While America's working people are struggling to make ends meet and our middle class is disappearing, the number of union members in this country continues to precipitously decline.
It is no accident that the decline of union density has contributed to the erosion of wages and benefits in this country. In 1972, when 1 out of every 4 workers were in unions, working men and women were able to bargain for wages that were seven percent higher in today's dollars. With the slow drop of workers belong to unions in America, the average wages for all Americans dropped as well. Today, unionization rates are the lowest they have been since the days following the Great Depression with 12 percent of all American workers now belonging to unions.
While America's working people are struggling to make ends meet and our middle class is disappearing, the number of union members in this country continues to precipitously decline.
It is no accident that the decline of union density has contributed to the erosion of wages and benefits in this country. In 1972, when 1 out of every 4 workers were in unions, working men and women were able to bargain for wages that were seven percent higher in today's dollars. With the slow drop of workers belong to unions in America, the average wages for all Americans dropped as well. Today, unionization rates are the lowest they have been since the days following the Great Depression with 12 percent of all American workers now belonging to unions.
An important way for the average American to get their fair share is to remove unfair barriers to economic opportunity through union representation and collective bargaining. 58 million non-union working Americans have said in recent polls that they would join or form a union if they could. An even greater number of all Americans, almost 70 percent, hold a positive view of unions today. If so many Americans support and want to join unions, why is it that are our numbers dropping instead of soaring?
It is due to an undemocratic system of rules governing union elections in this country. The National Labor Relations Board was established to facilitate a democratic and fair process for workers looking to form a union at work but over the years has been weakened to its state of ineffectiveness today.
When it was first established, the system worked. Employers and employees were dealt with on a fair basis after years of terror where company thugs were known more for beating down and machine gunning union supportersthan the machiavellian campaigns they wage today.
Within two decades from its creation, the number of Americans in unions exploded with millions joining free from fear of physical harm. Over time, the rules set by the NLRB became tainted as anti-union legislators and board appointees tinkered with its processes - tilting the playing field against workers and their unions.
Today, the NLRB process takes so long, is so tilted in favor of employers and has such weak remedies, it actually encourages managers to harass, intimidate and even fire employees.
Anti-union labor-management consultants created a lucrative business teaching employers how to stop organizing drives with intimidation and coercion Employers today herd workers into closed door meetings where they are bombarded with Soviet-style propaganda videos. If those tactics do not work, employers then hold one on one meeting with wavering workers and include implied promises of pay raises and favored treatment for voting against the union. And if that still doesn't work, they bring in an all too common last resort. They make good on their threats and fire pro-union workers. Last year, there were almost 23,000 instances of workers found to have been illegally fired on thousands of separate organizing drives.
Penalties for these tactics are almost non-existent and weak. Management labor law violators are punished by having to post notices on bulletin board where they "promise" not to engage in their illegal tactics again. By the time complaints have made their way through the NLRB's bureaucracy and an election has been held, the non-union employer has successfully worn down its workforce to the point that workers wish they had never started an organizing drive in the first place - eradicating their last best chance for economic opportunity.
One election campaign out of many stands out due to how recently it occurred and how long it took to get to an election. The campaign, held by Sheet Metal Workers' Local 359 in Arizona was first launched in 1995. It took over a decade to resolve after management was able to successfully hold up a pro-union vote for 11 years with a series of legal objections. By the time the election was rerun the plant employed a whole new workforce with no recollection of the previous organizing drive. Imagine it taking that long to resolve the 2000 election recount in Florida and it is not hard to see the stupidity in the process.
There is still hope for fixing this broken system. The Employee Free Choice Act, which has support from both Democrats and some Republicans, would level the playing field for workers and employers. It would restore workers' freedom to form unions and bargain by strengthening penalties for companies that coerce or intimidate employees, establishing mediation and binding arbitration when the employer and workers cannot agree on a first contract and enabling employees to form unions when a majority signs union authorization cards.
This bill will not pass without a major fight.
Opponents of the measure consist of business groups comfortable with the status quo. These groups, led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Associated Builders and Contractors and the National Association of Manufacturers see no reason to change the laws tilting the playing field away from employers and plan an all out effort to fight its passage. They plan to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to convince people that unions are "undemocratic" because we don't support the current NLRB election process.
They are what stands between the American worker and his and her chance at economic opportunity.
Every American has the right to vote, however, when it comes to forming a union, the average American has to vote not once but twice. Under the current system, workers are giving union authorization cards where they display their intent to form a union and then are forced to go through the grueling employer dominated election campaign that follows. Under no other election system are voters forced to vote not once but twice - after voters are forced to endure propaganda and coercion from one side.
