Unions
Last Hope of the Dying
Middle Class?
SAVING AMERICA
Part II
The Second in a Series of Ten Things We Must Do in the
Next Eight Years to Restore Our Nation
When the economy imploded back in 2008,
throwing millions of people out of work,
pushing families out of their homes and on to
the streets, uprooting masses of them,
sending them packing to grandma and
grandpa’s house or to living out of their
SUVs parked at WalMarts
around the country,
it probably didn’t occur to you that this
calamity was caused by some
avaricious bastards
on Wall Street.
And if it did, you never would have thought
they were going to get away with it.
But they have.
Average people aren't paranoid so when
they hear a phrase like“class warfare” they
associate it with college sociology classes or
Sunday morning talk shows.
By “average people” we mean middle
class people, hardworking,
nose-to-the-grindstone
types who are busy playing it straight—
bringing their kids up right,
taking care of their homes, paying their bills,
(some smoke a little weed now and then)
saving money for college educations and
retirement.
They don’t think there are whole groups of
people out in the world looking to steal
their way of life from them, least of all rich
bankers and businessmen. Or politicians.
They’re just Average Joes,
upright members of the middle class—
The Backbone of America.
Day in, day out they put in an honest day’s work,
they don'tcause trouble
and every four years they vote.
What’s to worry about?
“Remember the labor unions years ago?
Those guys were never satisfied
with anything, always bellyaching
about jobs, wanting more money, more
time off, more benefits.
More, more, more.
All the time. And what’d it get them?
More dues to pay. That’s what.
And where are they now? Pretty much gone
and most of us live in
Right to Work states. Me and my family
are doing just fine.
Who needs unions?”
What’s happened to labor unions since 1980? What’s happened to the Middle Class since 1980? More to the point, what’s happened to the Middle Class since 2008?
Labor unions—those most responsible for the surging Middle Class between 1960 and 1980—with few exceptions, have been dying off for thirty years and will, if we do not take immediate steps to reverse their fate, be gone. As we’ve seen in Wisconsin, unions are in tatters and disarray. And on the verge of extinction.
Should you care? If you want to have a Middle Class—the largest swath of American society with incomes of $35,000 to $250,000 per year—you should be very concerned.
Before 1930 there were four social classes: The Rich, the Working Class, the Working Poor and the Dirt Poor. We did not become a Middle Class society until the end of World War II when labor unions played the pivotal role in the elevation of the American standard of living.
It was through unions that the living wage, pensions, healthcare, vacations with pay, sick leave and paid holidays became benefits for millions of citizens, whether union members or not. Unions raised the quality of life for non-union people because employers were forced to offer benefits to workers to prevent them from leaving or unionizing themselves.
By the 1950s labor unions had become the protectors of workers and guardians of the Middle Class. Unions essentially shaped the core of American society—strong middle class families full of solid, hardworking people—blue collar workers, middle managers, teachers, small businessmen, college professors and other highly educated professionals. Middle class families of the 1950-1970s felt rich and secure. And by today’s standards, they were.
Unfortunately, by the late 1960’s corrupt union leaders, drunk on power they wielded through millions of dues-paying members, began assaulting management with one demand after another. Public opinion turned on them, even rank and file members felt the calls for ever increasing wages and benefits were overreaching. People working in other sectors of the economy agreed: the unions were way out of control.
Throughout the 70s unions continued to fall out of favor. In some instances business reclaimed the loyalty of workers, in others union bosses struck bargains with weak corporate management. Ultimately, the voice of labor was stilled as labor leaders and management shared the wealth.
The decline of union membership isn’t solely attributable to the hostility unions and union leaders in particular attracted. Political change was, perhaps, the most significant reason.
Reganomics Dribbled All Over
the Middle Class
When Ronald Regan became president in 1980, Republicans unleashed a highly successful political and legislative campaign that flattened the unions. A couple of years later, Regan introduced the infamous “Trickle Down Theory of Economics,” a covert affirmation of one of life’s truisms, “The rich get richer and the poor get screwed.”
As union power and membership dwindled, the value of the output of the average worker grew. Adjusted for inflation, by 2008 it was almost 50% higher than it was in 1973. Workers, however, never received a share of the economic gains they helped create. If gains in productivity had been evenly distributed across the workforce, workers’ income today would be 35% higher than it was in 1973.
The 1980’s witnessed a widening inequality in America driven by the deliberate distribution of income away from all classes of society to the very rich, a trend that accelerated in the 90’s when greed at the corporate top lifted CEO compensation from $1.3 million to $37.5 million annually. But avarice doesn’t stop at the executive offices of corporations, move over to Wall Street and you’ll find several hedge fund managers making over $1 billion a year!
As Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman of Princeton University (seen below) has commented: “My sense is that few people are aware of just how much the gap between the very rich and the rest has widened over a relatively short period of time. In fact, even bringing up the subject exposes you to charges of ‘class warfare,’ ‘the politics of envy’ and so on. And very few people indeed are willing to talk about the profound effects—economic, social and political—of that widening gap.”
