I was listening to a report on NPR in my car radio about someone named Nancy Snyder and her husband who were protesting at a recent Arlen Specter (D?-PA) town hall in State College PA. Their protests were aimed at the "Socialism" that was fostered by the creation of a Public Option in the various healthcare reform bills currently before Congress. When Ms. Snyder was asked about her own health insurance and stated that she and her husband were covered by a policy through the United Mine Workers of America and that "we worked hard to get it and we’re going to keep it", I wanted to rip the steering wheel out and throw it at the radio. Yes, I had no doubt that her husband had indeed worked hard as a UMWA member and had earned everything that his retirement plan had provided, but Mrs. Snyder apparently has no knowledge of the history of the United Mine Workers or the union movement in general and the protections afforded by the "Socialist" US government that have assisted the union movement to ensure worker's rights over the years. More Below
I located numerous reference on the UMWA’s own website where the "Socialist" US government has intervened to protect the rights of workers and has assisted the UMWA specifically. The UMWA writes:
Organizers from the UMWA fanned out across the country in the 1933 to organize all coal miners after passage of the National Industrial Recovery Act. The law granted workers the right to form unions and bargain collectively with their employers. After organizing the nations coal fields, the miners turned their attention to the mass production industries, such as steel and automobiles, and helped those workers organize.
and
The UMWA was an early pioneer of health and retirement benefits. In 1946, in a contract between the UMWA and the federal government, a multi-employer UMWA Welfare and Retirement Fund was created.
and
When the National Bituminous Wage Conference convened in early 1946, a health and welfare fund for miners was the union's top priority. The operators again rejected the proposal and miners walked off the job on April 1, 1946. Negotiations under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Labor continued sporadically through April. On May 10, 1946, President Truman summoned John L. Lewis and the operators to the White House. The stalemate appeared to break when the White House announced an agreement in principle on a health and welfare fund. Despite the White House announcement, the coal operators still refused to agree to the creation of a medical fund. Another conference at the White House failed to forge an agreement and the negotiations again collapsed. Faced with the prospect of a long strike that could hamper post-war economic recovery, President Truman issued an Executive Order directing the Secretary of the Interior to take possession of all bituminous coal mines in the United States and to negotiate with the union "appropriate changes in the terms and conditions of employment." Secretary of the Interior Julius Krug seized the mines the next day and ordered the miners to return to work. The miners refused, and negotiations continued, first at the Interior Department and then at the White House, with President Truman participating in several conferences. After a week of negotiations, the historic Krug Lewis agreement was announced and the strike ended. It created a welfare and retirement fund to make payments to miners and their dependents and survivors in cases of sickness, permanent disability, death or retirement, and other welfare purposes determined by the trustees.
So in other words, when Mrs. Snyder was 11 years old, the "Socialist" US government that she is now protesting, seized control of the coal mines and hammered out an agreement between the coal operators and the UMWA to establish the welfare and retirement fund that is the basis for the health benefits that are Mrs. Snyder’s medical safety net. The mine workers have been hard working pioneers in the movement for workers rights, but without the protections afforded by the US government at critical points in the movement’s history, mine workers would have endured a greater level of harassment and strife from the large coal mining conglomerates who would have continued to shoot them down like animals.
It may be typical of our times that people have little understanding of their own history, but I would expect someone who depends on UMWA health benefits to have some understanding of the history of how those benefits were derived. It was not because of the benevolence of the coal companies, but through the struggle of the mine workers and the intervention of the US government, the same government that this particular person now derides as "Socialism." Or perhaps this is a case of the hypocritical construct that the "Socialism" that established my healthcare benefits is great, but the "Socialism" that provides a Public Option for someone else is evil.
I have no idea how Mrs. Snyder and her husband could be so confused about their own history, or as that guy on Fox News says "Who’s looking out for you?", but they come out as all that coherent on the national media. And I was also somewhat disappointed by the NPR interviewer, Michele Martin, who failed to challenge Mrs. Snyder about the government protection for the union movement in establishing her health insurance, a protection that Mrs. Snyder would apparently cheerfully deny to others.
Read a synopsis of the NPR interview and listen to it here
See the UMWA website and read their history here