A desperate struggle for survival
By Terrence Scanlon
The Washington Times 3:41 p.m., Friday, September 3, 2010
On this Labor Day, things are looking blue for Big Labor. Private-sector union membership continues to plummet - just 7 percent of the private work force is unionized, down from 15 percent just 25 years ago. And the union-cherished "card check" legislation, which would restrict the use of secret ballots in union elections - and therefore make it easier for the unions to swell their ranks - has had a rocky road in Congress and looks unlikely to become law anytime soon.
But Big Labor is not going gently into that good night. In fact, the shrinking membership rolls are making Big Labor organizations and their bosses more dependent than ever on their liberal allies in government, more desperate than ever for support from liberal politicians who hold the reins of power and can transfer taxpayer dollars to their pockets.
To that end, labor is gearing up for the political fight of its life. The twin labor powerhouses, the AFL-CIO and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), are pooling their resources and coordinating efforts to help elect as many pro-union candidates (read: liberals) as possible. As the Wall Street Journal reports, the terrible twosome claim to have a combined $88 million to deploy in support of favored candidates in 26 states, including congressional, gubernatorial and state legislature races in scorched-earth battlegrounds like Pennsylvania and Ohio.
The labor cash infusion is already making a difference in local races: Unions have thus far mobilized $14 million in a so-far-successful effort to counteract the advantage of Meg Whitman's considerable coffers in her race against Jerry Brown for the California statehouse. As Harold Meyerson writes in the Los Angeles Times, "Much of labor's strategy to sway swing voters is modeled on the national AFL-CIO's Working America project, which targets white, blue-collar workers with economically populist messages. The larger piece of the program, though - dictated by California's demographics - targets African American and, most especially, Latino voters, who will vote Democratic provided they are motivated to vote at all."http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/sep/3/a-desperate-struggle-for-survival/
