UNION

I updated last night and figured I’d skip today as I’ve done nothing since. Then Mark posted a still from Norma Rae for Labor Day. That got me to track down the scene, one of my favorites that I could never find. This year it came up at the top of the search.

Then I hunted down union songs. I started to preach to the masses, my eyes started to glow. When my eyes do the glowing thing I have to give in and write. I’m no longer a free agent but a vessel of the truth.

Since the 1970 our economy has become increasingly inequitable. The top earners have taken progressively large pieces of the pie, leaving that much less for the rest of us. There the top 10% gained on the median; the 1% on the 10%, and the 0.1% on the 1%. There have been many explanations for this; increases in automation, trade, and the flow of capital. These might all have had some effect but they have also brought benefits. What hasn’t in the decline in union membership. There’s a clear correlation between the fraction of the workers that are unionized and wages. Starting in the 70s, and greatly accelerating in the 80s there has been an organized attack on Unions by the GOP and by capital. Ironically former union leader Ronald Reagan spearheaded the anti-union movement. Where the GOP took power they hacked away at the ability of workers to organize. States passed the Orwellian named, “Right to Work” laws. The more accurate name would be “giving up the right to negotiate” laws. As they well understood an individual has little leverage in negotiations with employers. Employees need to work together, they need to form unions. Targeting that has been a prime objective of the right, one that largely succeeded.

The most insidious part has been poisoning the minds of people against unions. I have heard so many of my progressive friends speak against unions. They have no appreciation of how important they are. Do Unions have flaws? Of course, they are organizations of people, not saints. They have let themselves be used by mobsters and the Soviet Union. But that has always been overblown by the anti-union forces. More often they have simply looked out for the interests of their members which might not coincide with what’s good for the rest of us. There is nothing wrong with that. That’s how we decide the common interest, by having inputs from all aspects of society. I’ve always taken issue with Unions adversity to immigration and trade, both of which help the rest of us. I still support the unions as the interest of working people align with mine far more than the interests of corporations and plutocrats. Without unions there is no counterbalance to those with wealth and power. Unions bring numbers and that brings power.

Too often those on the left focus on hurting corporations than on helping workers. The corporations aren’t evil any more than the unions are; they are looking out for their interests, just like Unions do. Except that without Unions there is no one to push back against them. The result has been predictable, the rich have gotten richer at the expense of the rest of us.

It goes beyond negotiating into political power. A major motive for the right fighting unions is that Unions can provide money, and more importantly people, that support politicians that promote the interests of working people. Without that unions the corporations control the playing field. They support politicians whose goals are aligned with theirs, reducing taxes, regulations, and government services which the wealthy can buy for themselves.

There is so much talk on the loss of high paying industrial jobs for and rise of low paying service jobs. Why should a factory worker get paid more than retail worker? One reason, the factory workers have been unionized and the retailers haven’t. If Walmart workers could strike till they earn a living wage, they’d earn a living wage.

It’s the old story, individuals are not as strong as groups. Pick your own tired metaphor. They are tired because they are true. We don’t spend enough time and effort promoting the right for workers to organize, and to make it easier for them to do so. Increased unionization will do more to help workers than the issues that make the headlines. They all work at the margins; unions, at the core of how things work.

This is what labor day is about, not going to the beach or the block party. Not getting away for the weekend, but for banding together and fighting for our interests. We can’t expect those that have to give us a greater share, we have to fight for it; we have to fight for it together.

My eyes are dimming; the voice in my head is quieting. Tonight I’m not going to storm the ramparts, I’m going to see Red Molly with Katherine. Tomorrow I’ll write about music and friendship and wonderful people. It’s not changing the subject. It’s all part of the truth; the truth has many facets and is incomplete without all of them.