[lbo-talk] US Corporations and Unions: Fat and Mean

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Sat Mar 11 09:08:16 PST 2006


Jim wrote:


> Yoshie: >Arguably, American unions had it easier than European unions.
> After all, the US ruling class, unlike the European ruling class, did
> not impose fascism on the populace here. And yet, American unions are
> fatter and more corrupt than European unions.<
>
> perhaps US organized labor turned out so poor because the US ruling
> class bought it off rather than trying to shut it down?

Citing David M. Gordon's Fat and Mean: The Corporate Squeeze of Working Americans and the Myth of Managerial "Downsizing", Gregg Shotwell, a Delphi worker and UAW activist, remarked that "GM-Delphi have three times as many supervisors as German or Japanese companies" (<http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/shotwell280106.html>). US unions are, with the exception of UE, the mirror image of US corporations: "In Sweden, there are about 1,200 members for every full-time official. Here, it's closer to 250" (Robert Fitch, Solidarity for Sale, p. 325).

Yoshie Furuhashi <http://montages.blogspot.com> <http://monthlyreview.org> <http://mrzine.org>



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