Short-termism led the Democratic Party to let unions die, and now they've lost their base

[Wanderfound]

@AndreStmaur

Maybe part of the demise of workers’ rights go back to the fall of communism as an ideology. After the war in Europe and certainly in the 60s-70s, international communism was perceived as a real threat by the establishment and there was this diffuse idea that workers would indeed unite if they were not content. In some European countries, alternative non-communist unions were actually financed by the USA. I am not really sure what happened in the USA, but there were definitely lots of leftist movements in the 60s-70s, some obviously in favour of the then USSR.
The situation drastically changed in the 80s, as it became clear that the USSR was collapsing as a threat.

To explain the vulnerability of the US union movement you need to go further back.

An extremely abbreviated and approximate history:

Late 19th century: as with most other places, a vigorous union movement being strongly opposed by capital. One underappreciated factor is that the famous anti-trust laws of this “trust-busting” era were also used against unions; some would argue that this was their primary effect.

Sherman Antitrust Act

Pre-WWI twentieth century: The rise of the Wobblies, the killing of Joe Hill, the Presidentially sponsored revival of the Klan as a fascist militia (black people were not their only victims; union organisers were also popular targets).

Industrial Workers of the World

Joe Hill

The Birth of a Nation | Based on a True Story

Post-WWI: The first Red Scare. In the aftermath of WWI, the Wilson administration solidified the emergency powers it had accumulated during the war into a permanent security state. This is where J. Edgar Hoover got his start.

The 1919 Red Scare - the craziest year in American history

Palmer Raids

Battle of Blair Mountain

Then continuing fights throughout the Great Depression, with the union movement splitting between radical (IWW, CIO, UMW etc) and conservative factions (AFL, Teamsters, etc).

As a general rule, the radicals tended to be based in immigrant-heavy industries (mining, garment workers, etc) and pro-integration; the conservatives tended to be white, male, anticommunist and segregationist.

During WWII, much of the leadership of the conservative faction were coopted into government service and tasked with strike prevention. Most notable of these folks was George Meany.

George Meany

After the war, this happened:

Taft–Hartley Act

That included a bit requiring all union leaders to swear an oath rejecting communism. This was strongly opposed by the CIO-aligned radicals, but supported by Meany and the AFL crew.

Taft-Hartley pretty much killed off what was left of radical American unionism, and a few years later the Meany-led AFL absorbed what was left of the CIO.

The union movement persisted in some strength for a few more decades, but mainly in the Meany-style anticommunist and segregationist version that negotiated Bismarkian concessions from management in return for maintaining industrial docility. Once the USSR fell, there was no longer any external pressure, so even that faded away.