Labor I

For Wednesday, Cigler, ch. 6.

Oral presentations next week.  Don't worry:  they are very brief (5-7 minutes maximum).  Let me know if you prefer to go Mon or Wed:  otherwise, I shall assign slots at random at random.

Papers due 2 weeks from Friday.

LAUSD STRIKES

• 2019
• 2023

Story:  Michigan repeals right to work law.

• List

After Janus, private sector unions continue their slide -- membership is just 6% of employed persons -- but public sector unions hold their own

DiSalvo:

The reality is that many public workers like their union, especially their local affiliate. Distaste for union politics increases, surveys suggest, as one moves up from the local to the national federation. It is also important to recall that public unions in the 22 states affected by Janus are starting from a position of strength — their membership is large and has been stable for decades. Their task now is to preserve membership, which is easier than trying to build it up. To remain important political players, the unions need only to hold on to as many of their current members as possible and do a respectable job in recruiting new hires.

Union members as a percentage of employees

..................................................2018......2022

• Federal government.............26.4......24.1
• State government.................28.6......29.9
• Local government................40.3......38.8

Sources of power and coalition-building. Eitan Hersh writes at FiveThirtyEight:

Most states — 44 out of 50 — hold some state and local elections off the federal cycle.
...
Why do Democrats and Democratic-aligned groups prefer off-cycle elections? When school boards and other municipal offices are up for election at odd times, few run-of-the-mill voters show up at the polls, but voters with a particular interest in these elections — like city workers themselves — show up in full force. The low-turnout election allows their policy goals to dominate

Stat of the Day: 71%

At 71%, U.S. Approval of Labor Unions at Highest Point Since 1965 according to @Gallup.

That is a +23 approval increase since 2010https://t.co/lNXx2qrNLb pic.twitter.com/Bn7WyiyphV

— John Anzalone (@JohnAnzo) August 30, 2022

 

Backing the Badge

• A 1967 survey of major Northern cities found stark differences between African Americans and whites as to the causes of riots. African Americans tended to blame riots of lack of opportunities, unemployment, and bad living conditions By contrast, the purported causes that whites mentioned most often were outsiders stirring up trouble or hearing news of riots in other cities.
•  In 1968, 63 percent told Gallup that “courts in this area” did not deal harshly enough with criminals. One year later, that figure was up to 75 percent. In a 1968 CBS poll, 70 percent of whites thought that police should be “tougher than they have been” in handling riots, compared with just 17 percent of African Americans. (azel Erskine, “The Polls: Causes of Crime,” Public Opinion Quarterly 38 (Winter 1974-75): 288-298.
• After Chicago police attacked anti-war protesters at the 1968 Democratic convention, survey respondents sympathized with the police. In a Gallup poll, 56 percent approved of the police and 31 percent did not. In a Harris survey, 66 percent agreed that Mayor Richard J. Daley was right in the way he used police against the demonstrators, while just 20 percent disagreed

POLICE UNION MONEY

CHANGES IN PUBLIC OPINION

RAPID RESPONSE BY POLS \TRUMP FOR POLICE 

AND  POLICE FOR TRUMP