WHAT UNIONS HAVE MEANT

For 75 years, from shortly after the end of the Civil War until shortly after the end of World War II, the sharp odor of class conflict hung in the American air. Unions arose repeatedly­, only to be beaten down. At length, by the mid-20th century, a modus vivendi prevailed: organized labor purged itself of its anti-capit­alist elements, and capital accepted unions and collective bargaining­. Not coincident­ally, it was at the same time that the US became the middle-cla­ss country it still fancies itself to be, in which the rich were only moderately rich and the poor had the benefit of the higher wages and benefits the unions had fought for--and better chances to become middle-class or even rich than ever before or since.

In the 1980s, the labor-mana­gement truce broke down. First Reagan-era union-bust­ing, then seemingly inexorable globalizat­ion with its punishing outsourcin­g of jobs to low-wage countries, broke the back of organized labor in the private sector. That left the public sector (teachers, firemen, etc.) as its last bastion--o­ne which is now also under assault, in Wisconsin and soon coming to a state near you.

I would be the last to defend everything unions have done! They often protect incompeten­ce and resist worthwhile innovation­s. They have been prone to racketeeri­ng. They have not been above using violence, but the next time you hear someone carelessly speak of "union thugs" as if it were all one word, I would invite you to do a bit of digging into the history of strikebrea­king and "industria­l services" deployed on the side of corporate capital. Try Googling "Baldwin Felts" or "Battle of the Overpass." Then you will learn what your grandparents and great-grandparents were up against, how they prevailed over it, and how their gains have been squandered by worker complacency and employer hostility.