Saturday, June 1, 2013

unions


Professor, McDonald
Writing 121
David Dixon
Union
One of the great leaders of our time said it best about unions: “The American Labor Movement has consistently demonstrated its devotion to the public interest. It is, and has been, good for all America.”(John F. Kennedy). President Kennedy was right Unions are devoted to the public interest. They wanted working people to have a say in their working conditions. Unions want the working people to get fair pay and a safe place to work.
  Modern unions started out small in America in the 19th Century. Between 1955 and 1960 membership peaked (Wikipedia). The unions only worked inside their own cities at one time. Then they learned that if they joined all the unions as one big union they would have more power to fight for labors’ rights. Unions transformed the workers to the middleclass of today. I saw the difference working non-union and union houses. After working non-union house and to a union house I saw how the workers were treated better in a union house. In the union houses they paid almost double my non-union wages. Plus they gave health benefits. Unions protect the union people from termination with out just cause. On the other corporations want none these just profit.
 Corporations want to make profit at all cost. “Generally speaking, major corporations prefer minimal pay and benefits for workers, a largely uncritical and powerless workforce and minimal taxes, as well as unlimited power for themselves, which they can then employ to influence elections and maximize profits”. (William Astore) Corporations want to make profit at all cost. That is their main goal. They do not like unions and do not want them. They say unions hurt job creation. They say unions are only out for themselves. Unions will take your dues and do nothing for you. This is the propaganda, corporations put out there to get you to think unions are bad.
The propaganda has worked for the most part, unions are weaker now then they have been scent the 60s. The weakening of the unions also weakens the middle class (see graph below). They are tied in to one. To destroy unions is to destroy the middle class. If you look at the start when unions slowly started to lose power in 1980s the wages started to slow down and not match inflation. The charts below show how weaken the union has affect Americans. The heights of union powered wages were much higher then inflation. In 1980 when the unions started to weaken, inflation started catch up to the middle class wages.
fredgraph.png
This chart compares the growth of inflation (red line) and real wages (blue line).Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
October 18, 2012)
400px-Union_membership_in_us_1930-2010.png

Now inflation has passed the middle class wages because of the weaken of the unions. If you compare the two charts they match wages to inflation and the decline of the union membership. In 1980s Reagan push the war on Unions.
     If Reagan did not push the war on the unions in the 1980s our wages would still be higher than inflation. Reagan really pushed the war on the unions. He was on the side of corporations. He pushed for laws that hurt labor and unions. He also crushed the air traffic controls union. “Reagan's anti-labor policy: He attempted to lower the minimum wage for younger workers, ease the child labor and anti-sweatshop laws, tax fringe benefits, and cut back job-training programs for the unemployed. He tried to replace thousands of federal employees with temporary workers who would not have civil service or union protections.”(Dick Meister) Reagan was the key to weakening the unions. Today corporations are trying to finish the job, Reagan was key player in, by using propaganda.
Corporations will say they outsource jobs because of unions and that’s why they’re moving out of America. Well there is some truth to that, but not the whole truth. Corporations move out of the US because they get tax breaks to leave the US.
Corporations also went to countries without unions. People are thinking well if we did not have unions, corporations would have stayed. Well, there is little truth to that too. If we did not have unions and they could pay 24 cents an hour, work people in unsafe working conditions, and work 10 to 15 hours a day; yes they would stay. You are thinking I am wrong. Well, let just look at Bangladesh. “Bangladesh offers the global garment industry something unique: Millions of workers who quickly churn out huge amounts of well-made underwear, jeans and T-shirts for the lowest wages in the world.” (ANNE D'INNOCENZIO). They only make 24 cents an hour. They work in unsafe conditions. That is the wages and the conditions we would have to work in to get those jobs back here in the US. I do not think we, as people would work like that today. Also if you even look at states that have laws to weaken unions like right to work you will see they have less pay.

If you look at the poorest states, 7 of them are right-to-work states. “The data on wages tell a fairly clear story. Of the top 10 states in per capita income in 2011, seven were not right-to work states. Of the bottom 10 states with the lowest per capital income, seven were right to work states.”(John Gallagher). The unions have very little power or none at all in those 7 poorest right-to-work states. That’s what happens when you weaken the unions. The wages do not keep up with inflation and corporations can pay you less.
When you look at unions look at them as good for the people. “They were made by the people for the people”(bill of rights). There here to make sure people get what people deserve. If we do not support them we will lose more of what we have. We have to stand with them as they stand with us. If you look back history you can find all the great leaders supporting unions. I will leave you with a Quote. Pope Paul VI:
The important role of union organizations must be admitted: their object is the representation of the various categories of workers, their lawful collaboration in the economic advance of society, and the development of the sense of their responsibility for the realization of the common good.

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