Review

    "They're Bankrupting Us!": And 20 Other Myths
    about Unions  Beacon Press: 2012

Tearing Apart the Big Lies about 'Big Labor'

By Michelle Crentsil
Labor Notes
August 29 2012

http://labornotes.org/blogs/2012/08/review-tearing-apart-big-lies-about-big-labor?utm

I started reading Bill Fletcher's "They're Bankrupting
Us!" and 20 Other Myths about Unions on my way
to Miami to sign up new members for the union.
Florida is a right-to-work state and I was looking to
recruit members in a largely conservative workforce
in a big public hospital. I was inclined to believe I
was in a scorched-earth situation.

As a union organizer, I'd heard these myths before. I
had traumatic flashbacks with practically every
page, and I started guessing which myths I'd hear
from the workers first. "Unions are corrupt and
mobbed up"? "Unions were started by communists
and other troublemakers"? Or the title myth:
"They're bankrupting us and destroying the
economy."

These myths aren't heard just by those of us
knocking on doors for a union. They permeate
popular culture. I told a friend I was a union
organizer once and he asked me if I was out
breaking people's legs. He was joking, but he
got the idea from somewhere. And he
certainly wasn't able to tell me what I actually do.

As organizers, we're equipped to have one-on-one
conversations where we educate others on what a
union actually is and the power solidarity can bring
to a workplace. But this book is a great reminder of
the sheer magnitude of what we're up against. It
isn't a few people with some misinformation. It's a
complete rewriting of history based on an opposing
interest.

The loudest narrative about organized labor comes
from the other side. Fletcher critiques the
mainstream media, using mogul Rupert Murdoch as
just one example to show how business interests
dominate the news and create hostility toward
unions.

Fletcher's book is an accessible and entertaining
read that clearly outlines why unions are (still)
relevant and, in fact, critical to movements for social
justice, by dispelling the myths with compelling
arguments rooted in history and personal
experience.

His use of history goes beyond answering tough
questions or dispelling myths in a tit-for-tat
manner. Rather he takes the time to educate the
reader on the impact that workers have had
throughout our history and today in the fight
against power imbalance and injustice.

Myth-Busting

For each myth, Fletcher starts with history and
context first, giving background for what the myth is
referring to and where it likely comes from.

Take the "Unions are mobbed up" claim. Fletcher
uses the myth-busting opportunity to talk about
where corruption stems from in any institution and
how to fight it specifically in unions. Rather than
denying the history of organized crime in labor and
instances of corruption, Fletcher acknowledges it
and reminds us that most unions don't fall prey to
it. Then he stakes out worker strategies to fight it.

In good organizing, an organizer will validate a
person before kindly letting that person know the
facts. Though most of these myths stem from right-
wing, pro-business nonsense, some have the blush
of reality to them. Denying these realities, in my
experience, does more harm than good. No one likes
to feel lied to. Fletcher understands this, and strikes
a tough balance in defending unions while also
offering a critique, shedding light on major
contributions while also exposing missteps.
Organized labor is responsible for the 40-hour work
week, weekends, hiring equity in discriminatory
industries like the docks, multiracial organizing (a
major priority of the IWW in its prime), and
community unionism that saw labor and local
organizations working together to promote justice.
But major missteps include servicing-oriented
business unionism, an almost institutional link to
the Democratic Party, and a departure from being a
"cause" and a movement.

The systematic erosion of organized labor's power by
neoliberal policies, legislation, and attitudes is at
the root of much of Fletcher's myth-busting. But
labor's own response to these major ideological
shifts in mainstream culture and politics was
problematic.

Fletcher says union leaders deliberately departed
from the "social vision that had accompanied the
rise of labor unions." Fletcher traces this shift back
to Samuel Gompers, founder of the AFL, who called
his rebranding "bread-and-butter" unionism, which
would evolve into business unionism. The scope of
unions narrowed to a particular set of needs for
members (not workers in general) within a specific
company or sometimes industry, but with no real
connection to a larger movement, and not at odds
with the capitalist system.

In the section that addresses the "Unions have a
checkered history and were started by communists
and other troublemakers" myth, Fletcher reflects on
the positive influence radicals and leftists had on
the labor movement and their subsequent
persecution because of anti-communism. But the
history is a distraction that misleads by promoting
fear and panic, he argues, used to squash all
organizing efforts that might shift the balance of
power in favor of workers.

Move Past the Myths

How should we move forward, considering the
difficult terrain? Fletcher offers specific strategies to
return to a culture of solidarity among working
people and their communities and restore the link
between the labor movement and the fight against
injustice. We should build associate membership
categories in unions so non-union workers can join
without having collective bargaining. We should
organize outside the extremely limited Labor Board
rules by joining with worker centers and becoming
involved in community-based projects where
organizations are organizing entire cities. The key is
moving past the narrow framework of just one's own
union or workplace.

They're Bankrupting Us! is a title that should be
much appreciated by organizers and labor activists.
New unionists should know where these myths
come from, and seasoned ones can use the book's
renewed hope and sense of strategy to make those
organizing conversations easier.

Fletcher reminds us how important it is both to
educate others on labor's history and to
acknowledge our own shortcomings in order to grow
this movement. He explores where we have to go
and how to get there succinctly and superbly.
______________

Michelle Crentsil is an organizer for the Committee
of Interns and Residents, SEIU.

___________________________________________

Portside aims to provide material of interest to people
on the left that will help them to interpret the world
and to change it.

Submit via email: [log in to unmask]

Submit via the Web: http://portside.org/submittous3

Frequently asked questions: http://portside.org/faq

Sub/Unsub: http://portside.org/subscribe-and-unsubscribe

Search Portside archives: http://portside.org/archive

Contribute to Portside: https://portside.org/donate