Where Are You, John L. Lewis?
Well, he’s been dead these past thirty-six years, but John L. Lewis was a giant of a labor leader for the United Mine Workers. There seem to be no such giants today, they’re all bean-counters and politicos and the huge argument that’s splitting the Service Employees and Truckers away from the AFL/CIO is mostly about beans and politics. Unionization is taking a hit, probably because it deserves one. Lewis came out of his corner swinging because mine workers were in the poorest paying and most dangerous jobs in the country. They had issues. For the most part, union workers today enjoy wages, hours, pensions and job security that are unprecedented and put them on top of the world, worker-wise.
The top of the world leaves no room to go up anymore. The top of the world is driving business off-shore and companies such as General Motors into bankruptcy. Labor is disintegrating because the model that built it was inferior wages and lousy working conditions and that model no longer (or barel…