Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Guess Who

"Only a handful of unreconstructed reactionaries harbor the ugly thought of breaking unions. Only a fool would try to deprive working men and working women of the right to join the union of their choice."
...
"An industrial society dedicated to the largest possible measure of economic freedom must keep firm faith in collective bargaining. That process is the best method we have for changing and improving labor conditions and thus helping to raise the American standard of living.  
"Healthy collective bargaining requires responsible unions and responsible employers. Irresponsible bargainers cannot get results. Weak unions cannot be responsible. That alone is sufficient reason for having strong unions."


6 comments:

Cirze said...

The same gentleman who thought no political party (or candidate) would dare touch the third rail.

Ike

Unknown said...

By "strong unions" Eisenhower is referring to unions that can bind their members to collective bargaining agreements - by "result" he is not referring to bargaining gains made by labour leaders on behalf of their members, but to acquiescence of labour to state and capital, in particular to suppressing wildcat strike.

Given what would later happen to social democratic systems across the world (wage restraint, wage restraint, wage restraint), I'm not sure this is the argument you think it is, in a contemporary world.

Sandwichman said...

Actually, unknown, I do know what the argument is. I teach collective bargaining. It is an argument for the Wagner Act "administrative model" of bargaining which, as you say, requires "strong" unions to discipline their members and prevent wildcat strikes. Eisenhower also included some vague language about repealing unspecified anti-union sections in Taft-Hartley. One might assume he was talking about Section 14(b), which of course wasn't repealed during the Eisenhower admin.

Denis Drew said...

"We must guard against being fooled by false slogans, such as 'right-to-work.' It is a law to rob us of our civil rights and job rights. It's purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining by which unions have improved wages and working conditions of everyone... Wherever these laws are passed, wages are lower, job opportunities are fewer and there are no civil rights. We do not intend to let them do this to us. We demand this fraud be stopped. Our weapon is our vote."

Martin Luther Kink, Jr.

rosserjb@jmu.edu said...

But, the answer to your post question is indeed Ike, right, despite his oppostion to Section 14B?

Sandwichman said...

Yep, Ike. Not clear if it was 14b he was opposed to. That would SEEM to be what he was talking about but he was evasive.