Union Education Needed

Young people who are not yet in the work place will get their first impressions of unions from sound bites or negative reports from anti-union sources like the Republican party and GOP corporations and the media they control. Labor is missing a lot of chances to educate potential members by putting a positive spin on what labor unions are and how they can help workers. Most of our public education system is taught by union teachers. They could tell their students indirect or innocuous stories about how unions have effected their lives and that of the students. For instance, a teacher/professor could say, something like, ‘union negotiations have kept class size down so that, as a teacher, I can have more time with each of those students who might need more help.’ Or, like I’ve heard, ‘Before our teachers unionized, I had to work a second job to make ends meet.’ Teachers could also incorporate labor history into U.S. history, such as when describing the Great Depression or how children were forced to do the work adults were doing. Corporations didn’t care so long as the quotas were being met. Education isn’t just a school activity. Union members can discuss in the home how the unions have improved their and their families lives, not just with a better income, but safer working conditions and health care coverage. Young people need to be taught labor history, the good and the bad, such as the corruption issues in our history, so that they can make up their own minds about labor unions. One way could be for labor unions or Central Labor Councils to sponsor labor “clubs,” or public information nights with food, would give organizers an opportunity to explain the apprenticeship programs, labor jobs complete with benefits and wages compared to nonunion jobs. These “clubs” could help with apprenticeship testing on what they need to study to pass the tests, and learn what being a union member is all about. If they are working at a fast food or coffee shop or another nonunion shop. they could be shown how to get a union representation. The young people need to know labor history. Like the Art of War says, “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle. “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” So you must learn labor’s history and nonunion corporations’ history. There has been times when each side has won and each side has lost, labor union members need to know how each succeeded or lost. Why aren’t union running commercials educating the public about unions? If the unions ran commercials about the benefits of unions and then add a chyron that tells where a meet and greet will be held, what are the possibilities people would show up?