This is such an important insight. If business schools, leadership training programs, even the Davos gatherings, would acknowledge this and implement it, think how much better off we would all be. It might even heal the them vs us attitude which is destroying American society.
Kristin. I agree with you that this is a powerful insight. I would love to see business schools use it as a way of trying to improve business-worker relations, but the way so many businesses treat workers makes me think that business schools either teach or don't get students to question the employer vs. employee model that reigns in so many workplaces now. Maybe we need volunteers to ask a question or two of workers in different places and keep score of the we vs. they, then publish it.
Business schools teach prospective managers how to maximize profits. Unions are the enemy, workers are pawns.
There are a few that actually teach labor management like the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University, which offers degrees in labor relations. Most business schools do not require any labor relations curriculum.
Dan...having been in a labor union I agree. Most big business thinks the best way to deal with workers is to keep them under the thumb of management. Big business hates unions with a passion as does Wall Street and republican party. Paying workers a union wage reduces profits.
In many cases they kill the goose that laid the golden egg.
The best example is in the auto industry, where union members should have been encouraged to sell American cars, but instead the industry was hostile, outsourced, set up macadora plants in Mexico to spite it's domestic workforce. When those workers lost their jobs, they really became enemies.
Same with Medicare for all. It's in most companies' interest to eliminate fringe benefits and shift onus to the government.
Don't blame the B-Schools entirely. Better B-Schools know their rankings, and demand for (applications to) them are strongly influenced by the starting salaries their graduates will earn. Correspondingly, the students that are willing to mortgage their future to pay the steep tuition & loans are interested in maximizing their salaries & lifestyles, and repaying their loans quickly. The most beloved teacher at top-ranked Kellogg taught a popular ethics class, and also played the part of Star Wars' Yoda in the school's annual comedy and talent show. And, there were other great profs in that department.
Sorry, but I have to disagree that it's the B-schools' entire agenda. For-profit companies aren't going to allow new hires to make unprofitable decisions. I cannot speak about all schools, or even what they might've become since I graduated 40 years ago. And, I'm not trying to defend them. Clearly, evaluating scenarios and tradeoffs are essential. When I was there, tuition wasn't astronomic yet, and Kellogg had a a sizable enough # of students interested in running non-profit organizations, as well as students just learning enough to run small family businesses. One classmate recently retired from being Finance Administrator at a major university with a great hoops program.
As I've probably said a few times, I come from a long line of petit burgoos shop keepers. I have relatives who were among other things deans ad college presidents. All the funding comes from the right side of the equation. I have a lot of experience, I represented "both sides" and as a judge heard thousands of cases. Whereas most economists trend toward the left side, virtually all business grads have been well trained to "manage" rather than co-operate.
In considering "we" vs "they" in the workplace, quiet quitting has come to my attention, of late. Also coming to my attention of late is a little ditty I just can't get enough of, that's so apropos to quiet quitting trend, I'd like to dedicate it to anyone here who is currently, or has at some time in their work life been a quiet quitter: https://youtu.be/Y8Rsretl-qQ
I remember the year I gave up. It was in my performance goals to improve processes and reduce costs. I worked and worked to come up with a new process that would do just that. That year on my review I was dinged for it and all I can remember them saying was “that’s not what we meant.”
That ditty is hilarious! That’s about the way I felt when I retired from a 30 year Federal career @ the VAMC! I wanted no Party, no fuss & I didn’t want to hear any jealous remarks, just to pack up my desk & leave right before Christmas/New Years break! I also felt like I had no more fucks to give my boss doctors & found out later they didn’t fill my job but instead gave all my duties of clinic management to 4 part time male grad students! I’m quite sure they fucked up those 7 clinics very nicely as I heard the doctors were all dissatisfied & complained constantly they had no controls over the number of patients scheduled in their half day clinics!
A little more on quiet quitting: https://youtu.be/oyajMep9dTc What becomes clear is that quiet quitting is what in classical psychology is the "extinction" of a response. Although much more complex, at an operant level, it's much like the monkey who quits working at the work machine that provides a grape if the monkey performs a certain task(s) stops rewarding the monkey with a grape for the work done, so the monkey stops working the work machine. The monkey's response goes extinct from lack of reward. Just so with quiet quitting. It's Psych 101.
The most important part of your article was the following :
L-S’s workplace was organized from the bottom up. When I visited, I couldn’t tell managers from employees. All wore the same uniforms, parked in the same parking lots, ate in the same cafeteria. Worker committees did the hiring, decided on pay scales linked to levels of skill, and set production targets. They rotated jobs, so that every worker gained knowledge of the entire system.
If only we could only get our Government to follow suit!! Income inequality and lack of respect is our greatest divider in our country.
Yes, Keith, worker-employer inequity is such a huge problem in our society. We could do a lot to fix this if we had more unions and workers had more say in what happens in the workplace. That would mean the rich mostly white men in charge would have to lay down some of the power they wield. That will be hard for them. Can you imagine Trump talking with anyone in his employ about how he should run things and treat his employees? They give him that advice or he couldn't function, but they have learned to do it in subtle ways. Trump is not alone, there are a whole bunch of others almost just like him, but who don't take advice from anyone in any form.
“We” have lost our way in the USA. Our economy works for the already wealthy or the greedy. The difference between a living wage and the minimum wage would make little difference to the bottom line of millionaires and billionaires. Barbara Ehrenreich, author of “Nickel and Dimed” an “undercover account of the indignities of being a low-wage worker in the USA, and considered a classic in social justice literature.” She died last week, but leaves a legacy of writing and teaching in the areas of “the myth of the American Dream, the labor market, health care, poverty and women’s rights.” Highly recommended reading. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/02/books/barbara-ehrenreich-dead.html?smid=url-share
Irenie—Thanks for remembering, so appropriately on Labor Day, Barbara Ehrenreich. Workers, especially women, suffered an incalculable loss with her death a few days ago.
This deserves to be read more widely, especially by Republican supporters who might be converted. Perhaps we need a book on why workers' rights are not a threat to society, as capitalists would like everyone to believe. If Republican politicians try to get such books banned, goad them into burning copies and watch the sales and circulation go through the ceiling!
Wow! Miland, I love your idea of the book on business-worker relations. If we got a mystery or romance writer to help with it, we could have just enough sexy parts that Republicans will just have to announce its banning.
