A
note from Moyers & Company:
Lost
in the Supreme media chatter last week: a disturbing
ruling that restricts labor unions from directing
collected dues toward political causes. There’s
no such limit on corporations, naturally – yet
another indication that the power and status of modern
unions is waning, especially when compared to the
unbridled influence of Corporate America. With a sharp
decline in union membership, a legion of new enemies,
and a series of legal and legislative setbacks, can
unions rebound and once again act strongly in the
interest of ordinary workers?
On
this week’s Moyers & Company (check
local listings), Bill talks to two people who
can best answer the question: Stephen Lerner and Bill
Fletcher, Jr. The architect of the SEIU’s Justice
for Janitors movement, Lerner directed SEIU’s
private equity project, which worked to expose a Wall
Street feeding frenzy that left the working class
in a state of catastrophe. Fletcher took his Harvard
degree to the Massachusetts shipyards, and worked
as a welder before becoming a labor activist. He served
as assistant to the president of the AFL-CIO, and
is author of the upcoming book They’re Bankrupting
Us – And 20 Other Myths About Unions.
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