Big business and its allies wants to keep NLRB election campaigns the way they are - dominated by employers. They will always supports laws that give them a slap on the wrist for firing and harassing workers because no matter what the penalty, it will always cost less than providing a worker a fair wage.
The truth they will ignore is that the current system is broke, allowing corporations to intimidate workers when they try to form a union. Employees should have the freedom to make their own choice without interference from management.
You may remember that several weeks ago, Home Depot CEO Robert Nardelli left the company with a huge $210 million cash bonus. He received that due to an employment contract that he, like all other CEOs, sign with their corporations to retain their services. Amazingly, those same CEOs - represented by groups like the Chamber of Commerce - are fighting to keep the average American from having the same rights.
Don't forget to ask Congress support this legislation:
http://www.unionvoic...
I don't deny workers have it bad-I'm living proof. I do doubt that unions are the only way.
However, I have had a different perspective forced upon me as I have seen first hand the ever increasing bullying tactics and outright assault on the middle class by the Republicans the last 15 years or so.... I have come to not only value the contribution of unions, but to experience all the pains that they specifically address firsthand. The biggest one in my opinion was the one that caused them to be created in the first place, that of giving a voice to a single employee on serious distortions of basic business values by the senior most management. The biggest most rapidly successful companies in the marketplace even today choose typically to value their employees, but there are the OTHER kind of companies were the employees are treated as a shear commodity and necessary evil by the business management whom would rather have robots.
There is still another side in today's political environment. One where the unions have found themselves having to become a voice for the inequities being thrust on consumers by globalization. This recent out-sourcing debacle by the Natural Gas Companies to operate their customer services from half the globe away for what appears to be no real financial advantage, but rather a regulatory and tax advantage only. The idea that I will have to call for emergency assistance for a gas leak and get a non-local (India or the Philippines) and non native English language speaking representative on the phone and try to explain to them directions and locations when every second counts for my safety and potentially even that of my whole neighborhood.
The union at Washington Gas in the DC area did a TV show with Mark Levine on his "Inside Scoop" a couple of weeks ago. http://video.google.... In the first ten minutes of the show they covered the issues and then dug down into the meat and detail?. While I watched the show I realized that many of our public utilities are most likely headed the same way for the same business reasons?.. Not that I am necessarily anti-globalization for all business, BUT public utilities where the service provider is making decisions on behalf of the local consumer are different. Where the products and services are not virtual by definition like Internet services, there is a different impact on the consumer including the control by the local public utilities commissions. Water companies, electric companies, gas companies, etc. all make life-saving and impacting decisions and those decisions may very well be in the hands of part time anti-American terrorists who have completely different life motivations.
As I have watched this play out here in the DC area, the real voice even here has only been the Union whom on behalf of their gas comapny employee members which is actually protecting both the consumer and those union members at the same time. This has given me a whole new reason to respect the "Union Label" besides the fact they have been a powerful political ally against the Republican jerks who have been systematically hurting the middle class and consumers in general.
It's no coincidence that you get medical benefits due to having a Union at your shop - that would quickly be on the chopping block without a Union.
There is no doubt that the benefits of bargaining face-to-face with an employer leads to better terms and conditions of employment. On your own, you are subject to the whims of your boss and will ALWAYS get less than you deserve - don't be suckered.
Rather than bemoan your Union, you should right its course. The problem is not with the Union, but with members who complain but don't do anything to improve their Unions. Inaction equals decay.
I work at a large national Union, and am proud of its positive effect on those workers we are so proud to represent. Even as a veteran of the movement, I still get choked up when I hear children of our workers say how they were able to go to college based on their parents' Union wages and stability.
LONG LIVE THE MIDDLE-CLASS and LABOR UNIONS.
I assume you are a Local 400 member? I can understand some of your frustrations with the UFCW (I worked at Giant for over 7 years). The new contracts aren't particularly good in the area of wages and benefits because the union got squashed after a long strike in Southern California. There are also a handful of union reps in your local that are flat out idiots, but the majority are very good.
That said, you should not base your entire opinion about labor unions on your personal experience with one local union. Matt is correct in saying that you also have a forum to reform and change the union. Attend membership meetings and speak out!
And if you're exploring something else good for you. But I don't think you'll find very many NON-UNION retail companies that pay well with the exception of maybe Wegmans. And even they aren't as great of an employer as they're cracked up to be from what I hear.