On 8/29/06, Wojtek Sokolowski <<a href="mailto:sokol@jhu.edu">sokol@jhu.edu</a>> wrote: > >               >   > > > >  It seems to me that "fuck the yuppies, go with the steelers" strategy for labor organizing will ensure that the unions will soon be kicked out even of the doghouse they occupy now.  I am pretty certain that unless unions make a serious effort to attract professional workers in large numbers (as I have been suggesting on this forum for a while,) they will continue to decline in both membership and significance, until they disappear altogether from the radar screen.  But hey, at least they will remain "culturally pure" and "all-American," and will not allow contaminating their homey beer and chips with imported wine and cheese ;).   > >     > > Wojtek JM:  Woj, let me say that I generally  agree with you on this specific issue.  But as usual you seem to talk off the top of your head without very much knowledge of current conditions or the history of unionism in the U.S.  Perhaps Woj, you can start an organization to help us change the restrictive labor laws in this country.  For the most part white collar workers have no right to organize unions or to negotiate with employers as a bargaining unit. A little history here:  The National Labor Relations Act does not give the right for "managerial" employees to organize unions.  This does not mean that such employees cannot organize unions it only means that they have no legal right to do so.   It was once possible, during the high water of unionism, that white collar employees would begin to organize into employee organizations even though there was no legally based right to do so. There were several turning points here.  After WW II the Foremen at GM struck to have their union recognized.  Walter Reuther faced the decision of whether to ask the locals not to cross the foremen's picket lines.  There was no love lost between foremen and line workers, but in general Reuther had a Scandinavian view of unions, and believed that all employees should have their own organizations to protect them.  The National Labor Relations Board ruled against the foremen, telling them that they had no legal rights in this area.  No matter what the legal rights here, if Reuther had take a stand it wouldn't have matter anyway.  GM would have had to negotiate.  It is unfortunate that this opportunity faded away. Also, independent contractors have no legal right to form unions.  Recently the NLRB ruled against newspaper distributors telling them that they had no legal rights to form a union because they are considered independent contractors.  This essentially means that all the people that have paper routes are considered independent contractors.  The effect on many white collar workers should be obvious.  Perhaps Woj, you can help to change the law here. Yeshiva University appealed an NLRB ruling all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, and under that ruling professors at private universities are considered managerial employees and thus have no legal right to form unions.   Recently an NLRB ruling came down that said that Registered Nurses are managerial employees and thus have no legally supported right to form unions.   Many employees at Barnes & Nobel, Starbucks, etc. who make no more than 10 or 12 dollars an hour are considered managerial employees because they direct groups of part time employees in putting up displays or because they make break schedules etc.   It will either take a massive movement to change laws or a massive movement to ignore the laws in order to change this situation.   Here is a place that I can agree with you.  White collar employees, even middle level executives, should be able to form their own employee organizations, (bargaining units, unions) and their wold be better possibilities for society at large if they did form their own unions.  They should have the legal right to do so.  Unfortunately, in most cases, they do not have the legal right to form unions.   Jerry Monaco