Harold Meyerson on why the Democrats need unions

In his latest op-ed, the astute Harold Meyerson gives some advice to the Democrats about attracting white working class voters. The key is union. In the electoral long run, the Employee Free Choice Act and, this November, labor’s secret weapon–Working America.

Meyerson points out that unions make a difference in how whites votes.

For the past 40 years — ever since working-class whites began defecting from Democratic ranks — the voting behaviors of unionized and non-unionized whites have differed radically. In every election during this period, union members have voted for the Democratic presidential candidate at a rate about a dozen points higher than the general public and about 15 points higher than the non-union sector.

The problem is

… that American employers have waged a hugely successful campaign against unions for the past 35 years, abetted by a dysfunctional labor law that imposes negligible penalties on employers for violating its terms and their employees’ rights… Democrats stood by and failed to strengthen workers’ rights to organize. By the late ’90s, John Sweeney’s AFL-CIO had impressed upon Democrats that their inaction amounted to slow-motion suicide. Today, the party is united behind the Employee Free Choice Act, which, by enabling workers to join unions again without fear of being fired, would also greatly help Democratic prospects at the polls.

And labor has a program that can make the difference this fall.

Since 2004, the AFL-CIO has conducted a door-to-door membership drive in white working-class neighborhoods of key swing states, signing people up not for workplace representation but for certain union benefits — and to enlist them in the federation’s political program. That program, called Working America, has 2 million members in key industrial Midwest states, among others, and has turned out large majorities in recent elections for such Democratic candidates as Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland. While Barack Obama may prove a tough sell to some of these voters come November, Working America will surely be the Democrats’ best shot at landing their white whale.