Workers of the World Unite on Labor Day
(4) Everyone has the right to form and join trade unions for the protection of his interests. [Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 23]
Several years ago, during a social event, I had a frank discussion with a very wealthy businessman. In the course of the conversation he informed me, once he found out that I am a union activist, that if workers attempt to form a union at any of his factories, he simply closes down the factory and moves the work. This sort of cavalier activity, and more importantly, the threat of such actions is a critical image in the minds of workers, not just in the USA, but across the globe. The ability to shift production, brought about largely through technological changes, has resulted in what the late economist Bennett Harrison called a "credible threat" facing all workers.
Irrespective of the rights that an individual may have in so-called civil society, when they enter the workplace many, if not most, of those rights evaporate at the door, as if the individual were shifting dimensions in some science fiction tale. A clear example of the cynical portrayal of economic injustices to serve political ends can be found if one reflects on the 1980s. The Reagan/Bush administration gave a considerable amount of attention to the rights of workers in Poland (and other parts of the then Soviet bloc) to form or join labor unions. Yet at the same time, here in the USA, this same administration was crushing the air traffic controllers and in the US sphere of influence in Latin America, was actively cooperating with Latin American dictatorships and quasi-dictatorships that undermined any and all efforts by workers to form workers' organizations, all in the name of fighting communism.
The right to join or form labor unions is so central but so often overlooked precisely because it goes to central questions regarding power in so-called free market [capitalist] societies. The power that employers enjoy emerges through their unbridled control over the workplace and, as a consequence, through the profits that they gain as a result of the worker's daily labor. Efforts by workers at self-organization call into question such power and ultimately raise the issue as to whether the employer has a larger social responsibility, a question that most employers strenuously resist.
Anti-worker efforts come in various forms. There are the more blatant and barbaric forms of repression such as the assassinations of pro-union activists. A case in point is Colombia which, per capita, has the highest number of union activists murdered in the world. Yet the repression is not always so blatant, and it is also not simply a problem that happens "...over there..." in some other country. The repression is very evident here in the USA.
The notion, often advanced in business circles, that unionization will somehow hurt the economy or unbalance the playing field is myth. More importantly it asks the question of who should the economy serve. If the economic statistics indicate an expansion yet workers gain little, does that mean that the economy is really improving? The reality is that it does not. The economy improves when the living standard for working people improves as a result of them sharing in the social surplus. Such a result happens only through a combination of the self-organization of workers and their exercise of power both at the workplace and at the ballot box.
The International Labor Rights Forum has been working to protect the right of workers to organize and bargain collectively through its Freedom at Work campaign. This Labor Day, they have released a new toolkit that explains further how workers' freedom of association is violated around the world, but also how union rights connect to a range of other human rights and social justice issues. The toolkit also includes ideas for collective action to end union-busting.
Workers of the world unite? The answer to this question, whether one is addressing it to workers in an individual workplace trying to form a union or workers across national boundaries confronting common transnational employers, was articulated more than forty years ago by the late Dr. Martin Luther King. He stated quite clearly: we either hang together or we will hang separately.
Will Durst: Happy Labor Day: an Oxymoron
There are no fireworks to watch or ugly birds to cook or chocolate covered bunnies to steal marshmallows from. Just one Monday off for all those ordinary guys and gals trying to make ends meet.
One For The Table: Memories of Summer
I'm from the South. But I never felt like I was home until I moved to New York City, so it takes a lot for me to go back below the Mason-Dixon. Still, every Memorial Day weekend I return.
Kate Kelly: For Labor Day: A Nod to a Woman Who Pushed for Worker Safety
Alice Hamilton was the energy behind investigating workplace health hazards. She should be honored for drawing attention to the daily dangers to which workers are exposed.
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You own your body and the labor it produces - you don't own the job you may be in. If so very unhappy in that job, go find another one since you are so obviously highly skilled that people will line up around the block to hire you. Or, do what many unions do and ignore the primacy of capital in our system, international competition and the realities it imposes, and treat your employer as an enemy.
If you grow up in the USA and can't do a lot more than a Mexican with an 8th grade education, you are in more trouble than any union can get you out of.
Finally, reward results, effort and smarts, not seniority in the workplace.
Amen grunt.....
"The notion, often advanced in business circles, that unionization will somehow hurt the economy or unbalance the playing field is myth."
Of course increased unionization would hurt the economy. If labor and benefit costs went up, companies would see a reduction in profits and thus have less money and incentive to invest in additional capacity, and they would look to cut costs, usually by firing workers and closing the least profitable operations. Increased labor costs would also bring inflation, which the Federal Reserve, multi-Presidents, and congress tried so hard to rid the economy of in the 1970s and 1980s. Inflation would mean higher interest rates, which would put downward pressure on home prices, making the housing situation much worse, plus it would hurt the auto industry, as higher rates would increase the monthly payments required to buy a car. Higher inflation would also mean the US bond market would get killed, hurting investors, pension funds, and the US budget which desperately needs to keep rates on treasuries low. Equity prices would do OK for a while, but commodity prices would spike, particularly as money flows out of bonds and needs to hedge vs inflation.
I was a proud member of the NURSES UNION IN SEATTLE and let me tell you we had better care and staffing than they could dream of on the East Coast.... We had great shift differentials 10 % for evenings 15% for nights, 15% for weekends and experience differential of 50% and that was 25 years ago.... The hospitals pay 20% or less for the nursing staff
You got it backwards. Henry Ford Paid his workers twice the going wages of the day, so that they could afford to buy the cars they made.
Well paid workers, purchase more.
This economy is the culmination of people not being paid enough. They don't have any disposable income to get the economy going. Unions/union wages, my friend produced the middle class. People with union jobs made enough to live on a single paycheck.
In a globalized system, well-paid workers in China or Egypt are as important as well-paid workers in the USA. And you had better be sure you are more productive (do more for less) than workers elsewhere in a deeply competitive global economy. Or, stay and GM and daydream on your bass boat.
20% of expenses or less for nursing staff....T
Unions are the anecdote for so many things. Especially as a woman, I think its important to maintain good paying jobs that can support families. Statistics show over and over again that unionized woman have better paying jobs. Unions can also be the first line of defense in issues around consumer safety since the implications for a worker are so much greater for that of a consumer. Just imagine that whatever chemicals a consumer would be exposed to, workers would have consistent exposure and would see their impact more quickly. When workers have the ability to speak out, it can protect all of us. You can view the toolkit that Bill Fletcher referred to in his post at http://www
There are laws and regulations regarding consumer safety. Increased unionization would be meaningless as far as consumer safety.
I rarely comment on my support of the union on Huffpo anymore.
American unions will have to be lost and fought for and reformed.
It is a shame.
Maybe the Unions should look at themselves and try to figure out why they have lowest support from the American people in 80 years.
http://www
Could it be the result of sustained propaganda from vested corporate interests and their stranglehold on our media and political system? Of course it is. Open your eyes!
The American people know what happens to union businesses and industries. See the domestic auto industry and the airlines. Many people still remember the union days of the trucking and telecom industry in the 1970s, and what a disaster that was - high prices, massive inefficiencies, and poor and limited service. After the unions were crushed in airlines, telecom, and trucking, prices went down dramatically and service expanded and improved. Consumers don't want to pay dramatically higher prices just to subsidize the high wages of a comparatively small union workforce.
Something tells me we are going to hang separately.
You maybe right "Franklin" because the corporate propoganda has brainwashed everyone to thinking CEO's are the only ones that should earn a good living and that any and all unions are bad and Congress was bought long ago. Much easier to prey on individuals than on groups. Individuals are much easier to abuse, and they come at half the price and are totally replaceable.
