Why are labor unions more powerful that GLBT americans?

In 2007 it was estimated that 15.7 million Americans are a member of a union (http://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm)

Conservatively there are 5% of the US population are gay, or roughly 15 million people. This is not including supporters or bisexuals or transgendered persons either.

I ask this because we see support all the way up to President Elect Obama for Unions and workers - so much so that Obama directly addressed the situation with the 250 protesters in Chicago last weekend. However on November 15th we had hundreds of thousands of marchers around the country and not a word from Obama. I find it very discouraging and want to see this change - our marriages are a civil rights issue that includes labor and pay issues.

So how do we go about making sure that we have equal political power?

There are lot of GLBT organizations in the country, just as there are unions; but, so far as I know, they don't have the cachet that unions do, nor do they have the overarching meta-organization (AFL-CIO, for example) that unions have.

For example when grocery workers here strike I do not cross the picket line - ever. Id go hungry rather than cross the line. I support them 100%.

Today is the "day without a gay" and I see no support at all from Unions or others. Do we need to start working with them more to help? I know unions are very supportive of our goals generally but it seems we dont get more than support at election time from organized labor - maybe we need to make a point of involving the union on the finacial/labor side of our protests and struggles?

If half the employees of one business go on strike, the business has to stop and take note.

If one employee here and one employee there in various businesses scattered across the country take a day off, it's not going to have the same impact.

Not to mention that more people WILL go on strike if they have a whole cadre of others in it with them right there at their job.

because I feel we need to find a way to become just as powerful....

Lets not forget that.

politically. Maybe we need to work more with the unions on our own struggles? I support the union - never cross pickets etc. I know we are extremely fragmented nationally as a movement - but there has to be a way to organize on the same level with roughly the same amount of people involved?

that the various groups HAVE TO work soooooo hard on their own issues that they fail to see opportunities to do the work of outreach.

I dream of a time when small groups go to other small groups and say something like "Here we are (say, for example) 33 in number. We are 33 phone calls made every month (say) for your ___________________ issue. You can have these 33 phone calls (or letters, or picketers, or workers, or whatever . . . ) if you match the favor on ____________________ issue for our group."

oppressed groups rarely stick up for each other.

they can appeal to the self-interest of other oppressed groups . . . . "See? Here are the (really first class) letters we wrote to so-and-so about such and such. We can write such letters for you." or "After 10 of our people blogged for x amount of time, using message y, message y was echoed back to us from independent source z." or "Here is video of our 16 picketers (friendly looking, real good original signs, smiling and waving at honking traffic) who stood on such-and-such a street corner for 2 hours a week for one month. We can help your group do this."

It would be great if one oppressed group could help all other oppressed groups.

were trying to stop some development in our area and we have neighborhood captains that call and ask for help with different issues. Im wonder if this would work on a GLBT rights issues? I did have a neighbor ask last weekend what she could do, if there were more marches planned etc.

Actually you just gave me an idea. I have a couple friends that are working with my partner and I to create a website where a virtual quilt of all types of families is created to show the true face of American families. Its still in the planning stages but we wanted to have an area were people could learn about non-violent protest and civil disobedience. Maybe we should work out a grass roots tree organizer on it where one could enlist their street and then get everyone involved and then have Union reps etc tied in? Kind of a virtual alert and action center based on neighborhoods? People are more likely to get involved when asked by someone they know... hmmm sounds like it could work.

I think the mainest thing is, no matter how small you look, keep working on your plan, something is always more than nothing, keep it concrete and productive, so you can show others how effective you are and NGU. This will encourage volunteers.

Teaching non-violent protest and Civil Disobedience is a wonderful idea!!! Congratulations! If you have any Quakers around, a.k.a. The American Friends Service Committee, they are Great resource people and they are all about Social Justice.

I plan on proposing that the websites associated with a couple of groups I'm around should also be used to collect volunteers for specific projects.

torn down by hate and bigotry. I have also watched whole families become fragments with hiv
illness and death. HIV AIDS is almosst as invisible now as it was in the early 80s..I know I was there when one partner died and the other was thrown out like so much trash into the street when the blood family showed up and got wills and deeds overturned. If there were children they were sent to foster homes or worse ended up on the street or were taken by the rest of the family and told how evil their parents were for being gay.
I am a long term survivor, 25 years since diagnosis.
That being said we do have to get others in the greater community involved, getting labor unions and immigrants groups, liberal churches too should be priority.

It seems a lot like patchwork efforts, but all independent of each other.

We were talking about the HRC, we have been talking about a strong response to the lies from the religious right that gay protests are "violent" in an effort to libel us and discredit lawful protest, and then, it turns out that another group the TWO does the exact right thing, but, still, it's only one ad in Salt Lake City.

That ad needs to be national, perhaps TV spot, or guest speakers on prominent shows like RM or KO?

You covered that ad nicely here on GD DU:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=4625979&mesg_id=4625979

It seems that one group is doing protests and the gay day off protest, another is taking out ads, and another is doing some blogging and shopping, there seems to be no centralization of our movement.

I am open to ideas or correction if I have misunderstood where we are as of this day with our movement, in fact, I wish I were wrong.

Kind of reminds me the fall out from 911 - the CIA, FBI, Local law enforcement etc did not work well together - so they created an organization to tie them all together while keeping their separate functions distinct.

