Rhetoric that modern Dems "turned against labor" is completely backwards.

Thread from my new @alternet piece - with graphs - on how much more pro-labor modern Dems are than New Deal Dems. /1 https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/the-conventional-wisdom-is-wrong-todays-democrats-are-more-united-in-support-of-organized-labor-than-the-new-deal-dems/

Hey- New Deal Dems passed NLRA so they had to be more pro-labor than now, right? But that passed in bipartisan before explosion of more radical CIO union organizing - and GOP and chunk of New Deal Dem party rapidly turned against labor back then. /2

Immediately after World War II, the MAJORITY of Democrats in Congress voted to gut labor union power with the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947- which would kill new union organizing in the South and begin decline in union density across the country. /3

In the 1950s, Arkansas Democratic Senator John McClellan led hearings attacking labor - with Bobby Kennedy as his chief counsel - which led to anti-union Landrum-Griffin bill of 1959, supported by overwhelming number of Democrats, which further gutted union rights. /4

Labor's decline started in the 1950s in wake of Taft-Hartley and Landrum-Griffin - NOT with some "neoliberal turn" in the 1970s or 1990s.

Workers in a union in 1954 was 34.8%
By 1968, unionization was under 28%

/5

New GOP-appointed Supreme Court & lower court judges would interpret labor law even more unfavorably towards labor - and Reagan would accelerate that assault - but the decline was baked in by that earlier legislation. /6

Even as internal conflict embroiled Democrats in the 1960s, Democrats overall would become more pro-labor as anti-labor Dems would defect to the GOP - and some pro-labor Republicans became Democrats. /7

Last fifty years saw modern Dems repeatedly try to pass labor law reform bills to reverse damage done by Taft-Hartley and Landrum-Griffin, only to be blocked by filibusters, while those same Democrats would block every attempt to enact significant new anti-union legislation. /8

Number of pro-labor Dems has actually increased since 1960s. In fact, it was under “New Democrat” Bill Clinton that, for first time since passage of Wagner Act, you had 50 Democratic Senators supporting a pro-labor bill again. /9

Notably, one part of the story is anti-labor Southern Democrats joining the Republicans, but you also had - thanks to the Voting Rights Act - new progressive PRO-labor Democrats emerging in the South as well. /10

Worth noting that the left movement of Democrats on labor was matched by new progressive movements within labor that strengthened its own ties to immigrant rights, environmental and other parts of the Dem coalition, who in turn supported labor's agenda more strongly. /11

Under Obama, Dems has estimated 58 or 59 Senators willing to support labor law reform, but maddeningly fell just short of the 60 votes needed to overcome McConnell's Republican filibuster. /12

But Obama's NLRB picks pushed remarkably strong pro-labor policy and when the GOP tried to roll back those reforms, NOT A SINGLE DEMOCRAT supported GOP efforts to do so. Similarly, not a single Democrat supported votes under Trump to attack labor rights. /13

But if filibuster made federal pro-labor legislation impossible, you see pro-labor policy at the state level where Dems gained full control, from blocking right-to-work to Davis-Bacon to most notably, a massive expansion of public sector unionization starting in 1960s. /14

State Dems worked to expand unionization to groups funding by tax dollars, like home health care and day care workers.

"25% of home-care workers nationwide belong to a union—significant number in industry expected to reach 3.2 million workers by 2020." /15

Partisan divide reflected most in unionization rates at state level.

In “Blue Wall” states consistently voting Dem in last 7 Presidential cycles,15.8% of workers in unions, nearly three times 5.5% rate in “Red Wall” states consistently voting GOP. /16

Dem state unionization rates (including private sector workers) looks comparable to European countries - and New York actually has higher percent of workers in unions than Germany and Spain (although fewer non-union members under contracts due to federal labor law). /17

But here is best proof Dems are as pro-labor as any European social democratic party. If you look at public sector unionization rates - where Dem states have full authority - their unionization rates beat almost all of Europe and New York is in Scandanavian territory. /18

Looking at these state numbers makes clear how devastating the filibuster has been in blocking federal labor law reform. We have the prospect of having united control of Presidency & Congress again - and if we can abolish the filibuster, we could pass real labor law changes. /19

Need to abandon false nostalgia for non-existent "New Deal labor" past and recognize getting more Dems elected in Senate who will abolish filibuster is key to change here.

More progressives elected in primaries is needed but so is more Dems elected period. /20

GOP Senator Orrin Hatch pointed to use of filibuster to repeatedly kill labor law reform as his proudest achievement, highlighting devastating impact of filibuster. Killing it needs to be top priority for pro-labor progressives. /21 https://twitter.com/nathansnewman/status/1076130206975447041