The word "union" has received a bad rap over the last 30 years. The media, the new influencers and the like will point out all the sins of unions: mob bosses, corruption, kick-backs, the litany goes on-and-on. What is rarely pointed out is the positives from job unions, The forty-hour work week. The concept of medical. The extra pay for an extended workday or week. These things were never given. They were made by sacrifices that today's workforce benefits, but knows nothing about. Production owners had people working from sun-up to sundown, 14-hours. A job meant that you show up for six days a week. If you missed a day, you lost your job. They never gave raises. There were no benefits. In dangerous jobs where people lost limbs, there was no restitution, insurance or anything. They just hire a new body. Dear Reader, the word body is how they treated everyone. Cattle, sheep or slave, they all were used until exhaustion and then, dumped for a new body. The media has not talked like that since Steinbeck. We need to remind everyone that producers get government influence. With the help of Congress producers even got soldiers to kill fellow Americans who went on the picket line. After years of struggle some politicians took notice. We can thank FDR for recognizing workers had a right to unionize. We talk about the American dream? Our nation never had a better living standard than we had after WWII with a strong union membership throughout our country.
Conservatives, Republicans, Whatever...
you want to call them, banded together to push legislation in Congress. They passed the Taft-Hartley bill. This act is anti-worker, anti-union and no one running for office has ever called for it to be overturned. This legislation allows owners to outsource work. When a union went on strike, the owner could now hire new workers - "Scabs." This should not be allowed. Owners lie, cheap, steal everyday. It keeps getting worse. Look at the Supreme Court and the Janus ruling?! Just look at the two recent union strikes.
Boeing: told the labor force that if they called off the strike, they would keep work in Seattle. The workers went back to the job. Immediately, Boeing shipped the work to Charlotte, in a non-union state. The labor force was cut due to the loss of work contracts. Labor loses.
Detroit: has had countless dealings with the auto unions. Management says yes to requests by unions. As soon as the strike is ended, they outsource work to Mexico, China or Canada. Union membership has declined due to less work contracts. In fact, all the so-called "trickle down effect" of one job influencing another has taken effect. Almost every auto supplier is now foreign because this work too was outsourced. Labor loses, again.
As a result, we have manufacturing which pays a living wage in decline. It has fallen to the point where it is only 7% of our economy. After WWII, manufacturing was 50% of our economy. Now, we have excess poverty where people study the poor to receive a Nobel Prize. Some workers try to enact a change. The $15 dollar meme is circulating. Producers get their cronies to argue about the effects of raising the minimum wage. I can tell you this from experience. Raising the minimum wage gets an immediate boost for a worker in this category. It does not last. Why, you ask? The Federal Reserve keeps printing money. This kills the purchasing power of the dollar. It leads to the same point as when workers first got together to seek a higher wage. It is just another reason why I say, End the Fed!
Do I have to remind you that when the minimum wage was raised from .65 cents to .95 cents per hour, workers were able to make ends meet. Deficit spending kills the value of workers wages. This too needs to be addressed. We need a balanced budget, every year! In America today, only the poor know how to maintain a budget. Again, do I have to remind you of the debt ceiling? When government workers were crying after missing one paycheck?
I'm sorry! I get off-track, however I believe that all things are connected. This connection is central to the word, union. Afterall, we are the United (union) States. Anyway, if producers and owners keep their attacks on workers and unions, it will lead me to offer an idea that I don't really want out of the bottle. More on that after this...
There are two guys sitting at a bar. They look depressed as they cry in their beer. One is older. The other is younger. Finally, the older one says, "They keep trying to take away my pension." The younger one replies, "What's a pension?"
This is true and it reflects the sad state of American workers, living conditios and future outlook. Producers have been successful in outsorcing work which has crushed unions and both their membership and effectiveness. Central to their attacks has been terminating pensions and their obligation to fund those pensions. This is so blantant that some who understand the blight of labor have enacted the Pension Guaranty (PGC). This government program seeks to provide workers who were robbed and cheated out of their pension promise by a corporation. Last year, this poorly funded program lost $35.7 billion and the future looks bleak. Workers never get close to what they earned and were promised. Workers are forced into programs and plans like IRAs and 401s. I am thankful for these programs, but allowing companies to skate by their obligations is totally unforgiven. Corporations are allowed to buyback their stock and yet, they have not contributed to a promised pension plan. This process should not be allowed. Corporations should have to meet all their obligations first for their workers, their suppliers and their debt. If they go bankrupt, those promises to their workers fall to the PGC. This is so wrong as well as the reporting of earnings by companies. It is either you made money or you didn't. Adjusted earnings reports are a lie!
There is an answer, although I hate to mention it. I will as I hope the threat will work on the conscience of owners to stop their senseless greed and share in the blessings that they were given. It won't! The only result will be by a few and it will be an answer to stop my answer. For example: In the recent strike by GM workers. Then, every worker in any union join their brothers on the picket line. Every union member in any job description from government to manufacturing to retail to grocery, everyone, they join the picker line in sympathy to their union brothers. If one is exploited. we all are exploited! This will force a quick resolution to any job action. It will show the power of workers once again in this nation. It will lead to legislation that any outsourced work to be treated as a foreign company and put tariffs on that product to help workers in this country. United we stand!
If we don't stand together now, we have some serious problems that will destroy many state governments in the near future. Consider this list of ten states and their obligations to state employees. They all are under funded pension programs. If a teacher walks out in Illinois, it only makes the evening news. If that action had everyone walking off the job throughout the nation, it will get an immediate response.
Massachusetts: 59% funded. State has a $35 billion shortfall to pension.
Pennsylvania: 55% funded. State has a $66 billion shortfall to pension.
Hawaii: 54% funded. State has a $13 billion shortfall to pension.
South Carolina: 54% funded. State has a $25 billion shortfall to pension.
Rhode Island: 53% funded. State has a $15 billion shortfall to pension.
Colorado: 47%funded. State has a $54 billion shortfall to pension.
Connecticut: 45% funded. State has a $34 billion shortfall to pension.
Illinois: 38% funded. State has a $136 billion shortfall to pension.
New Jersey: 35% funded. State has a $142 billion shortfall to pension.
Kentucky: 33% funded. State has a $42 billion shortfall to pension.
The numbers are staggering! The older states like in New England are losing population and thus, taxpayers. Unless a new economic boom settles in those states and places like Illinois, all those financial obligations will fall to the federal government. The result will be more printing of dollars and we all suffer due to the loss of purchasing power and as a result, our standard of living will fall even further. Protect all workers in America!