I guess you missed writers like Sinclair Lewis, John Steinbeck, Studs Terkel, etc. 9 to 5 was a movie, a Broadway play and aa TV series. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9_to_5_(film)
One area of study is industrial psychology. I have a cousin who was dean of three different university business schools whose PHD was in psychology. Also the sociology of work.
Our school curriculum included Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self Reliance, but was otherwise very Republican circa 1950s. None of our teachers taught labor subjects. Teacher unions came in the late '60s. I remember that I wrote HS book reports of banned books, ie Of Mice and Men, Catcher in the Rye. My dad forced me to read Vernon L. Parrington, Main Currents in American Thought one summer when I was in high school.
I wasn't a history or political science major on college but I know several people who wrote academic papers on such matters.
Having represented school districts and some teacher unions, I'm sure that the teachers in most schools took an education curriculum in college, which did not include social matters or labor subjects. Most have to take more class time on how rather than what to teach.
Labor law was an elective in law school. I took everything they offered as I knew I had a job waiting for me in that area. At one time I taught labor law as a graduate education course. And I wound up working for DOL.
Concepts like noblesse oblige do not apply to corporate or government employer/employee relations. Everything is formalized. When I was a kid sole proprietors often had profit sharing with their employees. Many came from the same culture pattern. No longer. Human nature has been excised from corporate management.
I really like Dr. Reich's dividing workplaces into the we vs. they model, and that union shops tend to be more we than they. My dad worked in a supermarket chain for 35 years. The union came in after about a dozen years. He always said that everything changed when that happened. He had liked working for the company before the union, but really liked it afterward. He was lucky that his union and bosses got along pretty well and only had one short strike while he worked for them. Turnover was low and people often retired from the company. On the other side, my niece worked for a non-unionized company where the employees hated being there. Managers often did not respect the other workers, mostly because they were encouraged not to. My niece always referred to work as they. She was made a manager which held a lot more responsibility than the workers but she earned only 50 cents more an hour. We could fix this if Congress would pass laws to stop the abuse of workers and to make it easier to organize. I get it that the Confederate states and confederate wannabees will heavily protest, but their economies aren't doing all that well right now. This Labor Day, here's to quality unions and the workers they support!
We had those laws in the United States once. They have all been 'sunsetted' or rewritten to support the corporation. The mind set of the worst of managers is "the share holders (including us) far outrank the expendable, replaceable workers. - Thanks largely to the republican party, and some wusses among the democrats.
Corporate donations are what they get if they do what their corporate masters tell them to do. They also might get the promise of a lucrative position in the company once they leave the government, as you suggest. You can bet that Kirsten Sinema got one.
The problem is that although workers outnumber management, many of those workers are fearful, under-educated, and indoctrinated by family, religion, social groups. That's why good unions, with "good" stewards, who are articulate, understand both the employees in their care and the management with whom they have to negotiate. The best union leadership support and protect their members while being respectful but steadfast for labor 'rights' with management. Having served on the Board of Directors for two different unions I have observed both types, those who negotiated well and those who caved. One of my recent rants was against the union or unions for delivery workers who have not gone to the wire to get air conditioning in delivery vehicles (USPS, UPS, FED-EX,etc.) resulting in severe health issues including death of drivers in these warmer times.
Fay…It is atrocious that these profitable companies (excluding USPS) would not provide such a basic need for these drivers during summer and in hotter climates. Really a disgrace. The execs should drive the route for one week during summer and see if policy changes get made after that.
Institutions like state governments, universities, religious organizations can leverage enough capital to ensure that as investors they have a seat on corporate boards.
The miners and their family members at the Ludlow Massacre would have described their employers as “They.” Bless the souls of those courageous people. We owe them a deep depth of gratitude.
Vet4peace, the Ludlow Massacre was a really appalling event as were so many other attacks by thugs, enforcers, and even police against workers. It is and was as though corporations believe/d they own/ed the workers and if those workers didn't toe the line (as cliche has it), they could be brutalized in any way the owners saw fit. The owners were never held accountable because they could always claim they hadn't done anything. Unions stopped a lot of that until some unions began brutalizing workers who didn't toe the union line. Union leaders, though were often held accountable for at least some of their bad behavior. In any case, having unions is far better than not. Congressional support for unions would help too.
I had to look up the Ludlow Massacre because - you guessed it - we never studied it in school. Add it to the list of historical occurrences Texas doesn’t want in textbooks.
I joined you in looking it up on Wikipedia. While I have some sympathy for your desire to jump on Texas, your reference threw me off because it happened in Colorado. Quite a story. The last survivor was only 3 at the time and died at 105 in 2019, if I am recalling what I read correctly.
as a seattle native (well, i started my life there until i left for a postdoc in NYC), it makes me sad to realise that a once-innovative company is now so horrible to its workers. i even tried to get a job there (when i was unemployed in NYC) but they refused to hire me. why? i was told later that starbux refuses to hire anyone who looks like they might start a bid to unionise the workers. as a PhD, i "looked like" someone who might unionise the place and therefore, i did not deserve a job. that's when starbux stopped being a "home away from home" for me.
OMG, Girl Scientist! Money and success certainly can corrupt and with nothing like a union to stand between management's worst impulses and the workers those impulses are directed toward, a corporation can go off the rails, just as Starbucks and so many others have. I guess I am biased, but I have not liked Starbucks. I don't care for coffee, but I have gotten tea and hot chocolate there and found both to be just OK, right about the quality of Lipton and Swiss Miss. I am not knocking either of those companies, just saying that if you are going to charge $4.50 for a cup of tea or chocolate, it should actually be better. In the past couple of years, as I watch the Starbucks workers being treated like just interchangeable parts in their machine, I am glad I didn't waste my time and money there.
Ruth ; Some Starbucks are unionized. But if management can't fairly price a "just ok" product the customers may not return. I usually drink one decaf coffee with breakfast, but if I want tea when out and about, I would most likely go to the local Starbucks because it is unionized, and I am curious. Have not been to it, because it is relatively new. The only other times I have been to Starbucks was with my kids, and they were getting 'to go' orders ; I did not want anything.
How right you are! In a very long career (age 10 to age 87) I worked for a large variety of government agencies and private enterprise. the jobs I remember with fondness were all 'we' positions, where I felt I was an essential part of the entity, regardless of pay. Where management is 'top down' I could hardly wait for my next employment. Where management included all, I could hardly wait to get to work the next day. The jobs I liked best were where I felt 'valued' [teaching and IBM] the jobs I disliked, I felt like a cog in the wheel.
