Rightwing attack on unions won't stop with public sector
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At the same time, the country's Gini index, which measures inequality, soared to new heights. These days, the picketing lines in the US are shorter than those of can-rattling panhandlers in Washington.
The union's retreat in the US has been exacerbated by the financial crisis. The United Autoworkers Union (UAW) is much blamed for the downfall of the American auto industry. Today, many of the southern states have outlawed union existence altogether. In rust-belt states, unions' influence is also dwindling.
In Ohio, Democrats are battling the same Republican onslaught as in Wisconsin, as Ohio Governor John Kasich wants to strip the collective bargaining rights of all public workers. In Indiana, a Republican-pushed right-to-work bill will now be considered by the state congress.
On the surface, these state -level political battles seem to be about rolling back excessive union members' wages and benefits, and balancing the state budgets.
But the Republicans' political agenda won't be satisfied with wage and benefit concessions, which the Democrat side has already indicated they're willing to offer. Their long-term goal is the economic-neocon agenda to totally root out union existence altogether, in both private or public sectors, in order to line the pockets of big corporations.
Granted, unions in the US have their own share of blame, as union leaders' corruption scandals over the years tarnished its public image. Big labor wrung remarkable, often outrageous, exemptions from lawmakers in the past. Many times, unions imposed draconian work rules on employers that start to impede productivity improvement.
But there is no denying that US politics now are undoubtedly taking a sharp right tack, with Republicans, especially "Tea Party" members, taking over the US Congress.
On a wide spectrum of policy issues ranging from foreign trade, federal budget to global climate negations, the US is back-peddling to the conservative trenches. The union issue is merely the latest casualty of a political climate change.
The author is associate professor at the Beijing-based University of International Business and Economics. johngong@gmail.com
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