so-how,exactly,would increased union representation be a BAD thing?

[w8liftinglady]

In my state,unions are essentially impotent...most of the employers are quite satisfied with paying minimum wsge/bo benefits.Is that what the Republicans are afraid of?
I'd appreciate Omaha Steve,or some other informed Union member,to let me know the financial influence unions have,so I can throw it back at the so-called experts in my area.It will be dwarfed by the multinational corps agenda,I'm afraid.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

1. More union influence the better

[w8liftinglady]

2. Article printed the day after SC decision-union membership has dropped in private sector

http://www.star-telegram.com/461/story/1913915.html
WASHINGTON — The number of union workers employed by the government for the first time outnumbered union ranks in the private sector last year, the result of massive layoffs that plunged the rate of private sector union membership to a record low.

There has been an underground effort to organize nurses here in Texas-with a mass "public service" campaign by hospitals meant to intimidate them.

[FreakinDJ]

3. 35% Union Work Force during BEST economic decade in America

1950s - The Largest most Prosperous Economic Expansion in American History

aka: America's Middle Class

[w8liftinglady]

4. and now 12%? and bound to get worse

[JVS]

5. If ypu're speaking of the SCROTUS ruling, there are already a couple things that work out worse.

Deregulation of corporate speech does give unions more ability to campaign, but since unions are in frequent conflict with corporations it becomes and issue of relative wealth. Think of who would benefit if the cap on individual political contributions were raised from $2,300 to $230,000. Since most of us can't even hit the cap affordably, the benefit really goes to the wealth few for whom dropping $230,000 isn't a crippling blow. The first problem unions will have from this is caused by the fact that most locals have a treasury much smaller than the wealth of the company with which they negotiate. So it stands to reason that the company gets "more speech" since we're now counting speech in dollars. The only cases I can see where the union can benefit is if the union has a conflict with a relatively small business and the local union has the backing (and we're talking money backing, not the "we stand in solidarity" backing) of other locals or even the state or national levels of the organizations. For example if SEIU is trying to organize the employees at a hospital, they could funnel money/speech to the local there and if the hospital isn't part of a big network it can be outspent. On the other hand, even some of the largest unions now face the prospect of being outspent/spoken by the companies they deal with. For example, the UAW is a very large union with considerable wealth but the Big 3 (need of bailouts aside) probably going to be able to figure out a way to use more money for political purposes. So really, corporations benefit most because they have more money.

A second problem is that unions already have some restrictions placed on them can be seen when one reads Robert Reich's recent article http://robertreich.org/post/347547700/its-time-for-a-shareholder-protection-act although it might be possible that these laws will now be unconstitutional.

[w8liftinglady]

6. I guess that is my point-many of the Neocons take issue with increased "union personhood"

it seems to be a moot point,except in state elections like New York or other highly represented states.

[FLAprogressive]

7. Whatever unions gain is nullified by big corporate gains....

[sendero]

8. Unions..

.. have about .1% the cash to throw at this that corps have.

They just threw that in because they had to.

[w8liftinglady]

9. I guess that is what I'm looking for..a tangible number

[sendero]

10. I'm not claiming.

.... that's the number, but it's something like that.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

11. There are portions of the standard union approach to things that need to get modified for today

Most obvious is seniority...unless you are an assembly line worker or equivalent, it needs to go.