Out of the fields and the factory lines

Happy Labor Day! If you're fortunate enough to be spending this afternoon around a grill, thank a union.

Speaking of which, the Post profiles unions as a political force, and how candidates (mostly Democrats) work to get their support. Despite declining numbers and a hostile political climate, they are still the backbone of any progressive movement worthy of the name. Moreover, they have evolved fairly novel strategies for winning gains for workers in the last ten years, as Nathan Newman shows. One thing he doesn't mention, and something I think will be extremely important in the near future, is the alliance that labor has been forming with the environmental movement, with whom they've traditionally been at odds. Most of the talk about the energy crisis has focused on the supply side of the equation (and sometimes on the fuel efficiency of vehicles), but if the states and the federal government made a commitment to refurbish our country's infrastructure -- which is aging as it is -- to be less wasteful of energy, you would have a huge demand for a (high-wage, high-skilled) green building workforce; something that, I think, would be welcome in a time when Wal-Mart has replaced Ford and GM as the benchmark for American business.

Tags: Labor Day, unions, Democrats, environment