Im with you in that we need to get some kind of formal leadership, if not at least coordination going. I think HRC's days are numbered - they have proven to be effective in some area's but not in the gaining of government granted/recognized rights. HRC is great when it comes to corporations and getting companies to recognize us - and thats needed and useful - however its not enough. Lambda legal has been great in the courts etc.

Im starting to think that one of the benefits of losing 8 is that the grass roots effort is in high gear and needs to be taken to the next level of organization - as Obama has pointed out this works best from the bottom up. We need to have some way of having chapters, state and national chapters of a group that brings everyone together while not having anything else as an agenda other than unity.

This is my pipe dream.

I do think we need an agenda, priorities and a unified message.

I can see different functions ( for simplicity I will use "gay" for all folks GLTBQ just for typing ease):

1.)Legal
2.)Think tanks for policy: ex defend gays in the military, international issues, immigration and gays, the economic importance of gays as workers and consumers.
3.) Academics for published work on GLBTQ issues such as health, mental health, child rearing outcomes, sociology of gay relationships.
4.) Writers and journalists for print and inter net media publications.
4.) Grass roots organization and political activism.
5.) Lobbying
6.) Speakers bureau and public spokes people who know how to talk on the radio and who can handle being in front of the camera.
7.) Fund raising
8.) Internet
9.) Candidates and voting


How that's organized and how labor is distributed would have a lot to do with what resources are already out there, to avoid reduplication of services and how they can integrate, or if they are willing to integrate, into a large group. Also, keeping in mind that there is an entire group of internet sites, bloggers and writes and organizers, that would need to be invited into such an organization.

From what I understand such a group already exists, has a history, experience, funding, it seems to me that it could well be the HRC.

I don’t suggest reinventing the wheel, it’s just that, there is a lot of energy out there, lot’s of interest in gay rights at the moment, it will pass and something else will draw national attention, so this is the time for someone or some group to come forward and lead. If it could be the HRC and they could form alliances with existing groups and build on that to form a united movement then great, if not, if they are too rigid, then we need an entirely new group.

My pipe dream, if I was head of some big group similar to what I imagine the HRC to be, I would contact every academic who has written topics of interest to gays, I would contact existing groups like Lambda, the ACLU, I would contact politicians supportive of gay rights, media figures supportive of gay rights, major internet players supportive of gay rights, all of the sectors that I have talked about above and invite them to a symposium, announce it with press releases, get media coverage, and start the first national human rights campaign symposium, with speakers goals and create an agenda.

I would model it on something like the Aspen Institute’s annual meetings.

http://www.aspeninstitute.org/site/c.huLWJeMRKpH/b.639475/

After such a symposium I would make calls to the leaders of existing gay rights groups and invite them to join and help form a national movement.



on edit: to clarify title.

They use their position as employees, to act collectively, gaining a seat at the table.

If the GLBT community worked in a particular industry they could collectively bargain for their rights.

Unfortunately, GLBT is not given a seat at the table. They are cutoff from the bargaining. They can still ACT collectively, and that is ultimately where the progress will be made, in collective actions against those who discriminate.

It's the money and influence that does that.

If GLBT people had a union we all had to belong to, and had to pay union dues, and had a required leadership, we would have as much influence as unions or more.

I think thats part of the problem. I did a search to see who donated to No on 8 - Im the only one on my street - 50% gay. At work - 12 people all gay - Im the only one that gave. It seems to me its very hard to get GLBT people to give to their own cause unfortunately - and that includes non monetary giving as well.

If you have seen Milk there is a scene were Harvey turns to Cleve and ask how many people he can have in the street and he says a thousand. Latter they show Cleve in bars getting people out into the street. I sat watching that thinking that in this day and age people would look at you like your nuts - its hard to get people to do anything remotely political unfortunately.

I don't think unions would have the same influence they have if their dues were entirely optional.

that or we need to come up with a way to keep money flowing into the right organizations. Maybe a sponsorship with purchase of magazines, website memberships or something else where a portion/or addition or the monthly cost is donated. I just got an email from the San Diego Center and they are doing layoffs and salery reductions across the board - they need money. Along with the email was a link were you could donate any amount you wanted automatically every month - hell I pay $15 a month to Netflix and rarely use it - why cant I give at least that much or even half of that every month?

And for the most part they still fight for our inclusion during bargaining sessions.

"You've got to promise me one thing. You've got to help bring gays into the Teamsters Union. We buy a lot of beer that the union delivers. It's only fair that we get a share of the jobs."

- Harvey Milk to Allan Baird, Teamsters Union representative and director of the Coors Beer boycott in California, who asked Milk to support the strike against six major beer distributors

Unions that support same-sex marriage:

American Federation of Teachers (AFT)
American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE)
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)
Communications Workers of America (CWA)
Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU)
Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
UNITE HERE
United Farm Workers (UFW)

I'm not sure about the whole, but I would venture a yes.

All workers have power over capitalists because, if they have the courage to stand in solidarity, they can strike--which means to strike a blow. The ruling class knows that it cannot write its own letters and pick its own food and file its own papers and film its own entertainment. The ruling class can't do anything except get plastic surgery, do heroin, and invest the money handed to them by their parents, and listen to the advice of their very well paid servants: their managers, lawyers, and petty-bourgeoisie.

Ethnic groups and sexual minorities, on the other hand, can be cleansed without effecting the economy.

I'd put that higher on my list to support as that affects a greater number of people.

They say love is irrational; if I do find someone to love I might change my mind. :shrug: