Members of Sheet Metal Workers Local 19 walking a picket line at Bryn Mawr College.
Often when on a picket or banner line people notice union members with our protest signs or the large inflatable rat and they're curious as to why we're there demonstrating.
One question that I'm always answering from passersby is, "why are you out here?" When I simply reply, "we're protesting a contractor on this jobsite for wages and standards" their eyes tend to just glaze over and they nod with a confused look on their face. I do always briefly expand on my statement and explain why it's important to uphold area wages and standards so that they can get a better grasp on why that is important and how it affects them and their neighbors.
I thought to myself that I need to further elaborate on this so people can fully understand how crucial it is to protect these wages and standards that working people have fought so hard to obtain. A portion of this article is taken from some of my previous writing because I felt it explained this issue where the average person could understand.
“What do you mean by wages and standards?”
Wages and standards are the hourly wage and benefits of a worker. More often than not, workers who are members of a union earn the highest wages and standards in their industry. When more workers earn these higher wages and standards, they contribute to the overall Prevailing Wage, which in turn raises up everyone else's standards of living.
Why is it important that we fight to keep these standards in place?
This question has a more complex answer. It’s important because when pay and benefits are chipped away from a particular industry, the total workforce within that sector start to earn less and these kinds of actions spread to other industries like a cancer. This affects not just workers’ families, but our community at large.
Lower wage workers pay a lesser tax rate, which may mean tax increases or the loss of public services for everyone. In addition, when workers earn less pay, they spend less in our communities, because they simply can’t afford to spend as much as a worker that earns a higher rate of pay. This absolutely affects our local and national economies.
What do you mean by standards?
Standards are a benefits package that includes health, retirement and often a life insurance policy, this is known as a comprehensive benefits package. When workers don’t have a comprehensive benefit package, this also affects the community negatively. Workers (or a member of their family) that have no health insurance will eventually need to go to the hospital (everyone gets sick). And unfortunately since they don’t have insurance and they make so little in the way of wages, that worker certainly can’t pay for the healthcare received, so the rest of us foot the bill. Then again let’s say they do have insurance, but it barely covers anything, (this is a very common case). That worker and their family would have to pay through the nose for the needed healthcare, which would put them in more dire straits than they were before. Working families don’t deserve to be placed in a situation akin to Russian roulette when it comes to healthcare. Furthermore, when workers earn a decent wage, they give back more to our communities and their families. And that’s worth every penny.
Retirement is another part of these standards, most non-union construction workers’ retirement plans pale in comparison to those of their union counterparts. Without any retirement, these workers are left with no choice but to continue working well past what their bodies might physically allow (construction is very hard on the body). And even if they do finally stop working, Social Security alone can only provide a meager existence. So in many cases family would have to help to take care of them; which I’m sure many are glad to, but it does add a strain to daily life and takes away a bit of independence from the retiree. The other option is they would need assistance from the state. Our elders deserve so much more dignity than that and when wages and standards are high, that dignity can be achieved.
Much of the time a comprehensive benefits package also has a life insurance policy attached as well. This is provided in case of premature death to provide for the family of the worker and to help in taking care of funeral arrangements. If a worker doesn't have their own life insurance policy in place, a unexpected death would absolutely financially devastate the family of the worker at a time when they are already dealing with so much emotional pain.
I spoke of the prevailing wage above and that's something I feel needs some explanation as well. As stated prior, the prevailing wage is the highest wages and standards within a particular industry. Most often union workers yield the highest prevailing wage within all sectors.
Why is it important to protect the prevailing wage?
American author and policy adviser, Eric Liu put it best when he said:
"Unions lift wages for non-union members by creating a higher prevailing wage. Even if you aren't a union member, your pay is influenced by the strength or weakness of organized labor. The presence of unions sets off a wage race to the top. Their absence sets off a race to the bottom."
This is hitting the nail directly on the head. It's not a coincidence that there's a direct correlation between the decline in union density (percentage of union members out of the total workforce) and the decline of the middle class here in the United States. The fact of the matter is. the longer the average person remains ignorant or apathetic to these issues, the race to the bottom will continue.
My hope is that this article has helped readers better understand these issues that greatly affect all of us. Thinking it doesn't affect you because you're not in a union or you simply don't care will precipitate this race to the bottom that we're currently experiencing in our Nation. When people are informed, act through organizing efforts at their workplace, lobby their elected officials on issues that pertain to working families or simply converse with their friends and family on how this all affects them and the community. They'll be doing their part to make this world a better place for all of us and for generations to follow.