JB: If unions are so beneficial for workers, why is union membership so low right now? Is management opposition the only factor?
EL: Basically, yes. Union membership is low only in America, not other countries like us, suggesting it's not natural forces like globalization or technology. The causes are purposeful and political, and they've been going on for years. The Taft-Hartley Act made it harder to strike; Right-to-Work laws make it harder to organize; political appointees on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) regularly side with management over workers.
Big business understands that collective action can level the playing field - so they take every opportunity to make it harder. The Republican party treats unions like the enemy. Ronald Reagan famously broke the Air Traffic Controllers strike. Democrats, on the other hand, are inconsistent allies, occasionally defending unions but largely leaving them to fend for themselves. The result is a field that keeps tipping right. Legal protections shrink so unions have less power so legal protections shrink some more. It's a cycle. Wages are caught in the same downward spiral.
But I can be optimistic, too. Maybe we're hitting bottom and turning ourselves around. Union campaigns are on the rise - like those Amazon warehouse workers in Alabama. Hospital and nursing home workers are voting for union representation. The 2019 Red for Ed teacher strikes were amazing.
Unions, climate change, even mass incarceration... we know how to make things better. We just need to do it.
JB: We have a new administration. Do you have any sense of how unions and union organizing will fare under Biden's presidency?
EL: Biden is part of my optimism. I think he understands these issues personally (Scranton!), and I think the Democratic party in general is seeing the consequences of benign neglect on their side versus active attacks from the other. If Democrats keep taking unions for granted, neither will be around much longer.
JB: Agreed. Tell us about the name of this book. Is there a cool backstory lurking?
EL: No cool backstory, just a pun on unions. We have a romance. We have a hat tip to manufacturing, with the old label, "Union Made." Both are going on here. Maybe we can get both kinds of unions.
JB: Let's shift gears for a moment. What's it like publishing a book during a pandemic? How has your game plan for marketing, etc. shifted since the publishing of your previous, pre-COVID books?
EL: Oh, my. We planned to release the book in the summer of 2020, then kept pushing it back. Finally we stopped waiting and decided to release it in March 2021. We just focus less on conferences, book groups and other personal convenings. It's all digital.
But here's the good news: COVID or no, you can still read a book. Want me to zoom into your book group? Send me an email!
JB: Hear that, book groups? Take him up on his lovely offer. It was fun talking with you again, Eric. Good luck with Union Made . It's a keeper!
****
Fun factlets about Union Made and other union-related matters:
- Eric's favorite silly random disrupter, Loren Ibsen is named after Lorem Ipsum.
- The nasty union busting consultant Theresa Staedtler is named after this.
- Dan Daniels is named after John Johns. Eric learned from John what's between the lines of SEC filings.
- Somewhere in the past, Joan heard about a song, "Union Maid," which kept rattling around in her head as she read this book. It wasn't her imagination. Read more about it below. According to Wikipedia:
"Union Maid" is a union song, with lyrics written by Woody Guthrie in response to a request for a union song from a female point of view[1] ... Along with "Talking Union", this song was one of the many pro-union songs written by Guthrie during his time as a member of the Almanac Singers. Another member, Pete Seeger writes,
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
