“Are Trade Unions and their members “Populist””?
With many of our fellow members using their democratic rights to vote for those who use their acquired parliamentary authority and power to then pass legislation that undermines worker rights (which again, is why we elect people), it got me thinking about why our unions were/are susceptible to faux populists. My crack pot theory is we already have a tendency to vote for populists amongst our rank-and-file who appear to be standing up to the man while simultaneously accomplish little.
Listen, this is a crack pot theory, but we all know of that one steward or executive officer who thrives on agitating the members against the boss (sometimes for their own interests) but actually accomplish close to nothing during their time. They just echo what their members want, blame someone, and lack the nuance to actually solve their problems.
I have a couple executives who present themselves as “man of the people” (self-declared title) who can barely understand their own contract but who are astute enough to go “members are angry about x thing” therefore that’s my platform. They are miserable to work with because I’ll explain (I’m a staffer) that x-thing isn’t a legitimate problem as it would undermine and harm workers for y,z, and a issue. However, they would never explain that to their members as they don’t want to appear to be delegitimizing their members grievances regardless of how far-out of the bounds they are. They just want to appear to be a strong-man, so the members love them, and they keep getting elected.
Take out your thread and connect the dots, this inclines our members to adore a “strong man” type who legitimizes their grievances regardless of the damage it would cause to the fabric of our communities, society, democratic norms, and our union solidarity.