Union Busting For Fun And Profit By: Mark W Adams

"The best anti-poverty strategy is a strong labor movement."

-- John Edwards

Digby (who else):

It has become conventional wisdom among many, having been led by a media with a dog in the fight, that unions are bad for America. As I noted in a recent post, you have people like Jim Cramer going on TV screaming and spitting at the top of his lungs, "they have to break that union, they have to break that union!" (about the UAW) and it's not countered with ... anything.

This makes sense for the plutocrats like Cramer and Chris Matthews but for the rest of us, not so much, even if we aren't in unions. Paul Krugman makes a persuasive argument in "Conscience of a Liberal" that the decades long conservative assault on the union movement has been a major contributor to the income inequality we are seeing today. Unions are essential to maintaining a thriving middle class and a thriving middle class is essential for a stable and decent society.

I remember when I saw Kramer go off on the UAW a couple of weeks ago, acting quite the madman (his usual persona), my mouth just hung open. I mean, I know these guys really feel that way, but I never heard anyone come right out and say it -- especially with such enthusiasm.

Workers, their families, the hell with the entire middle class if it fattens his portfolio.

He spewed some nonsense about how well Caterpillar, Inc. did when it engaged in some union busting of it's own. The guy was positively jubilant over the prospect of buying Chrysler at a bargain and watching it's stock price increase if it could only eliminate benefits and fair pay demanded by those damn unions. He'd be rich(er) if we could only go back to the good old days of slave wages throughout the land.

Watching this guy is like a window into the Id of Corporatism. An almost sexual release at the mere prospect making one dollar more for doing not one damn thing. If Tweedy hadn't been sitting and giggling next to him, I would have sworn I was watching Fox.