Didactic Curveball: 2009

The Unions are coming! The Unions are coming! Grab your pitchforks and muskets and fight off this evil force!

I have lost count of how many conversations I've had about unions and whether or not they are the anti-Christ cometh or a positive force with a valid role in a healthy economy. I presently live in the pacific northwest so I will say that most people that I encounter in my area are less inclined to demonize unions than are those that I know from other parts of the country. There is a notable exception, however. For the sake of maintaining anonymity (his and mine), I'll refer to him as "Brian". Brian, my quasi-stepson if you will, is a big part of my life, as are his wife and his two young children...my quasi-grandchildren. When I pace the floor of my bedroom late at night worrying about the state of our country and the failing of our economy, it is their futures I am most worried about.

Having said that, Brian was born and raised in the pacific northwest, yet his opinions on most issues mirror those of someone born in South Carolina. He is GOP all the way but, sadly, he has no real idea why he supports the GOP and its ideals or what those ideals are really all about. Don't get me wrong...he's no dummy. He is a well-educated man working as a construction management engineer. I specifically mention his job because it has relevance to the argument I'm about to make as you will find later in this blog.

Although it is not my intention to insult anyone or to stereotype, I am sure that some of what I'm about to type will do just that. Brian, like many people who clench their fists while reciting one of any number of standard GOP party lines, is doing just that...he's reciting something that someone else has written that is usually inflammatory and meant to "rally" the masses into a shared fury, fueled by half-truths and misconceptions. I do not mean to suggest that those who support the GOP are monkeys. In fact, some of the most intelligent and best educated Americans are members of the GOP. Among those are some of the most well-spoken and the best, skilled writers in America and they are able to argue their positions effectively and support their arguments with facts and figures. As there is with any political party or affiliation, there are those that simply go along for the ride, drink the Koolaid, recite the party line but do so without really having any idea of that which they speak. It sounds good, it feels good saying it and so it is said. When pushed or prodded to support their argument with facts rather than just emotion, they are unable to do so. To those...I just shake my head in sadness and disbelief. That is the point where I go back to what seems to be my "line", if you will, "Be involved. Be informed. Be proactive."

Having laid somewhat of a foundation now, let me move on to the true subject of this blog...unions and their role in history and our economy.

The first thing I want to address is the issue of labor unions and whether or not they are good or bad for our economy. If you go back about 50 years to the mid to late 50s, the U.S. economy was soaring and the middle class was expanding. At that time, more than 1/3 of all working Americans were members of unions. They were paid well and were able to purchase more which, in return, creates more jobs. So many Americans were unionized, in fact, that the wage agreements spilled over to workers not in unions. The unions bargained for the good and fair wages, safe workplaces and health benefits and, in return, companies thrived and our economy was extremely healthy and the middle class prospered.

Compare that to today's economy where not even 8% of working Americans are unionized in 2006. The number of American workers without healthcare benefits is at its all-time high. Wages have been all but frozen for the last 8 years and the middle class has lost its purchasing power. Initially the middle class could continue to purchase goods and services because the housing bubble supported home equity loans and lines of credit. American middle class still purchased, albeit by accumulating debt by using credit, but the economy definitely started to stall around 2002. When the housing bubble burst, the middle class lost its purchasing power and the economy has come to a screeching halt. The unions didn't factor into this at all. Unions are all but non-existent in the country anymore. If more middle class Americans had been unionized the last 8 years, wages would have increased at a steady pace, workers would have had healthcare benefits, and the economy would have continued to grow steadily. The people doing the most screaming about unions are the heads of these companies that are taking home $450 million a year in salary and bonuses. Are you kidding me? Talk about a self-inflated opinion of one's self worth. Give the CEO $1 million a year and spread the other $449 million around to the company's workforce and you have a healthy and prosperous company on all levels. No need for a union in that kind of workforce. Costco has figured this out and their CEO set his salary at 10 times that of the lowest paid worker in the company. He makes right around $400,000.00 and, when interviewed, says that anyone who says they can't have a good standard of living making $400,000.00 is out of touch with reality. Costco has the lowest employee turnover ratio of any corporation in America and their workers are among the happiest. It's also one of the healthiest corporations in America...even today, bad economy and all. You do the math on that one.

Smaller number of unionized workers means less bargaining power, and less bargaining power results in lower wages, and lower wages results in less purchasing of goods and services, which results in a shrinking economy and recession.

The only way to heal our economy is to boost the purchasing power of the middle class. Tax rebates like the one Bush gave do NOT work because they don't permanently raise wages. One poll and study found that most Americans used those rebates to pay off debt, not to purchase new goods and services. So the idea behind the tax rebate...that being that Americans would go out on shopping sprees...proved to be false. And as far as the one-time tax rebates being a tool to stimulate the economy...that was a total joke.

