[lbo-talk] SEIU membership

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

On 4/3/07, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> On Apr 3, 2007, at 2:49 PM, Mark Rickling wrote:
>
> > If by "traditional" you mean contested NLRB election, then you're
> > right. Also, homecare and childcare workers don't fit the traditional
> > white, male industrial worker demographic many have in mind when they
> > think of the working class. I guess for some this means they're not
> > *real* workers, but I doubt anyone on this list would make that
> > argument.
>
> I most certainly would not make that argument, and I'd contemplate
> throwing someone off the list for doing so. But the organizing
> approach is completely different - it's not about persuading scared
> and/or skeptical workers and maneuvering around a hostile boss.

Your idea of organizing is unrealistic.  No labor movement grew a lot
by "persuading scared and/or skeptical workers" under normal
circumstances in the North.  Workers unionized when they lost much of
fear and skepticism due to special economic circumstances (e.g.,
wartime labor shortages, the Great Depression) and/or when hostile
bosses were weakened a little by pro-labor governments that workers
and others had elected (cf.
<http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20070402/006623.html>).
-- 
Yoshie