Jobs, Labor And The 1936 GM Strike : The Indicator from Planet Money

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Union membership has declined steadily over the last 40 years, but the brutal unemployment situation is revealing how poorly many American workers are paid — and how few protections they have.

The US economy added another 1.8 million jobs in the month of July. The good news: It's the third-straight month of improvement since the beginning of the lockdowns related to the coronavirus pandemic, and it beat expectations. The bad news: It's a lot less than the 4.8 million jobs added in June, and it leaves the economy still down 12.9 million jobs.

The mass layoffs have revealed just how poorly many American workers are paid, and how few protections they have. And that's got a lot of people thinking about labor unions. Union membership has been in steady decline for the last 40 years. The resulting lack of worker power when it comes to negotiating pay and benefits is one of the reasons corporate growth in the US has been so strong. That's been a big boost for company profits and thus for the stock market.

Today we tell the story of the birth of organized labor, and the first union contract struck between General Motors and its workers, after a bitter strike during the winter of 1936.

 

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Make whatever rights and advantages Union members get available to everyone, under the law? yes. I shouldn't have to join some special group in order to be treated correctly as a worker in this economy. Don't want to picket every dang business in the country, separately. tiring

This is because business owners have their own trolls that are online saying negative things about unions and the lemmings are too gullible m

Wages have globalized. Workers have figured out the union skim and their sell out to the Democrat party.

Individual workers reject the cartels of the left.

Unions, EPA, SEC all came into being of necessity, and big business has constantly be trying to be end them for 30 yrs. tRump has done it in 3.

It's almost like many unions got caught in the capitalist drive of growth or death and became so obsessed with growth and power that they forgot their purpose is to balance power between capitalists(those with investment money)and everyone working to survive. Hierarchies kill!

Thanks reagan

Solidarity forever! Solidarity forever! Solidarity forever! For the Union makes us strong.

jonsteingart A good story would be the employee protections in Brazil v the United States.

'Revealing' lmao who the fuck wrote this? It's been apparent for the last 2 decades at least.

They believed the republican LIE of trickle down economics. Executives are getting paid record salaries and workers salaries are stagnant. We ALL know what trickles down and it's not money

The abject poverty in America is a damned disgrace.

I was the Confidential Assistant/PAC admin to the Secretary-Treasurer of a Union for years. The decline of membership/beck objectors is no surprise. Americans are being paid+protected poorly in part bc of the ineffectiveness of modern-day unions. It’s a curruptionfest. SeenIt

Unions protect bad cops and even worse teachers, time to compete like the rest of us

I remember my first year as a retail cashier. I watched the thousands of dollars going through my fingers at Christmas time and claimed, “There needs to be a cashiers’ union.” Today, cashiers earn only about 3 times what I did then, nearly 40 year ago. And most have no benefits.

I thought I was going to read a story not be referred to a podcast!

It is time for a massive general strike.

craigcalcaterra How's that 'Trickle Down' thing going?

TFB

The republicans have done a great job making unions the bad guy.

Republicans destroy unions & wages go down. Those workers are now earning less than when there were union jobs. Republicans promise to take care of the working class and give tax cuts to the wealthy...HUH!

It's declining because the notion that you must PAY an organization for good working conditions, normalizes BAD working conditions.

Police Union is still healthy and prospering. Let's see... oh yeah a Union which endorses the 2nd. Seems that out of all manifestations the NFAC was the only one the police did not mess up with. Let's see... oh yeah the NFAC endorses the 2nd. You get the idea. Armed Unions work.

My husband pays $50 a month for union dues and we get medical, dental and vision insurance. We don't have to pay separate for insurance fees other than co-pays. Yes, that $50 covers the cost of all our insurance. THANKS, teamsters!

We need the Mafia back!

Republicans: 'Yeah? So?'

Yeah, especially when Article 18 is negotiated into your contract NALC_National makesnosense

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