Where does collective bargaining fit into an overall strategy around democratizing the economy and improving working conditions?
Collective bargaining is an important strategy for increasing conditions for employees and communities. It’s certainly the core and bread and butter of American trade and unionism. Collective bargaining is one of the many range of strategies that we have to employ to improve people conditions. The argument in ANND, and I think this goes back to the old deal, was that bargaining was a core component of the old deal, but that there was also a very broad safety net that worked alongside of collective bargaining. Here’s how it worked: anytime employees got [laid off], they were caught by the social safety net. They didn’t hit rock bottom. When the economy did turn and became more stable, people went back to work without losing their home and without completely losing everything. Now we have way more volatility in the economy, we don’t have markets that are insulated, we have no social safety net to catch people when they get disconnected from employment. So yes, collective bargaining is im