The bank bailouts won't work either. As we are all witnessing, the Wall Street banks that were handed $350 billion by the Bush administration are not opening up lines of credit because no business will or can borrow without having consumers in line to purchase their goods. So the $350 billion is being used by those banks, instead, to boost their own value by purchasing other failing banks and rebuild their own infrastructure. Handing Wall Street banks $350 billion with no oversight is the single largest social welfare program in the history of our country and it was given to the wealthiest 3% of Americans. Why aren't more Americans rallying in the streets and screaming for accountability on this?!!! Do people not understand that this was their money being handed to Wall Street?!!! Many people should be going to prison for this sham.

The only real solutions to fix our failing economy are tax cuts to the middle class and higher wages and benefits. That puts the purchasing power back in the hands of Americans, which results in businesses expanding and a stronger and healthier economy.

You really need to understand the history of unions and their role in our economy more before you demonize them. Unions have their place and, as I said, so few Americans are actually unionized at this time in history that it's almost humorous that anyone complains about them or points the finger of blame at unions for the problems in our economy. In fact, in today's world it is almost impossible for workers to form unions. The fines levied against businesses that intimidate or fire workers who attempt to form unions is so menial and insignificant that businesses consider those fines as a normal cost of doing business.

When the 111th Congress was first seated, a bipartisan coalition was formed to support the Employee Free Choice Act (http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h109-1696), which essential would protect the rights of working Americans to form unions without fear of intimidation or retaliation from their employers. The most important aspect of the EFCA, in my opinion, is that it would establish stronger penalties for business that violate employees' rights as relate to forming unions. Although there has been much support for the EFCA, it has all but been put on the back burner at present because of the proposed stimulus plan now currently before the Senate. Something worth noting, however, that America saw an increase in the number of new union members beginning in late 2007, just after the Employee Free Choice Act was introduced. It started the first increases in union memberships in more than a decade which saw significant declines. Coincidence? You be the judge. I think not, however.

Those who are most vocal in their opposition of the Employee Free Choice Act argue that it would strip American workers of their right to a private-ballot vote as relates to forming a workplace union. What they fail to see or mention in their arguments, however, is that the Act was created to eliminate the need for a private-ballot vote, which were created so that employees could vote without fear of intimidation or retaliation by their employers. Their arguments are ones of convenience and rely on people not being fully informed and rely on playing to peoples fears and emotions rather than to their intellect.

There are reasons to be wary of unions, however, if one focuses primarily on some of the abuses done by a few bad apples who tarnished the good intent of unions with their own greed and corruption. Like any industry or organization, there has been greed and corruption. We see it every day, more and more...the corruption at all levels of government, private business and even within religious organizations. Sadly, unions have been no different but that doesn't discount the overwhelming good that unions have done for American workers in the last 60 or more years.

The overwhelming majority of opposition to unions has its roots in the South throughout most of the 20th century. Unions were associated with liberals, progressives and even Communists and it was white, southern conservative politicians, businessmen, and social elites that feared that such progressive organizations would challenge the region's political, economic and racial orders. As such, unions had little success in establishing a foothold in the South and still today, most opposition to unions has its origins in the South. Even white southerners who would otherwise join unions, refused to do so because the unions were not segregated and so unions never succeeded in the south largely due to the racial divides still prevalent in Dixie.

When racial divides weren't successful in preventing the formation of unions in the South, the political culture adopted the "Red Scare" method of combating unions. This was a method whereby persons or organizations with progressive and/or liberal political agendas...namely unions...were unjustly accused to be associated and allied with or members of the Soviet Union or sympathetic to communism.

When all else fails, heighten peoples fears (real or imagined or created) and play on those fears to create a hysteria that causes people to vote based on emotion rather than sound and rational thought process. This has been a method used throughout history but never more evident than that which we just lived for eight years during the Bush/Cheney administration. Like it or not, history has proven that you can cripple the power of the collective populus with fear.

I think...I believe...that we are beyond the times of our leaders talking down to us; instead, they talk to us now with the ushering in of the new administration. They are all-inclusive, speaking to each and every American rather than just a select group and they appeal to our collective intellect, inviting us to participate rather than dictating to us how they will do things because they, and only they, know what is best. From all appearances and initial impressions, those days of dictatorship disguised as a democracy are done and over.

Brian is a construction management engineer as I mentioned in the opening paragraph of this blog. He was vehementally opposed to Obama during the elections. Most of the reasons he gave for his opposition to Obama were those I've heard recited, almost word-for-word, from many others vehemently opposed to Obama. And like many others, he could never support his position with facts, figures or an original thought. And so, during a recent conversation with him, as he dissected the new Obama administration and cursed the proposed stimulus package, I pointed out the following to him.

In President Obama's proposed stimulus program, a considerable portion of that program is designated for improving our infrastructure...the roads, bridges, dams, etc... He, more than almost all other Americans, is going to benefit from that because of the work his company does. They specialize in large infrastructure projects. It is his company (and companies like it) that are going to bid for and win those contracts and his industry is going to expand because of the need to hire more skilled workers and engineers. I think that part of the stimulus package will almost surely guarantee that he won't be amongst the millions of Americans in fear of losing their jobs in the next few years.

It gave him a moment of pause and he told me it provided him with food for thought. If I've done nothing more than create a desire in him to become more informed, regardless of whether or not he comes to the same conclusions he had prior, I have succeeded.