Workers of red America, unite? Photo: Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images Over the past five years, many on the right have called for the GOP to become a “workers’ party.” Almost all of these proposals have been tales told by demagogues, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
Intelligencer recently spoke with Cass about his vision for a pro-worker conservatism and why he believes that, in the not-too-distant future, the Republican Party could embrace a labor agenda too radical for many present-day Democrats. When Senator Rubio spoke about the idea of having a good capitalism, he spoke about an encyclical from the late 1800s. And, of course, even in modern times, in the Cold War context, trade unions in Europe — particularly, behind the Iron Curtain — were a vital form of resistance to communism and a big part of what brought it down.
Then all of the research on the China shock comes out in 2013, 2014, 2015. And likewise with the deaths of despair and the opioid crisis. On the campaign trail, it was clear this was an issue on the ground. I can only describe the general directions I think we should be moving in. One is to get adversarial bargaining out of the individual workplace and up to something more like the sectoral level. Which is to say we want to have bargaining about terms and conditions of employment at a higher level than just the individual workplace so that the agreements that are struck bind all the employers who are in competition with each other.
So a quintessential example is very strict hours-related rules. In the U.S., we mandate time and a half for overtime. And yet, at the same time, firms are allowed to have all of these terrible scheduling practices — on-call scheduling, constant changes in scheduling, and so forth. It seems to me that workers and management would often want to agree that, for instance, overtime would not necessarily be paid at time and a half, especially if you have people who want more hours.
How do you imagine this kind of labor reform actually coming about? For decades, progressives have failed to pass pro-labor legislation that enjoyed the united support of existing unions. Each time, they’ve run into the basic problem that, while there are many states with no significant union presence, there are no states that lack an organized business community.
Love the New Yorker but come on. There isn’t one conservative that will side with a union unless it’s The PBA
I’m going to spoil the party: they will not because they are predominantly a pro-boss party
Why do you keep falling for this shit?
They'll reintroduce scrip and you'll be like 'a bold new cost cutting measure that conveniently puts everything a worker could need in one place'
You actually don’t need to be duped by this shit
Capitalists pretending to favor labor over capital... Good one
The policies already exist; ban 'right-to-work' laws, raise the minimum wage, guarantee paid sick days & vacation days, have some sort of universal health care system, though not necessarily Medicare For All. All the GOP has to do is stop talking & start doing.
'in the not-too-distant future, the Republican Party could come up with the actual healthcare policy they have insisted for more than ten years is nearly ready' Until they do so, however, quit signal-boosting their obvious game of fraud
'pro-worker conservatism' 'pro-lung coronavirus'
Lol
So, they might do something someday? Sounds like another reason not or vote for them today
Any labor groups supporting Trump are insane, including police unions like in NYC. Trump delendus est!