An interesting interview with Andy Stern (retired president of SEIU):

[sufrommich]

Ezra Klein: A week ago, everyone I spoke to in the labor movement was convinced that Walker’s initiative was the worst thing to happen to them in a generation. Now I talk to them and they say it may be the best thing to happen to them in a generation. Where do you come down?

Andy Stern: It has that potential. The unions managed to strip the fiscal issues out from all of it, and Walker made such a big mistake exempting the police and firemen’s unions. He mobilized unions members in a way that hasn’t happened in a long time, and brought them together with students and other progressives. It’s turned into a Democrat versus Republican fight, not a good government versus bad government fight. Walker is beginning to look stubborn and inflexible. They’ve clearly raised the price of taking this action to a very high level. It was interesting to see Mitch Daniels and Rick Scott back away from this stuff. But it may not end beautifully in Wisconsin. They have to be really careful about how that end is interpreted -- whatever it is. You have to think about how to not make it a loss, without making ridiculous claims that you’ve won.

But this is what we do best in labor: fight back. Our question going forward is how do we change our posture on budget and fiscal issues so we’re not always looking like an impediment. Budget and pensions are math. There is a problem in Wisconsin next year, as there is in 44 other states. And the union eventually made a decision about contributing to solve the problem, but doing it under duress looks different than doing it as part of a collaborative process.

EK: You mention collaborative processes. I’ve been asking labor experts about the sharp decline of unions in America versus their relative health in Europe and Canada, and one answer some have given is that the animosity between unions and workplaces -- and, to some degree, the conservative party -- in America is unique. In other countries, it’s not so bitter. It can even be friendly. Do you buy that?

AS: I think we grew up in that culture. In the '30s, people didn’t want us to exist. We had to do sit-down strikes and various other things. We had socialist and communist tendencies. We grew up, to speak in Marxist terms, in a world with a lot more class struggle. And there still obviously are differences between people, but it’s not viewed through that light anymore. There’s a difference between saying corporations can be greedy and Citizens United is a bad decision and real class struggle. We have this anti-employer, they’re going to kill us we need to kill them first, mentality. We’ve done a very bad job, for instance, making alliances with small businesses.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2011/02/andy_stern_it_may_not_end_beau.html

[Bozita]

1. Excellent! ... Recommended

[sufrommich]

2. His comparison of European unions and American unions

was really interesting. I remember seeing this guy on an interview and he was most impressive.