Public Sector Unionism Under Assault: How to Combat the Scapegoating of Organized Labor

Posted in Articles Bargaining for the Common Good  |  Tagged Joseph A. McCartin

The most recent issue of the New Labor Forum features an article entitled “Public Sector Unionism Under Assault: How to Combat the Scapegoating of Organized Labor” written by Professor Joseph McCartin, the Kalmanovitz Initiative’s executive director.
In the article, McCartin argues that the Great Recession of 2009 was used by labor’s opponents to undermine the rights of public sector employees just as they became the majority of union members in the United States.

San Francisco Bay Area transit workers rally together in 2013.

The article highlights innovative work by public sector unions such as Oregon’s SEIU Local 503 and the Chicago Teachers Union to build coalitions with community organizations, and McCartin warns that very future of public sector unions “will be determined by their ability to persuade nonunion voters that they have a material stake in the survival and expansion of unions.”

“If the attack on public sector labor is not blunted in the next few years,” he wrote, “organized labor’s largest stronghold risks being outflanked and rolled back, with devastating consequences for both the labor movement and the nation.”

Read the full article here.