The future of labor unions

Noel Ignatiev

Organizing

Heard on the radio this morning: Gus Atsas, newly-elected president of United Steelworkers Local 1014, which has about 2,020 members at U.S. Steel Gary Works (which once employed 27,000 people and where your correspondent had the honor to work from 1971 to 1975) announced that the members had voted to authorize a strike. (For those familiar with union procedures, a strike authorization does not guarantee a strike; it is part of the choreography leading up to a contract.) Atsas said, There will probably not be a strike. Our future is tied to U.S. Steelโ€™s. As U.S. Steel goes, so goes the union. Without U.S. Steel, there is no union.

President Atsas showed a stronger grasp of reality than the various leftists who think a policy of confrontation with the corporations will restore the unions to their former glory.

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