Andy Stern was keynote speaker at PCForum
Interesting ideas about "modern" unions.
"Unlike your typical union boss, who seethes as workers get screwed and fat cats take care of themselves--end of analysis--Stern gets the irreversible economics of globalization. And that understanding is driving him to ideas that could take the labor movement far beyond the workplace. "We've had this one-size-fits-all union model built in the 1930s," he says. It had a great post-war run, but its momentum ended more than a generation ago. Do we try to revive that model, he asks, "or do we say, The economy is different now, and workers need different kinds of organizations?"
There's a model for the kind of new workers' group Stern has in mind: AARP. Imagine a new national membership and advocacy organization for millions of working people that wielded the clout in Washington that AARP now enjoys. Suppose the new "union"--or perhaps it would be one of a dozen such worker associations organized around major industries--took over benefits like health care, pensions, and training, and companies contributed a predictable amount into a pool (as opposed to, say, ever-soaring health costs) for those purposes. Or suppose the new association mounted a major campaign on behalf of health coverage for every American. Or for a mega-version of wage supplements like the earned income tax credit that lifted the effective minimum wage to $10 without putting the full burden on employers, which would kill jobs."
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