March 06, 2007


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY

MAKE IT EASIER TO FORM UNIONS

In the business world there is a lot of anti-union propaganda. When I worked for one company a few years ago the warehouse workers were talking about unionizing. The company president called us into the conference room and talked about the horrors of a union, including the fact the union president made more money than he did. The company installed a security fence around the parking lot, implying that union organizers might get violent. I saw a guy wearing an anti-union tee shirt. The attempt to unionize failed. Everyone who works for wages should look at the history of unions and be grateful for all the benefits unions got us. Paid holidays, paid vacations, sick leave, the eight-hour day, and other benefits came about largely because of unions. When the middle class was strong and growing the union movement was also strong. I like the proposal currently being advocated to make it easier for employees to form unions. This article by Jonathan Chait is at www.latimes.com:

Every argument I've seen against card-check unfailingly mentions the long decline in union membership. Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), who sits on the House Education and Labor Committee, noted in an anti-card-check screed that union membership is "down to 12% nationwide." Yes, it's true, union membership in the U.S. has hemorrhaged. What I don't see is why that is a point against card-check. To me, it suggests just the opposite: Unions are so weak that we have little to fear from a small uptick in membership. Suppose union membership was exploding and there was some danger the American economy was going the direction of France, where it's impossible to fire anybody. That might be a good reason to oppose the spread of unionism.

But the real problem in the American economy is not that workers have too much bargaining power. It's that they have too little. Corporate profits have exploded in recent years, while wages for average workers have barely budged. It's obviously great that business is doing so well. What we need are a few measures to help divvy up the pie just a bit more evenly. Anything that helps to slow down the massive erosion of unions is one of those sensible, small steps.