The political power of a worker, when he casts his or her vote, does not match the political power of the stockholders who own the companies that employ us. Those with control over the productive wealth in our economy not only influence election campaigns with the money they have, but also influence elected politicians with their threats to scale back modernization plans, invest elsewhere, import more and export less, close sown plants and destroy communities. The most important workplace lesson we learned over the years was that, individually, the worker is in no position to challenge management.
Collective action is absolutely fundamental to defend our interests and achieve our goals.
The same lesson is true politically. To balance the political power that employers have, workers must go beyond trying to act as individual citizens and move on towards acting collectively. Our unions are a fundamental base for such collective political action. Moreover, we should be proud, not defensive, about expanding the union's role to include politics. The involvement of unions beyond collective bargaining is fundamental to a democratic society.