<<<>>>>>
the above kind of *blanket* criticism is akin to know-nothingism, i can attest to exception to claim made about 'american unionism', union came to aid of several instructors at community college i teach at some years ago, none of them were members, while some of us have been members for a long time we are not an organized faculty, union's legal counsel successfully protected these folks' jobs...
so we have 2 examples of 'american unionism' here - 1) current circumstance in colorado referenced above (for the record, i disagree with the union's position on the matter); 2) instance i just cited, does either reflect 'laws of american unionism'...
unions deserve criticism (lots of it in certain instances, and i can dish it out with the best of them), but some remarks that have appeared on lbo in recent weeks re. u.s. organized labor go beyond this, i've never heard people i've known associated with union reform efforts (such as tdu and uaw new directions) convey the kind *knee jerk* hostility that some have expressed on this list...
my own experience tells me that 'lefty' anti-union attitudes are often held by folks who have little actual experience - warts and all - with unions themselves... mh (former teamster, doncha forget it 'hoss)