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There is something suspect about the rise of corruption in the unions. Back in the 1930's, labor was getting powerful and both starting and winning some big st

There is something suspect about the rise of corruption in the unions. Back in the 1930's, labor was getting powerful and both starting and winning some big strikes, and communists were a significant part of the labor movement. The capitalist establishment's answer to this was the red squads (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Squad https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Squad). These were branches of local law enforcement operating largely sub-rosa in collaboration with the big employers and even sometimes partially financed by contributions from anti-labor malefactors of great wealth. The strategy adopted by the red squads was (1) that a union run by gangsters was ipso facto far better than one run by someone who could change the status quo in favor of workers, and (2) local law enforcement could benefit substantially from a win-win relationship with organized crime. Corruption of unions became part of the American economy hand-in-hand with corruption of police. When the gangsters struggled with each other for control of a union, law enforcement might be recruited as the tie-breaker, helping whichever thug best understood the needs of the municipal power structure. The working class did not bring this on themselves.

MrTonyD 8y ago
You might be interested to hear that about 30 years ago I got myself invited to a "union busting" class. It was held at changing locations each week, with nobody giving their names (not even the instructor), and guest speakers from law enforcement, legal, and senior management invited to discuss their successful efforts to undermine unions. In essence, their recommended strategy was to slowly move assets away from the company - whether overseas or via contracts, then shut down sites while simultaneously bringing up other sites without unions in secret. As long as things were done slowly, the courts wouldn't recognize actions as anti-union. You could even move back into the same region in a few years without unions. Once you know what to look for, it's easy to see this technique being used over decades here in the United States. And it doesn't apply just to unions, it applies to anywhere you want to force lower wages. (In the early days of unionization big employers used to coordinate moving out of a region, driving local populations to desperation so they could move back in months later and pay wages where people were actually starving while they worked.)

MrTonyD 8y ago

You might be interested to hear that about 30 years ago I got myself invited to a "union busting" class. It was held at changing locations each week, with nobody giving their names (not even the instructor), and guest speakers from law enforcement, legal, and senior management invited to discuss their successful efforts to undermine unions. In essence, their recommended strategy was to slowly move assets away from the company - whether overseas or via contracts, then shut down sites while simultaneously bringing up other sites without unions in secret. As long as things were done slowly, the courts wouldn't recognize actions as anti-union. You could even move back into the same region in a few years without unions. Once you know what to look for, it's easy to see this technique being used over decades here in the United States. And it doesn't apply just to unions, it applies to anywhere you want to force lower wages. (In the early days of unionization big employers used to coordinate moving out of a region, driving local populations to desperation so they could move back in months later and pay wages where people were actually starving while they worked.)