Your statement is clear and excellent, Robert, but please don’t use the word that was the very
last one in your article. Because it still isn’t considered respectful, it brought your point down. I realize that some will disagree with me. Fine.
Meanwhile, I liked the way you characterized workplaces as “we” or “they” places. I’m cheered by the fact that unions--the real ones, not the ones the make too many concessions to management--are making inroads. Amazon and Starbucks workers! Whoopee!
I feel betrayed by my own union because, as a New York City municipal retiree, I’m threatened with the privatization of Medicare. It turns out that the feds are offering the municipal unions $600 million in savings for the funds that take care of active employees IF they shoehorn retirees into Medicare Advantage (really private insurance companies), and charge them $191.57 a month if they opt out and choose to stay with traditional Medicare (which they’ve been getting for free). Right now the deal is being held up by a lawsuit brought by a group of retirees. Current employees are going to be played off against retirees who’ve put years into their service to the city. In the hope it might be useful, I’ll forward to you my letter to my union president about that. He’s gung-ho for the Medicare Advantage Plan although he’s a retiree himself. He’s been quoted that way in a recent article.
Yes, employers should put workers first. To fight the profit system is called socialism, but that’s no dirty word in my book.
Carol, I am so disappointed to hear that the city is trying to push you all into Medicare Advantage. There is so much evidence that it is just another way to add to the extreme wealth of medical insurance corporations. They charge more and deny services too often to be of real value to retired persons. Corporations have always played older and retired workers off against younger ones. It often works, though because younger workers are working hard and imagine retired persons as just lazing around on the young people's money. That is what conservatives (Republicans) want the young people to believe. Generational warfare works for conservatives because so many older people have come to believe that they worked harder than anyone ever did and that the young people coming along are just slackers blah blah blah! Including more young people in union decisions and connecting them to older and retired workers to get to know each other can help. The unions could set up special events for such a purpose, then remind all the workers of who will benefit from this struggle. It won't be any of them. It will be the rich white men in charge of the medical insurance corporations who want to control everything and act with impunity.
I’ve been listening to Thom Hartmann and I’m happy to have learned that Medicare Advantage is just insurance shoving it’s way into Medicare. I will know not to sign up for it when I get there, but not enough people know this. And it should NEVER have been allowed to use the Medicare name!! I would not have realized this. A friend of mine worked in high level finance for years and she was even confused about it. The information & lies that are allowed on our airwaves is unsettling.
Wow! The trouble is that unless NYC municipal retirees opt out, they will automatically be put into the plan. If they opt out, they’ll be forced to pay a monthly premium of $191.57. At this time, the plan is on hold because of a lawsuit. Also, the original private insurance companies involved in the Medicare Advantage Plus Plan, as it was called, have dropped out, and the Mayor and the unions are looking for companies willing to take their place. I hope they fail, or the lawsuit ultimately prevails. Another hearing, before a judge, will be held if the Mayor and unions find new companies for the plan.
The Greedheads want to privatize everything! and 'Sunset' everything else. Or make it illegal, like medical procedures they 'disapprove' of (unless it's Their child/body/wife/girlfriend/lover). Or even themselves, They certainly have enough wealth to afford it. Have you heard Senator Ron Johnson's idea of 'renewing' Social Security every 5 years adjusting for its 'affordability' as a budget item? Rich!
Ruth ; There is a good example of a union president selling out! Whenever the profiteers call something an 'Advantage', it is their advantage, not the 'recipients'. It's just a matter of time when 'only $197.57 per month will go up. and up and up and up.
ken taylor ; What is a PPO? I pay over $100/month for the part B, (I think) it's so confusing ; talk about the 'donut hole' ??? I think it's for prescription drugs. Part of the confusion is the way it is all gamed.
Time to push strongly for anti trust laws. and if there is some 'legal' thing that puts this in a different category that is 'protected' from antitrust laws, we fight for some legal relief! Quality care is better for everyone, those who render care and certainly, those who receive it. The 'rush to the bottom' makes us all feel like numbers. It does not help improve health.
In the early 1960's, when I was starting collage, I decided that I wanted to be a business generalist and found that a good track would be in what was then called "Personnel." That word contains the word "person," whereas the later term "Human Resources" is commoditization of the worker as in raw material resources , fuel resources, energy resources. Maybe this is not important, but I continue to think that words matter.
I think I accidentally deleted my comment. Oh, NUTS! I have to write it again. I was really trying to edit it.
Robert, I think your brief essay is wonderful, and I like your “we”-“they” comparison. It’s a good observation. I think it would have been better if you’d avoided the rough language at the end. It’s still considered disrespectful and it doesn’t help your point. It’s nasty. I realize we all are angry at the fascists these days.
Hoorah for unions--the real kind, not the ones that make big concessions to management. Starbucks and Amazon unions are to be loved. They have courage to stand up against the owners who spend millions trying to defeat them.
I’m disappointed in my own union. I’m a New York City municipal retiree. The NYC municipal unions--most of them--have tried to sell us out. I’ll forward to you the letter I wrote to my union president complaining about this. He was quoted in a recent article advocating for the plan, as he has for awhile. Originally it had been voted in secretly.
Essentially, they’re trying to shoehorn municipal retirees into privatized--for-profit--Medicare. If we opt out of the plan, we’ll be charged $191.57 a month for staying in Traditional Medicare, when up until now it’s been free. The reason for this is that if we get the privatized Medicare or have to pay that big premium for not taking it, active workers will benefit; the unions will save about $600 million a year from the feds in a fund for active workers. Active workers are being played off against retirees; after all our years of service, this is how they’re treating us. Privatized Medicare puts profits before healthcare. The feds should obviously not be doing this, either, but Washington is a big corporate benefactor/beneficiary. For now, the plan is being held up by a lawsuit brought by a group of retirees. Hooray! But the Mayor and Unions are trying hard to get around the lawsuit.
