How labor unions benefit all workers
My father and I have had a mild back-and-forth argument going on for years about the role of labor unions in our country. He doesn’t care for them, I do. We agree on most things in politics, and we’re both Democrats. He sees their worth but believes they have caused at least as many problems as the good they’ve done. He’s knows unions are responsible for things like the 40 hour work week and the weekend, but he’s bought into the idea that because of their exorbitant contracts and that it can be hard to fire a union employee some times, they have made corporations that hire US union workers less competitive. I believe that as go union workers salaries (and benefits), so go the rest of workers. And I think I made him see the light over the Holidays.
My father has come a long way in his life. From the farms of South Texas to retirement from one of the largest and most successful corporations in America. He’s been retired since 1995 and while not rich, him and my mother have been able to live a very comfortable life since he retired. My father began working for this corporation in the late 1960′s and the benefits they afforded him were incredible – by today’s standards. He received a pension at retirement, without a dime ever being deducted from his pay. All the while he worked there he received full medical benefits, without a dime ever being deducted from his pay (he told me it wasn’t until soon after he retired that employees had to begin paying some of their health insurance). Free life insurance, paid time off – which was 5 weeks/yr when he retired, and on and on.
Because of that job my mother never had to work , (which is no longer possible for most of the middle class). Although once the children were older she got a part-time job for some “extra” money. My father and I were discussing this as part of a discussion on the upcoming destruction that’s headed for many poor and working Americans, and Texans, because the wealthy are no longer asked to contribute their fare share in taxes. He sat back and said something to the effect of, “I was able to make a pretty darn good living for a someone who grew up like I did and didn’t get a college education”. Of course I agreed…and then said, “Do you know why you we’re able to do that?” He didn’t really have an answer, and I said it’s because strong labor unions, with their great pay and great benefits, forced corporations to match it to their workers, or lose those workers to union jobs. He thought for a while and said, “You know, you’re right”.
My father’s corporate work life parallels the time frame of the extreme decline in public sector union membership, (taken from The Mendacity of Hope, page 48).
Since 1965, private-sector union enrollment has declined from 30 percent to about 7 percent.
By the time he retired, that is when unions had declined enough that corporations were allow to start taking back all the benefits they had given, and no longer felt the need to give to employees. Wages stagnated and profits began to rise. There are more articles on the extreme decrease in private-section union membership (here and here). EPI did a report years ago on how unions help all, repeat ALL workers. The destruction of private-sector labor unions has been good for corporations and bad for working Americans. In the same time frame that private sector union membership has declined, not surprisingly, wages for all workers have stagnated, as corporate profits soared and income inequality continues to grow. That’s not a coincidence.
Corporations and the wealthy have been extremely profitable by decreasing membership in private sector unions and driving down their costs for wages and benefits to their employees. Now they, and the GOP, have their sights set on public sector unions to drive wages down even further. If my father now understands how labor unions help all workers, and him and his family through his work life, certainly this can be explained to many others. It’s what’s needed to begin to fix the wage problem in our country.
