My sister and I have an interesting relationship. We have different mothers, but our birthdays are only 6 weeks apart. You see, we met one another for the first time about 6 years ago. (That calls for another diary entirely.) She is a college educated (Masters in Communication) corporate retiree. She is working as a free-lance customer service trainer in the Atlanta area. We have been having a Facebook conversation on the current political scene. Her last comment was regarding my post concerning the value of unions. This Diary is the text of my response to her post.
Dear Sister:
I know what you are doing… you’ve decided that you want me to defend my positions without resorting to canned talking points. Or… you have so delighted in my soaring prose that you want to read more of it.
You asked ‘how do unions benefit you now?’ (Or words to that effect. )
Short answer – Not one damned bit. They can’t directly improve your life or mine, for that matter, at this point in our lives. But you know very well you’re not going to get the short answer.
In my post on your wall, I referenced the eight hour day, etc. We all enjoy those benefits because unions forced employers to grant them. I’m sure you would agree that a fair wage is a right of the working person.
The labor movement in the U.S. had its beginnings among factory workers in the industrial states. Most of them were Irish or European immigrants. Conditions in the factories of the day were deplorable. Hot in the summer, cold in the winter. Horribly unsafe conditions and if a worker was injured he was thrown out of work with no such thing as workman’s comp. A serious, disabling injury could mean starvation for his family. The efforts to organize workers in the 1880’s and 1890’s were met with extreme resistance by owners. If workers went on strike to protest wages and working conditions, the owners enlisted the help of local police to break up strikes. If the local law enforcement refused to cooperate, hired thugs were brought in to break the strike. This resulted in many violent clashes between strikers and the owners’ men.
Wikipedia article on history of unions
The most egregious example of mistreatment of workers was the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City in 1911. 146 women died in the fire, some by jumping out the ninth and tenth floor windows. Their ages ranged from 16-23. The management had locked the doors to the factory floor along with the doors to the stairwells.
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
Just like the rights we enjoy under our constitution did not come without a price paid in blood; that weekend, that eight hour day, that pension and health insurance that ‘we all have’, that safe workplace did not come without a price paid in blood.
So why should we want to see the working class prosper? In this current recession, unemployment is supposedly at 9.7%. But if you add in the underemployed and those who just cannot find work of any kind; that number is closer to 16%, if not higher. The below referenced article from usnews.com (US News and World Report) “Why the Rich Need the Poor” lays out the case for unemployment at current levels being a problem for all of us – rich and poor.
Why The Rich Need The Poor
Unions are really the only organized means of workers standing up for their rights. The corporations initially failed at union-busting because many of the worker protections sought by the unions found their way into Federal and State law. The Fair Labor Act, OSHA and the various regulatory agencies supposedly guarding worker safety in mines, oil fields and other industries. So instead of bargaining with the unions and having to grant concessions, many major corporations began closing plants and shipping those jobs to Mexico, Southeast Asia and Southwest Asia. In some cases, the union workers even had to crate up the machines they had been running and ship them to the overseas plants. With the advent of NAFTA, that pace quickened to the point that approximately 58,000 factories in the US have been closed with the jobs going overseas.
An interesting graph I ran across compares union membership with middle class income. Here it is:
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http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/...
While the reasons for the dropping share of total National income are not solely tied to dropping Union membership, it is an interesting correlation. It would appear that union membership directly contributes to a vibrant middle class. Without the upward pressure that unions put on wages and benefits for their members, the wages and benefits decrease for all workers.
So, yes, the unions benefit all workers by setting the benchmark for wage and benefit packages.
We constantly hear the refrain from politicians… “We’re Broke.” Not broke enough to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; not broke enough to attack the bloated Pentagon budget; not broke enough to return upper income tax rates to Clinton era tax rates. Even though the tax rate increase on the wealthiest Americans would amount to a 3.6% increase in their tax burden. Imagine that! We are fighting like dogs and cats over a lousy 3.6%; not on the average working stiff but on the wealthiest Americans.
Is it really patriotic for American companies to ship jobs overseas while sitting on billions in profits? My earlier email pointed out the tax disparity between average Americans and American Corporations.
The situation we find ourselves in could be likened to three sons with aged parents. One son is a high school graduate with a blue collar job and a family to support; the second son is a college graduate working his way up the economic ladder making a fairly comfortable living; the third son is a dot.com gazillionaire. The aged parents both come down sick and need constant care. The third son looks at the other two and says, “You guys need to do more to help Mom and Dad with the bills, I’m strapped.”
Updated by Arkieboy at Sun Mar 20, 2011 at 11:40 PM CDT
Wow, I made the rec list twice in one week! Thanks to all of you for your excellent comments. I think of the Kos world as one big dinner party with intelligent and reasoning guests. O'Biley may consider us a bunch of left wing pinkos... but, hey, pink ain't such a bad color!
Besides, the 'crazy' doesn't always win... it just happens to be the loudest.
Updated by Arkieboy at Sun Mar 20, 2011 at 11:42 PM CDT
Wow, I made the rec list twice in one week! Thanks to all of you for your excellent comments. I think of the Kos world as one big dinner party with intelligent and reasoning guests. O'Biley may consider us a bunch of left wing pinkos... but, hey, pink ain't such a bad color!
Besides, the 'crazy' doesn't always win... it just happens to be the loudest.
Updated by Arkieboy at Sun Mar 20, 2011 at 11:43 PM CDT
Wow, I made the rec list twice in one week! Thanks to all of you for your excellent comments. I think of the Kos world as one big dinner party with intelligent and reasoning guests. O'Biley may consider us a bunch of left wing pinkos... but, hey, pink ain't such a bad color!
Besides, the 'crazy' doesn't always win... it just happens to be the loudest.