Well, now I’ve heard everything. One of the big headlines coming from the big liberal blog convention last week is that they think that bloggers should organize and form a labor union:

CHICAGO – Do bloggers need their own Norma Rae?

In a move that might make some people scratch their heads, a loosely formed coalition of left-leaning bloggers are trying to band together to form a labor union they hope will help them receive health insurance, conduct collective bargaining or even set professional standards.

The effort is an extension of the blogosphere’s growing power and presence, especially within the political realm, and for many, evokes memories of the early labor organization of freelance writers in the early 1980s.

Organizers hope a bloggers’ labor group will not only showcase the growing professionalism of the Web-based writers, but also the importance of their roles in candidates’ campaigns.

“I think people have just gotten to the point where people outside the blogosphere understand the value of what it is that we do on the progressive side,” said Susie Madrak, the author of Suburban Guerilla blog, who is active in the union campaign. “And I think they feel a little more entitled to ask for something now.”

Alright, let’s look at this proposal a little deeper. These bloggers want a labor union so that they can get health care. Health care, no matter who provides it, costs a lot of money. Most of these bloggers do what they do with little or no compensation. So where, exactly, will this union get the funds to offer a health plan for its members? The only source of income for the proposed labor union would presumably be member dues, and since these people receive little compensation, how could they afford the dues that would have to be charged in order to provide health care?

Next, they want a labor union so that they will have collective bargaining rights. Who, exactly, will they be bargaining with? Most bloggers do what they do from home, answering to no one but themselves. Are they going to try to negotiate with themselves for better hours or working conditions? What happens if hey decide to strike? Will they walk a picket line in front of their home?

Thankfully, there are some people who understand how stupid this idea is:

“The reason I like blogging is that it’s very anarchistic. I can do whatever I want whenever I want, and oh my God, you’re not going to tell me what to do,” said Curt Hopkins, the founder of the Committee to Protect Bloggers.

“The blogosphere is such a weird term and such a weird idea. It’s anyone who wants to do it,” Hopkins said. “There’s absolutely no commonality there. How will they find a commonality to go on? I think it’s doomed to failure on any sort of large scale.”

However, this has not stopped the labor unions from jumping at the chance to to increase their ranks:

While bloggers work to organize their own labor movement, their growing numbers are already being courted by some unions.

“Bloggers are on our radar screen right now for approaching and recruiting into the union,” said Gerry Colby, president of the National Writers Union, a local of the United Auto Workers. “We’re trying to develop strategies to reach bloggers and encourage them to join.”

Other than being a new source of revenue for Union bosses, I have no idea what the bloggers could bring to the union.

If you think about all of this for awhile, it does make sense. Liberal bloggers are the ones who are seeking unionization. These bloggers sit at home and post to their blogs and comment on their friends’ blogs all day, but almost none of them earn any money doing this. As is normal for liberals, they believe that their efforts are worthy of some sort of compensation, but they can’t derive that compensation through the free market. So, they decide to organize a union and then they will use the union to demand various and sundry benefits from whomever they can.

The only problem is, they don’t really have anyone to make these demands of. As a blogger, they work for themselves mostly. There is no corporate office to go after, no “deep pockets” to plunder. However, blogger Susie Madrak has an idea where some of the money should come from:

Just got off the phone with another reporter. I told her no, I wasn’t specifically trying to get bloggers to join a union but rather, I was looking at any and all vehicles through which bloggers could affiliate and thus get affordable health insurance. No, there really wasn’t anyone we could bargain with about wages and working conditions, and yes, I did think we deserved support as opposed to someone who blogs about, say, model trains, because after all, we raised lots and lots of money for Democrats last year and targeted it into key races – namely, that our strength was in making local races national, and sending financial support their way.

I said my primary goal was finding a way to help bloggers who needed it without compromising their independence because after all, independence is what makes us credible.

Oh, I just can’t wait to see what she actually writes.

First, I’m glad that she realizes some of the absurdities of proposing a union for bloggers. It seems her big goal is to get health insurance for bloggers, and she thinks that liberal political bloggers deserve support because they raise money for Democrat candidates. She doesn’t say it outright, but this seems to hint that some of the money for this health insurance would come from the Democrat Party. She also says that she doesn’t want to compromise their “independence,” but if they’re getting money and support from the Democrat Party just exactly how independent can they be?

All in all, I don’t think this idea has a snowball’s chance in hell of becoming reality, but it may be fun to watch them try to make it fly. If a union does manage to emerge, I predict that it will suffer the same fate as Air America, and for most of the same reasons.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 6th, 2007 at 4:57 pm by Nick, and is filed under Bad Ideas, Internet, Labor. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.