The Hammer: Power, Inequality, and the Struggle for the Soul of Labor Highlight

The president of the AFL-CIO can cajole and wheedle, but outside of very limited circumstances cannot force unions to follow commandments they dislike. One can imagine an LBJ-style master of power politics bringing recalcitrant unions to heel with a velvet glove over an iron fist, but Liz Shuler, who speaks of her goal as “keeping the machine moving, keeping everybody unified, moving in the same direction,” is not that sort of leader. Instead, Shuler is the sort of leader that you can find throughout the top level of the union world: one whose heart is in the right place, but who seems to have resigned herself to what she sees as the inescapable constraints of reality. This is perfectly normal. But it means that the question, “What would a true visionary do in this daunting situation?” is never answered.