My Dad Was a Union Man

 My father, a skilled machinist, was a union man.  I can still remember his participating in strikes in the 1950s.  For sure, no one in our family would cross a union picket line to shop in a store that was in the midst of a labor disagreement.  All else equal, we looked for the union label when shopping.

Unions were developed for a purpose – to ensure that workers were treated fairly by their employers and received a fair share in the corporate profits that resulted from their combined contributions.  Owners did not give in easily - increased wages and benefits came at a cost in corporate profits - and   mutual distrust came naturally to labor-management discussions.   Early on – before labor laws- management resorted to scabs and armed resistance to union organization: today their emphasis is on ensuring that state and federal laws are written and enforced to detriment of labor organization.  Tax credits to firms outsourcing manufacturing to lower-wage foreign countries are but one case in point.
Clearly, unions played a major role in leveling the playing field.  Union pressure ensured that the workers on the line received their fair share of corporate profits: the rise in real wages earned by union workers are a major factor behind the rise of an American middle class.  Just as importantly, unions curbed the natural tendency of managers to take advantage of their power to bully workers – unpaid overtime, faster work rates, shorter lunch breaks, poor working conditions and the like.  Unions thus provided workers with a means of self-respect and a guarantee of equitable treatment.
Worker benefits from unionization extended well beyond unionized factories.  Many new manufacturing start-ups have successfully resisted unionization pressures by providing wages, benefits, and working conditions similar to those enjoyed by union members in other factories.  Just as the presence of Wal-Mart lowers prices in all local stores, the possibility of unionization improves the lot of non-union blue collar workers.  Notably, private sector white collar workers, by in large, have not unionized in America.
It is no coincidence that the decline of union power in America has been paralleled by a rising income disparity among Americans.  When unions were strongest – in the1950s- the top ten percent of Americans claimed one-third of all income: todaythat percentage has risen to over half.  Union watchdogs kept a close eye on the distribution of pre-tax profits between management and labor, ensuring that the benefits of a successful corporation were distributed among all workers.
As unionized labor as a share of the workforce as dropped, It has become fashionable to focus on the darker side of unions – archaic work rules, feather bedding, intransigent resistance to modernization, refusal to take ‘necessary’ cuts to pay and benefits at a time when management salaries and golden parachutes were on the rise.  Increasingly, the premise of many Americans is that unions are an unnecessary evil.  (Many of these same individuals, however, have been known to respond to management decisions with statements along the line of ‘this would not have happened if we had a union’.  )
The pressure on Unions has intensified because of the traditional association of Unions with the Democratic Party.  At a time when corporate contributions to political activities have been unchecked by the Supreme Court,  states Republican  administrations have sought to break the back of public sector unions as a way of cutting off financial support to political races.  In Wisconsin, even when public sector unions met demands for cuts in pay and benefits, the governor pushed to eliminate collective bargaining rights for all public sector unions excepting those that had supported his election.  Clearly, there is significant public support for these endeavors.
 The reduced role of unions as a watchdog on the distribution of corporate profits has contributed to a major shift in the acquisition and retention of wealth.   Real wages of most American workers has been in decline for several years while corporate profitability rises and management salaries rise through the roof.  Secondly, the lack of union representation has made and ever increasing share of workers vulnerable to management decisions regarding benefits, working conditions and the like.   Indeed, unions have their ugly side, but so do corporate leaders.    At the end of the day, the key point, often forgotten, is that unions were created to provide the means for exploited workers to gain a measure of respect on the job and a fair share of the fruits of their labor: no one should be surprised to see American workers – union and non-union- suffer as a result of their demise.