by Bill Fletcher, Jr., 2012
“They’re Bankrupting Us” is a great resource for people unfamiliar with unions to understand their inner workings. Turns out, once you stomp out the myths and replace them with the facts, unions aren’t so scary after all.
As a unionist for more than 2 decades, I was pleased to see a new take on an old problem: how do you convey the benefits of unions to people who may have very little exposure to them?
The mainstream has all but dismissed our very active presence and participation in the country, unless it’s Labor Day.
Fletcher’s book also helps advance the understanding of collective bargaining, solidarity and workplace rights to union members who are new or unclear of our history. In addition, it gives us tools to defend the value of unions during conversations with that brother-in-law at the holiday dinners—you know the one; he blames unions for every problem we have, but can’t explain why.
An interesting myth in the book for me personally was Myth 6: “Unions were good once, but we don’t need them any longer.” I’ve had many conversations busting this myth myself. Sure, we have weekends and time off, “for what we will”, as unions demanded so long ago. Yet we also have 12-hour swing shifts and comp-time policies inching their way into normalcy to undermine our quality of life and our time off the job.
Workers will always encounter struggles achieving dignity at work—but without unions, without a seat at the table, workers will certainly be on the menu.
