Jack's Essay: Solidarity Sometimes - 10/12/05

Here is the myth that the middle and upper classes in America have about labor:
Once upon a time, unions were necessary things, back when evil robber barons worked children in the coal mines for a nickel an hour.

  Now, however unions aren’t really necessary anymore. In fact, they get in the way of progress and productivity.  Unions encourage laziness and featherbedding. Besides, we can’t afford them any more. Thanks to the global economy, we need to do everything we can to compete with places like Haiti. Well, I’ve seen Haiti, and if that’s where we’re headed, I need to make a side trip to Dr. Kevorkian first.

  Here’s the truth:  Odds are you need to thank a picket line somewhere if you have a job that pays enough to live on, even if you have never belonged to a union.

However, here’s another truth. Many unions just don’t get it today. I have worked jobs where union members actively fought progress and tried to punish those who worked hard.

  During the Detroit newspaper strike, I was on a panel in a church basement with members of one of the craft unions. The lower-middle-class parishioners were not happy with the greedy out-of-town corporations for whom profits, not people, counted most.

  Then one of the union guys got up, and immediately lost them all. He said they deserved lifetime contracts, even if there was no work to do.

Unions haven’t a clue how to represent the solitary worker, thumping away on her home computer. Want to see what they should be doing? Read Barbara Ehrenreich’s book Nickel and Dimed. This country is full of people killing themselves and not getting paid enough to live on. That’s where unions should be organizing. But they’re not, and I don’t know why. They used to sing a song:

There once was a union maid

Who never was afraid

  And what I want to know is  . . . where did she go? 

Comments

[Union Maid]

As a union member yourself Mr. Lessenberry, I would like to repectfully ask you - how many union meetings did you attend? Were you at the bargaining table with your reps, showing that solidarity? I know union members love to complain that they pay dues to get others to do the heavy lifting...but guess what? Mark Gaffney is NOT the "union". The "U" in union stands for YOU. Union members have an obligation to be on the front lines. If there is any laziness among the organized, it can be seen in the utter lack of participation. As for organizing the independent contractors... why don't you step up to the plate and get the ball rolling!?

[A Pink Collar Worker]

It amazes me that American workers, unionized and otherwise, are being hammered by employers who paint them as greedy for wanting jobs that pay wages that make a middle class. Is our national memory addled about how we moved from farms to industrial cities then to suburbs?
Having a middle class is great for our society. For starters, we can expect to live longer. More of our citizens have health care. As a nation of voracious consumers, workers who earn more than subsistence wages, can afford microwaves, freezers, iPods, home computers, digital cameras, large screen televisions, boats and other goods that are now being manufactured abroad.

Everyone cannot be a business owner. Successful business owners outgrow a staff of family members who supply labor in exchange for necessities. Business owners blame salaries and benefits of non-family workers for moving jobs to other countries. Can anyone think that we'd be better off with only CEOs and WalMart workers?

I will admit that I have been frustrated by workers who give me inferior service, like State and city workers or everyone in a court room that I don’t pay directly. Are unions to blame for creating work environments that make it nearly impossible to be fired? If they are then negotiators on the business side should demand better as part of the contract and supervisors should be more attentive.

If what is sought by business owners and major corporations is a bargain labor force, then why not shop abroad for CEOs? For the cost of an assembly line worker making overtime, India and China and Mexico would have CEO applicants lined up. Think of the millions of dollars in executive salary pay that could be saved. More American worker bees could be hired so that Americans could buy products made by Americans.