It's heartening to see a lot of voices being raised in defence of labour. https://www.facebook.com/unions4workers and https://www.facebook.com/ImUnionYoureWelcome are just a couple of the ones I'm following. I suppose every bit helps but someone has to take the leadership role to co-ordinate efforts and present a united front. Maybe the CLC?

I'm not sure that anyone has found the right message yet. By that, I mean the right message for the general population (including most union members), not just sympathizers and activists.

Most people seem to agree that we can't just go on talking about what unions did in the past - weekends, safety, etc. We need to talk about what unions are doing and will do - or what unions are still needed to do.

"Still" is the operative word here I think. The right has done a very effective job of creating the belief that, "Sure we needed unions in the past, but we don't need them now."

So that's where Joe Hill is starting. Why do we still need unions?