Richard D. Wolff

Dr. Wolff: With all due respect—and I mean that—I must disagree with your suggestion in this week's EU that the leadership of the major U.S. labor unions would go to bat for worker co-operatives. The unions today guard the interests of capitalists more than they do those of their rank and file members. Union officials make large salaries relative to those earned by workers. They're cosseted by the bosses, wined and dined, taken on luxury vacations, and who knows what goes on underneath the bargaining table? What would be their incentive to seek to promote co-operatives that, if successful, would likely undermine their power and take away their privileges? The evidence for this kind of corruption is plentiful. The UAW recent contract negotiations make a case in point. The leadership out-maneuvered the widespread opposition expressed by the rank and file by using dirty tricks to guarantee that the contract desired by the employers got  passed. Perhaps you have more information on this topic that gives you reason to believe that unions would champion co-ops. If so, I hope you will comment on it.