Robert, I don’t believe you understand what it takes to run a business or be in a union. Let’s call this intellectualizing versus experiencing. Howard deserves credit for what he has accomplished with a coffee shop . He is a shining example of what businesses should do for its employees. See, this is not a fantasy for me. I belonged to steelworkers USW union. They were mostly corrupt and only interested in monthly dues. Far from utopia you’re suggesting unions offer. Having employees run a business like it were their business is the goal for most businesses. Being in a union and running a small business is a experience and not just a theory about reality. I visited Starbucks every day for years. It’s a hard job but the employees are highly motivated and use all their benefits to educate themselves, stock participation in the company, healthcare etc. They are paid $12-$15 hourly depending on level of responsibility. Howard accomplished the nearly impossible by having 8 teenagers show up at 5am to meet dozens of customers expecting perfection with complicated drinks. They are taught customer interactions using empathy, kindness and truly a caring attitude all while hustling at breakneck speed. I don’t write theories but I have ran a business over 45 years. I had a wonderful connection with my business family like Howard has accomplished. You cannot fake trust you have to truly be trustworthy. I had a disgruntled employee one time that I remember and he turned me into the IRS. They showed up at my door spent one day with me my secretaries who told them you’re in the wrong place, this guy does not deserve to be examined for anything. He is 100% honest with everything he does and he does it basically for himself first. They left after two hours. Also I don’t think a coffeeshop deserves being in a union. This is not the type of business that unions benefit. Robert, I hope this serves somewhat as a reality check. My opinion is your not thinking correctly. Howard is a one of a kind businessman and sets a example of success and inclusion for everyone. Pretty rare in today’s world. The employees are prepared to be better citizens and are happy. Not perfection but certainly positive
You make some good points Ed. We hear so many different stories & we all want the employees to be appreciated and feel valued. Thanks for some good food for thought.
My issue with most mega companies is the expanse of pay from top to bottom.
Yes. Many people applaud unions, not realizing their upper management can be as corrupt as those of major corporations. Further down, I have a comment about my story with unions too. They can serve a purpose but can be very corrupt as well.
My first school was a 2room school house. My class had 1st through 5th grade. Miss Ruby remains won of my favorite people. While she taught one group, the other grades worked in their groups cooperatively with the material. It was my best educational experience. Later, a sociology experiment, tested rural and urban children by telling 2 children that they were to play 4games of tic tax toe with a prize for the winner at the end of each round. The rural children did not talk to each other, ut made sure that they each won 2 games and each got 2 prizes. The urban children used completion instead of cooperation and usually the Cat won all games and the children walked away with no prizes. If we started teaching cooperation early, these are lessons that are never forgotten. When we moved into town I was in the second grade. During my first spelling test, I did what I had done in the past and discussed it with my desk mate. The teacher called me to the fron of the class and advised everyone that I was cheating. I didn’t even know what the word cheating was,, it I knew I was being publicly humiliated. Even though it had only been one year, I have held onto the importance of cooperation and it’s value for work. Hopefully America can drop it’s adolescent praise of the rugged individualist with the need for everyone to have a gun, and grow up and realize caring for others and cooperation is better for all.
As a public school teacher, I belonged to the NEA and it’s state and local affiliates (and still belong to the retirees division). When I first began teaching, there was a definite “we” mentality. Today it’s more like survival of the fittest. “They” include not only your principal, superintendent, and school board, and not just the parents of your students, but every resident of your community. You are, after all, paid by their taxes. Therefore, all of these entities feel they have the right to determine what you teach and how you teach it. If they don’t agree with teaching the good, the bad, and the ugly in history, science, and literature, you must skip over whatever “they” choose. Imagine a job where the workers get phone calls, texts, and emails from not only their boss, boss’s boss, etc., and not only from every customer who buys what they produce, but from everyone, everywhere, making church sermons and national headlines. Imagine all of them telling the workers how to do their job, even though they have little or no experience in that field. (Of course, give anyone a book and a roomful of kids, and they can teach. You know, “Those who can, do. Those who can’t teach.”) Add to that the perception that the NEA and AFT are hugely powerful and that teachers earn plenty and have the summer off, and it becomes a nightmare. Ask most teachers and you’ll hear that it’s not just a “we” OR “they” culture. It's “us” VERSUS “them” these days. So glad I’m retired.
I was getting a haircut at a hair salon Saturday, and overheard the owner as she was talking to a client about her young students. Not only does she work at her salon, but she is a full time teacher. She is not a young person, nearer (or past) retirement age. I don't doubt that she does it because she has to, in order to be able to afford a decent living. That saying ; 'those who can, do ; those who can't teach' is ignorant and hateful. Many teachers are getting out of the profession ; especially in the extremely confederate, MAGA states, where there is book banning and culture wars galore. I wonder who will replace them? Scary! And they talk about 'Cancel' culture! Look who is doing the cancelling!
MAGA Republicans are opposed to public education. The goal when Reagan came into office was to sunset the Department of Education. If you are/were a teacher you have to know this.
Same with the "charter" movement. The idea is to bankrupt the public school system.
Teachers and most other professions need to know that the corporate system is tyrannical, not democratic.
On the other hand teachers must know that they are accountable, they will be evaluated and they must abide by lesson plans.
It is obvious to me that there are strenuous efforts to destroy the system of public education. The recent Supreme Court ruling regarding payment of state funds to religious schools opens up the possibility of numerous private religious schools of many different belief systems. Also, there are more and more parents homeschooling every year. Over the past decades, legislatures have reduced funds going to higher education making post high school education more and more expensive. Some politicians openly attack schools and teachers over books and subject matter. Efforts to set aside the advance made by the New Deal are under greater attack than ever!
This is such an important insight. If business schools, leadership training programs, even the Davos gatherings, would acknowledge this and implement it, think how much better off we would all be. It might even heal the them vs us attitude which is destroying American society.
Kristin. I agree with you that this is a powerful insight. I would love to see business schools use it as a way of trying to improve business-worker relations, but the way so many businesses treat workers makes me think that business schools either teach or don't get students to question the employer vs. employee model that reigns in so many workplaces now. Maybe we need volunteers to ask a question or two of workers in different places and keep score of the we vs. they, then publish it.
Business schools teach prospective managers how to maximize profits. Unions are the enemy, workers are pawns.
There are a few that actually teach labor management like the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University, which offers degrees in labor relations. Most business schools do not require any labor relations curriculum.
Also an interesting new point of information for me.
Dan...having been in a labor union I agree. Most big business thinks the best way to deal with workers is to keep them under the thumb of management. Big business hates unions with a passion as does Wall Street and republican party. Paying workers a union wage reduces profits.
In many cases they kill the goose that laid the golden egg.
The best example is in the auto industry, where union members should have been encouraged to sell American cars, but instead the industry was hostile, outsourced, set up macadora plants in Mexico to spite it's domestic workforce. When those workers lost their jobs, they really became enemies.
Same with Medicare for all. It's in most companies' interest to eliminate fringe benefits and shift onus to the government.
American business left their workers behind ASAP.
Daniel Solomon ; I did not even know there was such a thing as a labor relations curriculum.
https://www.ilr.cornell.edu/programs/professional-education/certificates/certificate-labor-studies
I believe you. LOL!
Don't blame the B-Schools entirely. Better B-Schools know their rankings, and demand for (applications to) them are strongly influenced by the starting salaries their graduates will earn. Correspondingly, the students that are willing to mortgage their future to pay the steep tuition & loans are interested in maximizing their salaries & lifestyles, and repaying their loans quickly. The most beloved teacher at top-ranked Kellogg taught a popular ethics class, and also played the part of Star Wars' Yoda in the school's annual comedy and talent show. And, there were other great profs in that department.
https://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/news_articles/2006/lavengood_2006.aspx
My wife was a Kellogg Fellow. Sorry but the entire concept is maximizing profits. That was a period.
Sorry, but I have to disagree that it's the B-schools' entire agenda. For-profit companies aren't going to allow new hires to make unprofitable decisions. I cannot speak about all schools, or even what they might've become since I graduated 40 years ago. And, I'm not trying to defend them. Clearly, evaluating scenarios and tradeoffs are essential. When I was there, tuition wasn't astronomic yet, and Kellogg had a a sizable enough # of students interested in running non-profit organizations, as well as students just learning enough to run small family businesses. One classmate recently retired from being Finance Administrator at a major university with a great hoops program.
How many union leaders?
Maybe a few at Cornell, Illinois, Michigan State.
As I've probably said a few times, I come from a long line of petit burgoos shop keepers. I have relatives who were among other things deans ad college presidents. All the funding comes from the right side of the equation. I have a lot of experience, I represented "both sides" and as a judge heard thousands of cases. Whereas most economists trend toward the left side, virtually all business grads have been well trained to "manage" rather than co-operate.
In considering "we" vs "they" in the workplace, quiet quitting has come to my attention, of late. Also coming to my attention of late is a little ditty I just can't get enough of, that's so apropos to quiet quitting trend, I'd like to dedicate it to anyone here who is currently, or has at some time in their work life been a quiet quitter: https://youtu.be/Y8Rsretl-qQ
(I just bought my own ukulele! LOL!)
I remember the year I gave up. It was in my performance goals to improve processes and reduce costs. I worked and worked to come up with a new process that would do just that. That year on my review I was dinged for it and all I can remember them saying was “that’s not what we meant.”
That ditty is hilarious! That’s about the way I felt when I retired from a 30 year Federal career @ the VAMC! I wanted no Party, no fuss & I didn’t want to hear any jealous remarks, just to pack up my desk & leave right before Christmas/New Years break! I also felt like I had no more fucks to give my boss doctors & found out later they didn’t fill my job but instead gave all my duties of clinic management to 4 part time male grad students! I’m quite sure they fucked up those 7 clinics very nicely as I heard the doctors were all dissatisfied & complained constantly they had no controls over the number of patients scheduled in their half day clinics!
A little more on quiet quitting: https://youtu.be/oyajMep9dTc What becomes clear is that quiet quitting is what in classical psychology is the "extinction" of a response. Although much more complex, at an operant level, it's much like the monkey who quits working at the work machine that provides a grape if the monkey performs a certain task(s) stops rewarding the monkey with a grape for the work done, so the monkey stops working the work machine. The monkey's response goes extinct from lack of reward. Just so with quiet quitting. It's Psych 101.
Kristin Newton ; That is an interesting theory, and it seems to be true as Professor Reich has actually observed.
Thank You Mr Reich.
The most important part of your article was the following :
L-S’s workplace was organized from the bottom up. When I visited, I couldn’t tell managers from employees. All wore the same uniforms, parked in the same parking lots, ate in the same cafeteria. Worker committees did the hiring, decided on pay scales linked to levels of skill, and set production targets. They rotated jobs, so that every worker gained knowledge of the entire system.
If only we could only get our Government to follow suit!! Income inequality and lack of respect is our greatest divider in our country.
Yes, Keith, worker-employer inequity is such a huge problem in our society. We could do a lot to fix this if we had more unions and workers had more say in what happens in the workplace. That would mean the rich mostly white men in charge would have to lay down some of the power they wield. That will be hard for them. Can you imagine Trump talking with anyone in his employ about how he should run things and treat his employees? They give him that advice or he couldn't function, but they have learned to do it in subtle ways. Trump is not alone, there are a whole bunch of others almost just like him, but who don't take advice from anyone in any form.
“We” have lost our way in the USA. Our economy works for the already wealthy or the greedy. The difference between a living wage and the minimum wage would make little difference to the bottom line of millionaires and billionaires. Barbara Ehrenreich, author of “Nickel and Dimed” an “undercover account of the indignities of being a low-wage worker in the USA, and considered a classic in social justice literature.” She died last week, but leaves a legacy of writing and teaching in the areas of “the myth of the American Dream, the labor market, health care, poverty and women’s rights.” Highly recommended reading. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/02/books/barbara-ehrenreich-dead.html?smid=url-share
Irenie—Thanks for remembering, so appropriately on Labor Day, Barbara Ehrenreich. Workers, especially women, suffered an incalculable loss with her death a few days ago.
This deserves to be read more widely, especially by Republican supporters who might be converted. Perhaps we need a book on why workers' rights are not a threat to society, as capitalists would like everyone to believe. If Republican politicians try to get such books banned, goad them into burning copies and watch the sales and circulation go through the ceiling!
Wow! Miland, I love your idea of the book on business-worker relations. If we got a mystery or romance writer to help with it, we could have just enough sexy parts that Republicans will just have to announce its banning.
I guess you missed writers like Sinclair Lewis, John Steinbeck, Studs Terkel, etc. 9 to 5 was a movie, a Broadway play and aa TV series. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9_to_5_(film)
One area of study is industrial psychology. I have a cousin who was dean of three different university business schools whose PHD was in psychology. Also the sociology of work.
At one time I belonged to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_and_Employment_Relations_Association
Our school curriculum included Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self Reliance, but was otherwise very Republican circa 1950s. None of our teachers taught labor subjects. Teacher unions came in the late '60s. I remember that I wrote HS book reports of banned books, ie Of Mice and Men, Catcher in the Rye. My dad forced me to read Vernon L. Parrington, Main Currents in American Thought one summer when I was in high school.
I wasn't a history or political science major on college but I know several people who wrote academic papers on such matters.
Having represented school districts and some teacher unions, I'm sure that the teachers in most schools took an education curriculum in college, which did not include social matters or labor subjects. Most have to take more class time on how rather than what to teach.
Labor law was an elective in law school. I took everything they offered as I knew I had a job waiting for me in that area. At one time I taught labor law as a graduate education course. And I wound up working for DOL.
Concepts like noblesse oblige do not apply to corporate or government employer/employee relations. Everything is formalized. When I was a kid sole proprietors often had profit sharing with their employees. Many came from the same culture pattern. No longer. Human nature has been excised from corporate management.
“Boston is so conservative they would ban Pinocchio” Charles Emerson Winchester III
Tell a child he cannot look at or read a book or tv show and see how long it takes him to find and watch/read it.
I really like Dr. Reich's dividing workplaces into the we vs. they model, and that union shops tend to be more we than they. My dad worked in a supermarket chain for 35 years. The union came in after about a dozen years. He always said that everything changed when that happened. He had liked working for the company before the union, but really liked it afterward. He was lucky that his union and bosses got along pretty well and only had one short strike while he worked for them. Turnover was low and people often retired from the company. On the other side, my niece worked for a non-unionized company where the employees hated being there. Managers often did not respect the other workers, mostly because they were encouraged not to. My niece always referred to work as they. She was made a manager which held a lot more responsibility than the workers but she earned only 50 cents more an hour. We could fix this if Congress would pass laws to stop the abuse of workers and to make it easier to organize. I get it that the Confederate states and confederate wannabees will heavily protest, but their economies aren't doing all that well right now. This Labor Day, here's to quality unions and the workers they support!
We had those laws in the United States once. They have all been 'sunsetted' or rewritten to support the corporation. The mind set of the worst of managers is "the share holders (including us) far outrank the expendable, replaceable workers. - Thanks largely to the republican party, and some wusses among the democrats.
Fay Reid ; Sell outs among the Democrats ; They must get something for being anti union, even if it's job 'security'.
Corporate donations are what they get if they do what their corporate masters tell them to do. They also might get the promise of a lucrative position in the company once they leave the government, as you suggest. You can bet that Kirsten Sinema got one.
And then some!
The problem is that although workers outnumber management, many of those workers are fearful, under-educated, and indoctrinated by family, religion, social groups. That's why good unions, with "good" stewards, who are articulate, understand both the employees in their care and the management with whom they have to negotiate. The best union leadership support and protect their members while being respectful but steadfast for labor 'rights' with management. Having served on the Board of Directors for two different unions I have observed both types, those who negotiated well and those who caved. One of my recent rants was against the union or unions for delivery workers who have not gone to the wire to get air conditioning in delivery vehicles (USPS, UPS, FED-EX,etc.) resulting in severe health issues including death of drivers in these warmer times.
Fay…It is atrocious that these profitable companies (excluding USPS) would not provide such a basic need for these drivers during summer and in hotter climates. Really a disgrace. The execs should drive the route for one week during summer and see if policy changes get made after that.
Good idea, don't know how we could force them to do so, they certainly would not volunteer. (:-)
Expertly stated!
Can't agree more. Since workers are considered cost items rather than assets in most companies, they are treated as such.
The trick is to get a seat at the table.
Institutions like state governments, universities, religious organizations can leverage enough capital to ensure that as investors they have a seat on corporate boards.
The miners and their family members at the Ludlow Massacre would have described their employers as “They.” Bless the souls of those courageous people. We owe them a deep depth of gratitude.
Vet4peace, the Ludlow Massacre was a really appalling event as were so many other attacks by thugs, enforcers, and even police against workers. It is and was as though corporations believe/d they own/ed the workers and if those workers didn't toe the line (as cliche has it), they could be brutalized in any way the owners saw fit. The owners were never held accountable because they could always claim they hadn't done anything. Unions stopped a lot of that until some unions began brutalizing workers who didn't toe the union line. Union leaders, though were often held accountable for at least some of their bad behavior. In any case, having unions is far better than not. Congressional support for unions would help too.
I had to look up the Ludlow Massacre because - you guessed it - we never studied it in school. Add it to the list of historical occurrences Texas doesn’t want in textbooks.
I joined you in looking it up on Wikipedia. While I have some sympathy for your desire to jump on Texas, your reference threw me off because it happened in Colorado. Quite a story. The last survivor was only 3 at the time and died at 105 in 2019, if I am recalling what I read correctly.
as a seattle native (well, i started my life there until i left for a postdoc in NYC), it makes me sad to realise that a once-innovative company is now so horrible to its workers. i even tried to get a job there (when i was unemployed in NYC) but they refused to hire me. why? i was told later that starbux refuses to hire anyone who looks like they might start a bid to unionise the workers. as a PhD, i "looked like" someone who might unionise the place and therefore, i did not deserve a job. that's when starbux stopped being a "home away from home" for me.
The Hell with Starbucks management! Hurrah for the Starbucks unions. The company will LOSE.--From another New Yorker. 😀
OMG, Girl Scientist! Money and success certainly can corrupt and with nothing like a union to stand between management's worst impulses and the workers those impulses are directed toward, a corporation can go off the rails, just as Starbucks and so many others have. I guess I am biased, but I have not liked Starbucks. I don't care for coffee, but I have gotten tea and hot chocolate there and found both to be just OK, right about the quality of Lipton and Swiss Miss. I am not knocking either of those companies, just saying that if you are going to charge $4.50 for a cup of tea or chocolate, it should actually be better. In the past couple of years, as I watch the Starbucks workers being treated like just interchangeable parts in their machine, I am glad I didn't waste my time and money there.
Ruth ; Some Starbucks are unionized. But if management can't fairly price a "just ok" product the customers may not return. I usually drink one decaf coffee with breakfast, but if I want tea when out and about, I would most likely go to the local Starbucks because it is unionized, and I am curious. Have not been to it, because it is relatively new. The only other times I have been to Starbucks was with my kids, and they were getting 'to go' orders ; I did not want anything.
