For more than 30 years he has tirelessly campaigned as a consumer advocate and has warned against the growing power and arrogance of the corporations. Labor has largely ignored him. In the past, unions have addressed the ills of society, if at all, from the view of production - plant closings, layoffs, wages and violations of workers' rights. Nader spoke another language, that of people as consumers - product liability, high prices, HMO reform, education reform and corporate responsibility. Since Seattle, a growing number of labor leaders and activists have discovered that a one-dimensional analysis of the economy is insufficient.
Workers are also consumers.
Union members want to live in a healthy and pleasant environment as much as anyone else. The entire society's direction was the interest of those early union organizers. They weren't just interested in getting a decent standard of living for their workplace. And their membership, as a percent of overall labor, has shrunk precipitously. Perhaps the most important contribution of Nader and his supporters to this election is his injection of real issues into the campaign.