By Chris Rhomberg CNN
In Chicago, thousands of public school teachers and support staff represented by the Chicago Teachers Union have walked off their jobs after reaching an impasse in contract talks with the city.
During the 1970s, an average of 289 major work stoppages involving 1,000 or more workers occurred annually in the United States. By the 1990s, that had fallen to about 35 per year. And in 2009, there were no more than five.
The decline in strikes cannot be explained solely by declining union membership. According to a study by sociologist Jake Rosenfeld, unionization among private-sector full-time employees fell by 40% between 1984 and 2002. But the drop in total strike frequency was even greater, falling by more than two-thirds.
Since the 1970s, the forces of economic globalization and technological changes have put increasing pressure on employers and employees. Neither of those forces by themselves, however, requires the disappearance of either unions or strikes, as is shown by the example of other industrialized nations such as Canada, Britain, Australia and many European countries. Rather, the most important difference in the U.S. experience has been a profound change in the legal and institutional order governing labor relations and workers’ rights.
We have essentially gone back to a pre-New Deal era of workplace governance.
“This is a difficult decision for all of us to make,” said union President Karen Lewis about the Chicago teachers’ call for a strike. Work stoppages involve real sacrifices, not least of all from the striking workers.
For the sake of our economic and political future, however, America would be better off if we had more strikes.
Story comment:
What would make America better off is a dramatic cultural shift in corporate America where workers and unions are not seen as enemies to profits but as partners in mutual prosperity. It baffles me to this day how many unemployed and angry working class men and women are Republicans based on religion and other superfluous issues. Yet, the Republican upper-class only seeks to exploit workers. Vote with your wallet, not your addiction to loosy goosy ideologies.