MEMORANDUM 

TO:                  ALL PARTIES AFFILIATED WITH DPE 

FROM:            PAUL E. ALMEIDA, PRESIDENT
                        DPE 

DATE:            DECEMBER 18, 2006

 

DPE ALERT! 

“White Collar Perspectives on Workplace Issues”
How Progressives Can Make the Case for Unions
 

Please find included a link to a new publication by Jim Grossfeld. You can access it at:

http://www.dpeaflcio.org/interest/CAP_11-28-06.pdf  

Professional and technical workers are open to a new kind of unionism, and both Labor and its allies have a stake in advocating it. That’s the theme of a new study by Jim Grossfeld which was recently published by the Center for American Progress. Grossfeld, a member of the Newspaper Guild/CWA, teamed up with pollster Celinda Lake to examine white collar attitudes towards work and unions. They found that despite growing economic security, conventional unions continue to leave many white collar workers in the cold. 

“They see traditional unions as eight-track tapes in a world of iPods,” Grossfeld said. However, he adds that these same workers give a thumbs up to examples of unions addressing portable pensions, telecommuting and other issues facing workers in the new economy. “ What workers were telling us is much like what the DPE has been telling the labor movement for some time,” he said, adding that it is a message progressives should use to build political support for strong labor laws. 

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