Executive Power Matters
By Jill mentions a protest at NYU over TA unionization, and I certainly agree that they should be strongly supported. However, it’s important to remember why TAs at NYU do not have the right to collectively bargain now. Eric Alterman:
When I debated Cornel West and Frances Fox Piven before a large audience at NYU, our introductions were preceded by a plea from graduate student union organizers to support their efforts to elicit decent pay and conditions. I tried to point out that those students who supported both Nader and the union might wish to concern themselves with the makeup of the presidentially appointed National Labor Relations Board. Well, in July of this year, the graduate students who stuck with Nader got what they apparently wanted. The Bush-controlled NLRB voted to reverse an earlier decision and deny all American graduate students the right to bargain collectively.
As I’ve mentioned before, it is correct that path dependencies have prevented the GOP from rolling back the core elements of the New Deal and Great Society. However, it cannot be emphasized enough that the modern regulatory state gives a large amount of discretion to the executive. You don’t have to modify or repeal labor or civil rights legislation to make it a great deal less effective, and having Republican appointees at the NLRB makes it much harder for labor to organize without any changes in statutes. Which should again teach the obvious facts that 1)control of the presidency matters a great deal even if it’s hard to pass major progressive legislation, and 2)third party politics at the federal level is remarkably foolish and counterproductive.