Sunday, June 28th, 2:00 pm
Christ Church of Montpelier, 64 State Street
AFL-CIO Conference Room

Come join us to discuss the decline of the American union movement – and how it can revive, through a leading analyst of labor, Stanley Aronowitz's, and his latest book, "The Death and Life of American Labor". Electronic copies of the book are available, please email Liz (lizemedina@gmail.com) if you are having trouble getting a copy. Sponsored by the Vermont Workers' Center.

Unions are in state of crisis in the United States: membership has been in decline for more than fifty years, shrinking year after year. At the same time, American workers and their families have been struggling with stagnating wages; hourly compensation has not risen in tandem with significant increases in productivity (http://www.epi.org/publication/charting-wage-stagnation/). The topic of rising inequality has become a national conversation; however, the important role unions play in redistributing wealth has largely been left out of the discussion. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics recognizes that unionized workers earn up to 30 percent more than non-unionized workers. But do unions have the vision and strategies required to narrow the wealth gap and increase membership? Have unions become complacent with the neoliberal ideology currently embedded in our institutions? Join us in investigating the history of unions in America and discussing Aronowitz’s call for their radical transformation. We will talk about what it means to go beyond collective bargaining and union politics -- taking on issues in the workplace and beyond such as, affordable housing, health care, precarious work, democratic control over production, the length of the working day, and community education. These issues will be contextualized in recent events, such as the incursion of “right-to-work” states; the revival of solidarity and the possibilities of democratic organization realized by Occupy Wall Street; and the non-unionized direct actions of fast-food and service workers fighting for wage increases. By bringing this all together, we can also start to imagine new solutions and alliances to bring social justice to our own communities.

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