Article: AFL-CIO no more

This is probably the biggest news of the year. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU - the union of hospital workers, social workers, nurses, janitors, and others) is leading a succession of many of the biggest and most influential unions out of the AFL-CIO.

The most effective anti-poverty program in the world is a union membership card. A strong labor movement means a good chance at a decent living for working people everywhere. Period. That's why this has such huge implications...

In general, I believe that the union movement has been in decline for the last 30 years (a decline that matches up pretty closely to the overall decline in wages and benefits, as well as the decline in progressive politics), and that this will hopefully spur the type of innovation and competition that the movement desperately needs.

I'll be writing more about this in the coming days. In general, I try to avoid partisan political ranting on my blog, because there are many many many better places for partisan political ranting. But this issue is different. Without organized labor, I'd still be moving boxes for a living in NJ. I owe them my livelyhood, as do millions of others.

I'll be writing about this issue at length over the next few day. If you can't wait until then, check out the "Unions" links on the right hand side of the blog. My favorite is House of Labor.