Two Top Unions Split From AFL-CIO

This is something I've seen coming for a while. Unions have "lost their way", basically. From all the strikes and clammoring for unionization I saw as an undergrad to what's been going on in workplaces around the country and around the world, unions needed to change.

Unions have been made out by the Republicans and business owners as the enemy of the workers. This argument should not hold water. But it does. Why? Because some unions forced companies out of the country or out of business rather than take a benefit cut. Much of the dues paid by members was put into meager political gains. The jobs people were doing changed. We simply do not employ that many people in manufacturing anymore: they're now in service industries. [why that is bad is a topic for another day]

Unions were - and still are - a necessary balance to the power of corporations, many of which are only getting stronger. White collar workers at some point may see how unions will help them. Unions gave us the 40 hour work week - how many of us still have that? (I have varied from 40 to about 90 hour work weeks). They made so many revolutionary changes in how contracts are structured and how much better workers got treated, that at this point in time we just take all of it for granted.

Two Top Unions Split From AFL-CIO

I hope that the split unions work better to show the reasons why we have labor unions in the first place. Clammoring for pensions (which are bankrupting the country) and health care benefit increases (which are also bankrupting the country) won't cut it. They need to clammor for universal health care.