We have to shut down the fascists.
Right you are.
How right you are! In a very long career (age 10 to age 87) I worked for a large variety of government agencies and private enterprise. the jobs I remember with fondness were all 'we' positions, where I felt I was an essential part of the entity, regardless of pay. Where management is 'top down' I could hardly wait for my next employment. Where management included all, I could hardly wait to get to work the next day. The jobs I liked best were where I felt 'valued' [teaching and IBM] the jobs I disliked, I felt like a cog in the wheel.
Your statement is clear and excellent, Robert, but please don’t use the word that was the very
last one in your article. Because it still isn’t considered respectful, it brought your point down. I realize that some will disagree with me. Fine.
Meanwhile, I liked the way you characterized workplaces as “we” or “they” places. I’m cheered by the fact that unions--the real ones, not the ones the make too many concessions to management--are making inroads. Amazon and Starbucks workers! Whoopee!
I feel betrayed by my own union because, as a New York City municipal retiree, I’m threatened with the privatization of Medicare. It turns out that the feds are offering the municipal unions $600 million in savings for the funds that take care of active employees IF they shoehorn retirees into Medicare Advantage (really private insurance companies), and charge them $191.57 a month if they opt out and choose to stay with traditional Medicare (which they’ve been getting for free). Right now the deal is being held up by a lawsuit brought by a group of retirees. Current employees are going to be played off against retirees who’ve put years into their service to the city. In the hope it might be useful, I’ll forward to you my letter to my union president about that. He’s gung-ho for the Medicare Advantage Plan although he’s a retiree himself. He’s been quoted that way in a recent article.
Yes, employers should put workers first. To fight the profit system is called socialism, but that’s no dirty word in my book.
Carol, I am so disappointed to hear that the city is trying to push you all into Medicare Advantage. There is so much evidence that it is just another way to add to the extreme wealth of medical insurance corporations. They charge more and deny services too often to be of real value to retired persons. Corporations have always played older and retired workers off against younger ones. It often works, though because younger workers are working hard and imagine retired persons as just lazing around on the young people's money. That is what conservatives (Republicans) want the young people to believe. Generational warfare works for conservatives because so many older people have come to believe that they worked harder than anyone ever did and that the young people coming along are just slackers blah blah blah! Including more young people in union decisions and connecting them to older and retired workers to get to know each other can help. The unions could set up special events for such a purpose, then remind all the workers of who will benefit from this struggle. It won't be any of them. It will be the rich white men in charge of the medical insurance corporations who want to control everything and act with impunity.
I’ve been listening to Thom Hartmann and I’m happy to have learned that Medicare Advantage is just insurance shoving it’s way into Medicare. I will know not to sign up for it when I get there, but not enough people know this. And it should NEVER have been allowed to use the Medicare name!! I would not have realized this. A friend of mine worked in high level finance for years and she was even confused about it. The information & lies that are allowed on our airwaves is unsettling.
Wow! The trouble is that unless NYC municipal retirees opt out, they will automatically be put into the plan. If they opt out, they’ll be forced to pay a monthly premium of $191.57. At this time, the plan is on hold because of a lawsuit. Also, the original private insurance companies involved in the Medicare Advantage Plus Plan, as it was called, have dropped out, and the Mayor and the unions are looking for companies willing to take their place. I hope they fail, or the lawsuit ultimately prevails. Another hearing, before a judge, will be held if the Mayor and unions find new companies for the plan.
Carol F. Yost ; We must be vigilant, and tell people we know if it could affect them.
The Greedheads want to privatize everything! and 'Sunset' everything else. Or make it illegal, like medical procedures they 'disapprove' of (unless it's Their child/body/wife/girlfriend/lover). Or even themselves, They certainly have enough wealth to afford it. Have you heard Senator Ron Johnson's idea of 'renewing' Social Security every 5 years adjusting for its 'affordability' as a budget item? Rich!
Thank you, Ruth! You are so right:
Ruth ; There is a good example of a union president selling out! Whenever the profiteers call something an 'Advantage', it is their advantage, not the 'recipients'. It's just a matter of time when 'only $197.57 per month will go up. and up and up and up.
Your warning is well taken. $191.57 is bad enough. I didn’t realize it might go up.
Carol ; Remember when cable came in? only $8 per month. 'Nuff said!
Carol Yost ; Fight like Hell!
ken taylor ; What is a PPO? I pay over $100/month for the part B, (I think) it's so confusing ; talk about the 'donut hole' ??? I think it's for prescription drugs. Part of the confusion is the way it is all gamed.
Time to push strongly for anti trust laws. and if there is some 'legal' thing that puts this in a different category that is 'protected' from antitrust laws, we fight for some legal relief! Quality care is better for everyone, those who render care and certainly, those who receive it. The 'rush to the bottom' makes us all feel like numbers. It does not help improve health.
In the early 1960's, when I was starting collage, I decided that I wanted to be a business generalist and found that a good track would be in what was then called "Personnel." That word contains the word "person," whereas the later term "Human Resources" is commoditization of the worker as in raw material resources , fuel resources, energy resources. Maybe this is not important, but I continue to think that words matter.
I agree, O. Amundsend Jr. ; commodities ; and talk of Soylent Green...
'Pork bellies' .....
I think I accidentally deleted my comment. Oh, NUTS! I have to write it again. I was really trying to edit it.
Robert, I think your brief essay is wonderful, and I like your “we”-“they” comparison. It’s a good observation. I think it would have been better if you’d avoided the rough language at the end. It’s still considered disrespectful and it doesn’t help your point. It’s nasty. I realize we all are angry at the fascists these days.
Hoorah for unions--the real kind, not the ones that make big concessions to management. Starbucks and Amazon unions are to be loved. They have courage to stand up against the owners who spend millions trying to defeat them.
I’m disappointed in my own union. I’m a New York City municipal retiree. The NYC municipal unions--most of them--have tried to sell us out. I’ll forward to you the letter I wrote to my union president complaining about this. He was quoted in a recent article advocating for the plan, as he has for awhile. Originally it had been voted in secretly.
