For Labor Day, tallying the many cuts that bled unions and the long road back

[lordsummerisle]

seattletimes.com

It seems appropriate to begin this Labor Day column by noting that this year is the 100th anniversary of the Seattle General Strike, which shut down the city for six days in February 1919.

My colleague Ron Judd examined the many myths and distortions about the stoppage earlier this year in The Seattle Times’ Pacific NW Magazine.

For example, the strike was labeled by some, including ambitious Mayor Ole Hanson, as an American Bolshevik revolution killed in the cradle when it collapsed after six days (the real Bolshevik revolution in Russia was not even two years old). “But most local labor leaders, part of the American Federation of Labor umbrella, were not revolutionaries, and the strike was not called to foment revolution,” Judd writes.

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/for-labor-day-tallying-the-many-cuts-that-bled-unions-and-the-long-road-back/

[BigmanPigman]

1. Reagun screwed the unions...reason #1,000,001 why I hate him.

"According to a new report by the Washington State Labor Education and Research Center, these employees earn an average 7.2% more than nonunion workers, are 20% more likely to have employer-sponsored health care and are 37% more likely to receive retirement benefits."

"This changing America was reflected in the election of union-skeptical presidents, not least Ronald Reagan. By busting the air-traffic controllers strike in 1981, Reagan and his National Labor Relations Board gave assent to similar moves in the private sector. (Reagan, ironically, was the only president to have served as head of an AFL-CIO union.)"