Labour Unions Don't Have Public Trust

Labour Unions Don't Have Public Trust 19 Jan 2009, 0205 hrs IST, TNN PUNE: "Over a period of time, the nature of strikes by labour unions have changed tremendously," said Michael Goldfield, a professor at the Wayne State University in Detroit (USA). Goldfield visited the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (GIPE) and presented his study on the failure of US' southern textile labour organizations in the world-wide historical and comparative perspective'. He said, "During the earlier days when textile workers went on strike, they had the support of the common people. The trust of the public helped them in a huge way in their struggle to raise their demands. However, the unions which go on strike now have a political party or motive behind it. In a broader sense, they have lost the public's trust." Goldfield, who is on a five-week tour of India to study the textile workers' unions, said, "The recent strikes in India, especially the truckers and oil company employees stir, gained a lot of negative publicity. But at the same time, the insurance industry was hit by a strike in mid-December and hardly anybody knew about it. I searched the internet and there wasn't even a single report on it. Union strikes gain a lot of leverage on the publicity they get. And the impact of media reports also play a major role today." Goldfield has published several articles on unions in social science journals, including the American Political Science Review' and International Labour and Working Class History'. He has also authored several books, including The Decline of Organized Labor in the United States' and The Color of Politics: Race and the Mainsprings of American Politics'. He is currently working on a book on race, southern labor organizations in the 1930s and 1940s and its implications on the current American politics.

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