Essentially, they’re trying to shoehorn municipal retirees into privatized--for-profit--Medicare. If we opt out of the plan, we’ll be charged $191.57 a month for staying in Traditional Medicare, when up until now it’s been free. The reason for this is that if we get the privatized Medicare or have to pay that big premium for not taking it, active workers will benefit; the unions will save about $600 million a year from the feds in a fund for active workers. Active workers are being played off against retirees; after all our years of service, this is how they’re treating us. Privatized Medicare puts profits before healthcare. The feds should obviously not be doing this, either, but Washington is a big corporate benefactor/beneficiary. For now, the plan is being held up by a lawsuit brought by a group of retirees. Hooray! But the Mayor and Unions are trying hard to get around the lawsuit.
Thanks for all your hard work, Robert.
Robert, I don’t believe you understand what it takes to run a business or be in a union. Let’s call this intellectualizing versus experiencing. Howard deserves credit for what he has accomplished with a coffee shop . He is a shining example of what businesses should do for its employees. See, this is not a fantasy for me. I belonged to steelworkers USW union. They were mostly corrupt and only interested in monthly dues. Far from utopia you’re suggesting unions offer. Having employees run a business like it were their business is the goal for most businesses. Being in a union and running a small business is a experience and not just a theory about reality. I visited Starbucks every day for years. It’s a hard job but the employees are highly motivated and use all their benefits to educate themselves, stock participation in the company, healthcare etc. They are paid $12-$15 hourly depending on level of responsibility. Howard accomplished the nearly impossible by having 8 teenagers show up at 5am to meet dozens of customers expecting perfection with complicated drinks. They are taught customer interactions using empathy, kindness and truly a caring attitude all while hustling at breakneck speed. I don’t write theories but I have ran a business over 45 years. I had a wonderful connection with my business family like Howard has accomplished. You cannot fake trust you have to truly be trustworthy. I had a disgruntled employee one time that I remember and he turned me into the IRS. They showed up at my door spent one day with me my secretaries who told them you’re in the wrong place, this guy does not deserve to be examined for anything. He is 100% honest with everything he does and he does it basically for himself first. They left after two hours. Also I don’t think a coffeeshop deserves being in a union. This is not the type of business that unions benefit. Robert, I hope this serves somewhat as a reality check. My opinion is your not thinking correctly. Howard is a one of a kind businessman and sets a example of success and inclusion for everyone. Pretty rare in today’s world. The employees are prepared to be better citizens and are happy. Not perfection but certainly positive
You make some good points Ed. We hear so many different stories & we all want the employees to be appreciated and feel valued. Thanks for some good food for thought.
My issue with most mega companies is the expanse of pay from top to bottom.
Yes. Many people applaud unions, not realizing their upper management can be as corrupt as those of major corporations. Further down, I have a comment about my story with unions too. They can serve a purpose but can be very corrupt as well.
My first school was a 2room school house. My class had 1st through 5th grade. Miss Ruby remains won of my favorite people. While she taught one group, the other grades worked in their groups cooperatively with the material. It was my best educational experience. Later, a sociology experiment, tested rural and urban children by telling 2 children that they were to play 4games of tic tax toe with a prize for the winner at the end of each round. The rural children did not talk to each other, ut made sure that they each won 2 games and each got 2 prizes. The urban children used completion instead of cooperation and usually the Cat won all games and the children walked away with no prizes. If we started teaching cooperation early, these are lessons that are never forgotten. When we moved into town I was in the second grade. During my first spelling test, I did what I had done in the past and discussed it with my desk mate. The teacher called me to the fron of the class and advised everyone that I was cheating. I didn’t even know what the word cheating was,, it I knew I was being publicly humiliated. Even though it had only been one year, I have held onto the importance of cooperation and it’s value for work. Hopefully America can drop it’s adolescent praise of the rugged individualist with the need for everyone to have a gun, and grow up and realize caring for others and cooperation is better for all.
As a public school teacher, I belonged to the NEA and it’s state and local affiliates (and still belong to the retirees division). When I first began teaching, there was a definite “we” mentality. Today it’s more like survival of the fittest. “They” include not only your principal, superintendent, and school board, and not just the parents of your students, but every resident of your community. You are, after all, paid by their taxes. Therefore, all of these entities feel they have the right to determine what you teach and how you teach it. If they don’t agree with teaching the good, the bad, and the ugly in history, science, and literature, you must skip over whatever “they” choose. Imagine a job where the workers get phone calls, texts, and emails from not only their boss, boss’s boss, etc., and not only from every customer who buys what they produce, but from everyone, everywhere, making church sermons and national headlines. Imagine all of them telling the workers how to do their job, even though they have little or no experience in that field. (Of course, give anyone a book and a roomful of kids, and they can teach. You know, “Those who can, do. Those who can’t teach.”) Add to that the perception that the NEA and AFT are hugely powerful and that teachers earn plenty and have the summer off, and it becomes a nightmare. Ask most teachers and you’ll hear that it’s not just a “we” OR “they” culture. It's “us” VERSUS “them” these days. So glad I’m retired.
I was getting a haircut at a hair salon Saturday, and overheard the owner as she was talking to a client about her young students. Not only does she work at her salon, but she is a full time teacher. She is not a young person, nearer (or past) retirement age. I don't doubt that she does it because she has to, in order to be able to afford a decent living. That saying ; 'those who can, do ; those who can't teach' is ignorant and hateful. Many teachers are getting out of the profession ; especially in the extremely confederate, MAGA states, where there is book banning and culture wars galore. I wonder who will replace them? Scary! And they talk about 'Cancel' culture! Look who is doing the cancelling!
In Florida they are being replaced by retired military people who will have no idea what they are doing.
They'll find out, depending on where they go and what they believe. If DeSantis disapproves, they will be told, no doubt, what not to do or say.
MAGA Republicans are opposed to public education. The goal when Reagan came into office was to sunset the Department of Education. If you are/were a teacher you have to know this.
Same with the "charter" movement. The idea is to bankrupt the public school system.
Teachers and most other professions need to know that the corporate system is tyrannical, not democratic.
On the other hand teachers must know that they are accountable, they will be evaluated and they must abide by lesson plans.
It is obvious to me that there are strenuous efforts to destroy the system of public education. The recent Supreme Court ruling regarding payment of state funds to religious schools opens up the possibility of numerous private religious schools of many different belief systems. Also, there are more and more parents homeschooling every year. Over the past decades, legislatures have reduced funds going to higher education making post high school education more and more expensive. Some politicians openly attack schools and teachers over books and subject matter. Efforts to set aside the advance made by the New Deal are under greater attack than ever!
Yes, true.