Welcome to DelaWOKE – MAGA owned firms wondering when whites will ever get a fair shake in this state as Delaware moves to increase diversity in state-funded construction projects
Delaware using pilot studies to increase diversity in state-funded construction projects
A 2022 study commissioned by the state found a lack of diversity amongst the vendors Delaware contracts with to provide goods, services and skilled labor. It said non-minority, non-women-owned businesses accounted for almost all of the vendors the state uses when conducting state business. This disparity is especially pronounced in construction and construction-related services.
A closer look at the documented disparity shows that Hispanic and Black-owned construction firms represent a little more than 2% of the vendors the state contracts with for construction services with no Black-owned firms providing construction-related services.
Take a drive by the IBEW hall on a wednesday night and you’ll see why. Lifted trucks, stylized .223 rounds for antennas, pole-mounted flags, all the maga trappings.
The trade unions are no longer the bastions of progressivism. Collective support and solidarity with the unions can no longer be a given – these people and their money are the reason we get chumps like Coons. I have no qualms about crossing their picket lines. If they refuse to bend the knee and vote left, they don’t deserve a the right to collective bargaining or state contracts.
You’re delusional
Very detailed, cogent analysis. Tell us more.
Any Electrical Workers wish to comment?
Seems troll-y
It’s not trolling. Unions in this country are trade guilds, devoted not just to better pay and working conditions but also to protecting membership by restricting membership. There is, you will note, no Labor Party in the USA.
Years ago I covered meetings at the Delaware City refinery, don’t remember now who owned it at the time, but there was pressure for them to install new scrubbers to control pollution. They told the union that if they backed DNREC they’d all be fired and replaced by non-union workers (granted, under Bush, that was not an idle threat). The union fell in line behind management and opposed them. IOW, fuck the neighbors, fuck the public, we want our jerbs!
I’m not saying I would have done different, but I am saying that in many cases where it comes down to their own interest vs. the public interest, the public interest is almost certain to come in second.
Not all unions are like this, but the entrenched, old-line unions are not progressive. Where do you think the Reagan Democrats came from?
I agree that unions aren’t progressive members in the Democratic coalition. But there is something of the troll in Jeans comment. I can’t put a finger on it but I have a sense.
It’s because Jean characterizes traditional union interests as “voting left.” Labor rights are in the ideological center of American politics. Only a right-winger would see labor rights as “left.”
I dunno. I’m more sympathetic to Jean’s comments than most here.
Me too. White union members have become a privileged reactionary force, ironically enabled by the rights their parents won.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_Hat_Riot
I’m talking about police unions and many construction trades. Those who have consistently opposed minority rights both out in the streets and in their union shops.
“bend the knee” is the key phrase. Thats the term I hear these guys use all the time, as in “bending the knee to the woke left.”
The other mantra you’ll hear is “vote for your job/lobby for your hobby.” That’s how you end up with suspiciously pro-trade politicians who are otherwise DINOs.
Obviously AFL/CIO and the teachers unions have much different attitudes, but you only have to look at the split in their membership demographics.
Seems to me that Jean is conflating minority owned businesses with right-wing unions. I’ve belonged to two unions in the manufacturing sector and I don’t remember the membership being especially right or left.
Even for kids that choose to not join a trade union, the trades have a massive influence in maintaining a culture that is overwhelmingly white and male. That level of control over the pipeline yields the kind of outcomes we see today.
If you cross a picket line because you don’t like who the union members voted for you don’t understand the point of a labor union.
The union is for the collective rights and conditions of the workers.
So you’re going to do scab work for a capitalist developer, for example, for less money and less benefits and less job security because the union is too Trump adjacent? That ain’t it. Who benefits from that?
On a tangential note, always support more activist union movements. DSEA has a lot of problems, but people are trying to challenge entrenched power and better serve their members.
https://delawarecall.com/2023/03/03/accusations-of-unfair-process-cast-cloud-over-dsea-executive-board-elections/
You nailed it with “entrenched power.” It corrupts, I’m told.
No doubt.
And police unions aren’t unions.
AMEN. They’re protection rackets.
… And law-enforcement is just status quo enforcement.