Review by "Bookpage"
Look for the union label: organized labor and the American worker
- by John T. Slania
November 2007
It’s hard to read the vital signs of organized labor. Labor’s heart and soul--most prominently autoworkers, steelworkers and miners--appear to be on life support, having suffered a significant loss of jobs and benefits in recent years. Yet there seems to be a faint, but promising pulse among some unions; Hollywood screenwriters and Broadway stagehands are the latest to carry out vigorous strikes. This constant ebb and flow of labor’s fortunes is the timely topic of author Philip M. Dine’s new book, State of the Unions.
Dine has covered labor for two decades as a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and he has the expertise and writing skills to produce a credible and readable book. Dine’s list of sources range from rank-and-file union members, such as firefighters in Iowa and catfish factory workers in Mississippi, to Teamsters’ president James P. Hoffa, and his grasp of labor issues is reflected in the authority of his writing.State of the Unions chronicles the gradual weakening of unions, from a post-World War II high, when of one-third of all U.S. workers were unionized, to the present, where just 12.5 percent of workers carry union cards. Dine fingers corporate America as a main culprit. Each time an American factory is relocated overseas, Dine writes, that many more union jobs are lost and never replaced. And the quest for greater corporate profits has placed an additional squeeze on unions, he writes, with companies like Wal-Mart opposing unionization of its workers. Politicians are also to blame, Dine adds, passing legislation that favors big corporations and hampers unions, such as right-to-work laws in a growing number of states.
Dine argues that the waning influence of unions is dangerous for all Americans, because it has lasting negative affects. Without unions to provide a check and balance against big corporations, there are job losses, reduced benefits and lower wages, which results in greater consumer debt and a shrinking of the middle class, Dine writes. His conclusion: “Rather than becoming irrelevant, unions are increasingly needed by workers because they are taking it on the chin--with virtually no institutional means of fighting back.”
Every American worker--whether a union member or not--should read this book to understand the influence of the labor movement on society and the economy.
John T. Slania is a journalism professor at Loyola University in Chicago.
© 2007, All rights reserved, BookPage
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