Why Unions Still Matter

When we make inquiries about our computers, our credit card bills, our health insurance, the person on the other side of the phone will very likely be in a foreign country. * Deregulated globalization, fueled in part by antilabor trade agreements, has displaced working people in poor countries like Mexico from their land and jobs. Large numbers have come to the United States, intensifying competition in some labor markets, allowing employers to divide and conquer their workforces, and giving an excuse for xenophobes like CNN's Lou Dobbs to foment anti-immigrant hysteria, which helps to keep domestic workers' from seeing clearly that it is their employers (and the employers' allies in government) that are their true enemies.