During the past thirty years, as the rich became phenomenally rich, the average annual salary in the U.S. (adjusted for inflation), rose from $32,522 in 1970 to $35,864 in 1999. Krugman theorizes most Americans don’t perceive this gross disparity because they “. . . assume that because we are the richest country in the world, with G.D.P. per capita higher than that of other major advanced countries [we] must be better off across the board—that it’s not just our rich who are richer . . . but that the typical American family is much better off than the typical family [in other parts of the world].”
Most noteworthy is that he sees that the growth of income and wealth in the hands of very few has reshaped our political system and accounts for the demagogic shift to the right and the extreme polarization of our politics.
Lost in the Seventies
What has been absent in the forty years since 1970? Strong labor unions. They’re what’s been missing from the economic equation. Without their intervention on behalf of Working Class and Middle Class workers, the mega corporations have run wild and gotten away with demanding ever more from workers while offering them not less, but nothing in return.
The surprising pushback from the Wisconsin teachers union against the Republican majority in the state house and the governor has raised the hackles of corporate moguls because just when they thought they had workers where they wanted them . . . .
That’s why you’re seeing corporations and right-wing billionaires like Charles and David Koch spending millions trying to stomp out what they thought were the dying embers of the labor movement. And they’re being assisted by the Republican governors of Wisconsin, Ohio and Michigan (each with generous campaign contributions from the Kochs) who are delighted to serve them by oppressing the people who elected them and stripping unionized public workers of their right to collective bargaining.
The rich, as F. Scott Fitzgerald famously wrote, are different than you and me. The rich think Fitzgerald was 1,000% right in the sense that they believe their money makes them superior. The Wall Street Banksters and the Corporate Cabal scorn people without “real money”. The economic interests of our “aristocracy”—the richest 15,000 families in America—do not include an egalitarian bent toward sharing with working people who, in reality, produce the wealth.
Without money, there is no power. This is the stuff that has the makings of revolution.
As the response of the White House and both political parties to the meltdown of 2008 has proven, the Middle and Working classes can go to hell. The greatest crime in history committed against a social class (something I call “economic genocide”), has been committed. We know who did it and how they did it, but not a single person responsible for it is in prison.
The average man has been so mind-blitzed by the lies and electioneering of the empty suits of both political parties, he doesn’t know if he’s on foot or horseback.
Throughout the buzz an insidious political Muzak has been playing—a persistent Right Wing propaganda theme played in variations by political action committees, lobbyists and public relations experts who specialize in disinformation campaigns. Their work has engendered a frustrated public that is angry, disoriented and disenfranchised but doesn’t know who to blame or what to do about it.
We Can Help the Middle Class By
Fighting for Unions
Rescuing and revitalizing labor unions would be a smart move. My opinion is that if the Working and Middle Classes had a resurgent labor movement watching their backs, much of the economic and social damage of the past thirty years could have been avoided.
Sure, labor unions of the past deserved the wrath and rejection they received from the public. That was then, this is now. To put it plainly, in their absence Big Business, Wall Street Banksters, Insurance Scammers and Corporate Criminals have been raping and pillaging. They own the Democrats and Republicans and Washington is their shared branch office.
For me, a sign being waved at a rally in Madison drove the message home: “United We Bargain, Divided We Beg.”
Existing labor unions need our support and giving them that doesn’t cost much. You can send a letter to your local newspaper and copy all your friends, you can blog on the subject, when you hear someone spreading anti-union blather, stand up and correct them. Better yet, if non-union workers are demonstrating against employers’ unfair dealings, find out how you can support them. If union workers are walking a picket line, go out and show your solidarity by walking with them.
Most important, urge your elected officials at every level to support the Employee Free Choice Act. Private sector workers’ union membership has dropped from a high of about 35% in the 1950s to 7.5% today while public sector union membership is a shaky 36%. Workers have attempted organizing over the years, but employers have managed to obstruct, intimidate and defeat them at every turn. Consequently, there has been no one to oppose the fall in wages, health insurance benefits or declining workplace conditions.
The Employee Free Choice Act has come close to passage but has been languishing since 2007. The Act balances the power between employers and employees, restores fairness to the bargaining process and revives respect for workers. It allows employees to make their own decision about their need for union representation in bargaining with employers. It’s most valuable feature is the use of a secret ballot (signing a “Yes” or “No” card) in which a majority wins. Named the “card-check” system, it’s objective is to protect the workers’ right to accept or reject collective bargaining without fear of co-worker harassment or employer retribution through loss of their jobs.
Here's What They Taught Us:
No Unions, No Fair Play
The law allows a union to be certified as the official union to bargain with an employer upon union officials presenting the signatures of a pro-union majority. It eliminates the right of an employer to demand an additional, separate ballot when more than half of the employees have already voted in favor of organizing. This aspect of the law prevents employers from getting a second bite of the apple by giving them an opportunity to reverse the vote through pressuring or intimidating workers.
Do we need labor unions? Yes, and we need them badly. Without them, the Middle and Working Classes will be compressed into one giant Lower Class and we will all become slaves working on the Great American Plantation.
