{"id":560868,"date":"2022-03-17T14:43:06","date_gmt":"2022-03-17T14:43:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/radiofree.asia\/?guid=524c86f070bbcbc805663fb083ae5509"},"modified":"2022-03-17T14:43:06","modified_gmt":"2022-03-17T14:43:06","slug":"we-need-to-build-a-labor-movement-thats-willing-to-break-the-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/03\/17\/we-need-to-build-a-labor-movement-thats-willing-to-break-the-law\/","title":{"rendered":"We Need to Build a Labor Movement That\u2019s Willing to Break the Law"},"content":{"rendered":"\"California<\/a>

The United States has one of the lowest levels of unionization among developed countries, with less than 11 percent of total workers being members of a union. In Sweden, on the other hand, over 66 of the labor force is unionized; in Belgium, close to 50 percent<\/a>; and in Iceland, virtually the entire labor force (almost 92 percent<\/a>) is unionized. In the U.S., moreover, collective bargaining coverage (all people whose terms of work are collectively negotiated) is also almost the same as the union membership rate, while in the European Union, over 60 percent of employees are covered by collective bargaining.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s causing the decline of unions in the U.S., from over 20 percent in 1983 to less than 11 percent today? What is undercutting the ability of unions to organize and bargain? Are unions themselves to blame? How can militancy and union power be revived in the neoliberal age? In this exclusive interview for Truthout<\/em>, veteran labor organizer, labor negotiator and attorney Joe Burns offers his own insights into these questions. Burns is the author of Strike Back<\/em>: Using the Militant Tactics of Labor\u2019s Past to Reignite Public Sector Unionism Today<\/em><\/a> and Reviving the Strike<\/em>: How Working People Can Regain Power and Transform America<\/em>.<\/a> His latest book, which was just released by Haymarket Books, is Class Struggle Unionism<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

C.J. Polychroniou: Since the 1980s, there has been an erosion of unionization in the U.S. even though <\/strong>survey data<\/strong><\/a> reveals that nonunion workers seem to prefer unions in their workplace at a higher rate than was the case 40 years ago. In addition, unions in the U.S. remain weak. What are the causes for union decline and their declining political effectiveness, and is there a link between a weakened labor movement and rising economic inequality?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Joe Burns<\/strong>: Unions came under a withering attack by Corporate America beginning in the 1970s. With our hands tied behind our back by the rigid restrictions on strike activity imposed by Congress and the court system, unions were busted in industry after industry in the 1980s. But our unions, after decades of bureaucratization and business unionism<\/a>, were not up to the fight. <\/p>\n

Business unionism was, and is, the guiding philosophy of much of the U.S. labor movement. Business unionism sees a limited role for unions in representing workers at a particular plant or employer, and are often cautious and bureaucratic. Many opted for accommodation with employers in labor management programs rather than fighting our way out of the problem.<\/p>\n

With only 6 out of 100 workers in unions, management has largely been able to dictate terms in the labor markets. Thus, whereas 500,000 truckers were covered by the National Master Freight agreement, which was the primary labor agreement between the Teamsters Union and the motor carrier industry across the country, trucking is mostly nonunion today. We see a similar story in other industries. Without a strong labor movement, we see widening inequality and the erosion of hard-won labor standards.<\/p>\n

In your new book, Class Struggle Unionism<\/em>, you argue that contemporary unions in the U.S. have been swept by the ideology of “labor liberalism” and thereby lack class consciousness and do not challenge capitalist exploitation. How exactly do you define labor liberalism, and do you think this development itself is linked to the decline of unions?<\/strong><\/p>\n