As reported by our own Miss Laura, the Employee Free Choice Act passed 241-185 in a House vote yesterday. Now the bill will go the the Senate, where the bill has only one Republican cosponsor- Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania. I'm not going to go in depth about the bill itself, for more background on that I suggest reading PaulVA's extensive writing on the subject. I'm going to use publicly available data from the UnionStats webpage to show you what once was.... and what can be again if we can pass the Employee Free Choice Act through the Senate. Below I've mapped out union density as a percentage of the labor force.
The maps above show just how far we've fallen. In 1964 nearly 1 in 3 American workers (29.3%) was a unionized, by 2005 only 1 in 8 workers belonged to a labor organization. Bearing in mind that public sector union density has either increased or remained stagnant during that same period the collapse of workplace democracy in the private sector is all the more dramatic. What's even more shocking is the realization that the red state/blue state bullshit has little historical basis. Consider that in 1964 the top 10 states by union density included neither New York nor California.
1964 Union Density (by %)
- Michigan 44.8
- Washington 44.5
- Indiana 40.9
- Alaska 39.7
- New Jersey 39.4
- Oregon 38.9
- Pennsylvania 37.7
- Ohio 37.6
- Montana 37.4
10.Minnesota 37.0
In 1964, 6 out of the 10 most union dense states were in the countries interior. By 2005, this list had changed dramatically with New York and California joining the list and Indiana and Montana falling from the top 10 union states. Also note that the mean of the top 10 union states in 1964 was 39.8% (not weighed for population) while by 2005 this had fallen to 20.1%.
2005 Union Density (by %)
- New York 26.2
- Hawaii 25.9
- Alaska 22.9
- Michigan 20.6
- New Jersey 20.5
- Washington 19.3
- Illinois 16.9
- California 16.7
- Wisconsin 16.2
10.Ohio 16.0
The only state to see union density rise between 1964 and 2005 is Hawaii, where there has been a 4.2% rise since the start of the Johnson administration. Consider that nearly half the country, 22 states in all, had union densities exceeding the 2005 New York union density at 26.2%. Yesterday, there was a great deal of confusion why Rep. Young of Alaska voted for the Employee Free Choice Act. You have your answer here.
Consider also that while a Democrat running for president in 1964 could count on nearly a third of American workers being organized into largely supportive unions, by the time Bill Clinton became president in 1993 this had been cut in half. Unions need the Democratic party, but even more so the Democratic party needs unions. Because, no matter how much certain elements in the party pretend that by being anti-war we can win, the truth is that that's neccesarry but not sufficient.
Someday, hopefully soon, the men and women of our armed forces will come home, but we've got a war raging at home that the progressive blogosphere has been largely deaf and dumb to. While news of the latest attack in Baghdad fills the front pages of "progressive" blogs on a regular, America's working people have few champions for workplace democracy. Forgive me for questioning the progressive nature of places that allow themselves to be led the media, but the truth is that the weakness of the blogosphere is it's failure to generate original material. To help set the agenda rather than just take it.
In the long term that may change, but in the long term we are all dead. It doesn't have to be this way. We need voices for change, Democrats who will stand for workplace democracy, walk the line with America's union members, and know not to cross the line. I support John Edwards for this reason, he alone among the 3 leading candidates has taken the time to walk the line with the men and women of labor.
Since 2002, Sen. Edwards has been talking about the breach of the post war social contract in this country. The social contract that said that workplace democracy, the right to organize for collective bargaining, is a human right. The social contract that said that even the least among us merit the means to live with dignity. The social contract that valued the lives of American working men and women, over making money for millionaire's. What we had wasn't much, but is was our American Dream.
Sen. Edward's has had the courage to say that it doesn't have to be this way, and that's the reason that he can't get any media play. Any candidate who has the courage to stand with America's working men and women is going to get the same cold shoulder. People aren't stupid, no matter who much the media likes to think that they can control the flow of information, they can't control the minds of America's working men and women. 2006 should have taught us this. 2006 was not about the Iraq War, that was neccesary but not sufficient. I want you to think about the "red" districts and states that Democrats were competitive in last year, and then look at the following list of union density decline 1964-2005.
Decline in Union Density 1964-2005 (Percent)
- Indiana 28.4
- Montana 26.4
- Washington 25.2
- Michigan 24.2
- Oregon 24.2
- Pennsylvania 23.8
- W. Virginia 22.1
- Ohio 21.6
- Minnesota 21.2
- Idaho 19.4
10.Nevada 19.4
So much for the victory of "libertarian" Democrats. The Democratic surge in 2006 didn't have a damn thing to do with libertarianism, what's happened is that "red" state Americans have woken up to the fact that post war social contract that guaranteed workplace democracy and economic equality in exchange for labor peace has been broken. I came into contact with this data as an agnostic. I had my theories about what had happened, but I had no idea that the states with the most dramatic union declines would match so closely with the places where Populist Democrats surged in 2006.
It's imperative that going into 2008, Democrats aren't mislead into the belief that so long as candidates are anti-war they can also be anti-labor. The passage of the Employee Free Choice Act was one giant leap for American men and women, even if it was just a small step for Congress. While the Employee Free Choice Act was neccesary to begin the process of rebuilding workplace democracy in this country, but it alone is not sufficient. This bill still needs to pass through the Senate, and even then the President is likely to issue a veto to appease the GOP's corporate donors. Working people lose again.
Last week, the Economy Policy Institute's (EPI) Shared Prosperity project held its second policy forum focusing on workplace democracy and the collapse of the social contract in this country. Paul Krugman was the keynote speaker (Video) for the event, and spoke powerfully to the societal polarization and increase in inequality that has marked American life in the last 20 years.
I highly recommend watching Krugman's speech, he speaks with the somber realization of a man who's discovered that the social contract supercedes economic forces in society. And as he said, we didn't realize what we had until it was lost.
I highly recommend Krugman's speech. You will not be dissapointed, but you are not likely to be pleased. We've lost so much, but it doesn't have to be this way.