Unions and Political Power

The Post reports what we already knew: Unionism is declining, but the political power of the big unions isn’t:

The juxtaposition of the United Auto Workers‘ negotiations with General Motors and the Change to Win alliance’s summit underscored one of the more notable features of the 2008 presidential race. Organized labor may be on the wane, trammeled by outsourcing, foreign competition, automation and an unfriendly administration, but you would not know it from the courting unions are enjoying from the Democratic field.

The leading Democratic candidates made their pitch to the unions in Chicago one week after they addressed the Change to Win alliance’s biggest contingent, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), in Washington. Former senator John Edwards (N.C.) has, by his count, participated in 240 strikes or organizing efforts since 2004. But his rivals are hardly ceding the territory — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) reportedly made several last-minute calls to the United Steelworkers to try to stave off their endorsement of Edwards, while Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) is hoping that his backing in the Illinois chapter of SEIU will block the 1.9 million-member union from endorsing Edwards.

Unions say their endorsements will carry more weight than ever, given how motivated their members are in an election season in which they believe they have a chance of putting Democrats in control of the White House and Congress for the first time since 1994.

This is instructive, I think, in that it suggests that unions recognize that their only path to power right now is through the political process.  Unionism just isn’t that popular these days, and with good reason, and America’s workers are increasingly turning away from unions, thinking they have more opportunities without them.   So unions, failing to organize the way they want, are giving huge payouts to Democrats, and they’re fighting for radical changes in how the law treats organizing drives.  It’s disappointing (though not surprising) to see that Democrats are playing along, but in the end, I think this is more a sign of increasing union weakness than anything else.