I agree with thisin regards to ceo worship( I see it first hand in my company). Just look at the ceo's that ruin their companies and almost bring down the economy. They don't go to jail, instead they get golden parachutes on the way out and no one seems to care.
Borrowing a line from Monty Python, "and now for something different.
There's more to be added but only 250 words, so for the piece de resistance
I totaly agree.
It was these workers that fought WWII and kept America and it's wealthy in the game. I think they earned a deceit wage, a nice little house and car etc. What have most of these CEO's done for the country. Its funny how the German workers today and most of western Europes' workers are unionized, with more holidays, and their companies are doing better,( ie. BMW) than the US's.
If you look at the amount of profit Wal-Mart has made over the last few years and MacDonald's before that, don't tell me they couldn't have made a little less profit and paid their workers a higher wage. Greed!
If you are connecting unions with fighting WWII you're way off base. Less than 15% of the 8 million in military uniform saw any actual combat, plus union activity causing any disruption to the war effort was highly illegal, bordering on treason.
Workers with minimal skills sorta thrive in places like Mickey D's & WalMart and would soon be caught out of a job should unions bully their way in. And I'm supposed to believe a minimally skilled worker who has not invested through education in his/her future should be paid as much as a chef who has spent thousands to qualify for a top restaurant job? Yeah, sure......
During the 1970s automobile industry unions began their biggest push for outlandish benefits and when the big companies strongly resisted the shutdowns happened. Due to legal contract technicalities the workers returned but actually started to sabotage the product and mechanical equipment. That's unions for you. And the result, what was once a thriving Detroit is now a decayed shell (including the Lions who aren't even in Detroit) and GM, once the world's largest business/m
Move over Detroit.
WillTell, you are accurate. You are smart and have probably observed a lot of wrong.
I do not believe that So called Airforce is really airforece at all....I however am....and I can tell you that Germany has more unions, more regulations AND MORE ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND get this drum rolll please 3 times the per capita export that we do....
And AIRFORCE BLUE you also belong to a union and do not forget it,,,you would not have a pension or healthcare without the union...JU
Hey genius , our country was at the strongest economically when union membership was at the highest. Don't you realize every job can be sent some where else or done by someone cheaper in their own country. It doesn't matter what you do. So where does this stop?? It use to be just manufacturing jobs and now it's information technology jobs.
Their is no question that unions are invested in lobbyist. How do you think anything gets done in washington if it wasn't by way of the lobbyist? That being said the unions have lost so much power in this country which has been declining since Reagan.
Unions or not ,capitalism will dictate to build the factories where it's cheaper to achieve a better return on investment to give back to the owners of the company aka the shareholders.
To blame unions for the loss of jobs to oversea workers and to not to take account all the other variables involved is ignorant at best.
President Reagan fired en masse the union workers who refused to return to work and remained on an illegal strike. This somewhat gave other companies some simulation of a backbone and provided a resistance to over paid, over pampered but under productive union protected workers. But the insidious damage had been done as this country's manufacturing base was crumbling thanks to unions' over reaching. One example, the Budd Co. in Philadelphia, a manufacturer of train cars and supporting equipment and the largest employer in the region, was striking when a contract was out to bid. The company could not then compete for the bid and it got awarded to a Japanese non union company.
Indeed ipv4, there are other variables involved but I was addressing unions as they are the center of the writer's piece, in case schlemeel, you had not noticed. Countries who have a strong manufacturing base, union or not, thrive. This country once had a strong steel, auto, garment, coal, beer, and lesser, industry but all are effectively gone. And they were all union, centered in democrat run cities....
Don't like Unions? Move to China.
Been there. Nice people, but the smog is really bad.
Didn't remark anything about not liking unions. Merely feel unions no longer serve benefit to this country as they are mostly run by a bunch of furtive individuals with suspicious ties, you know crooks and politicians (is there a difference?), with millions spent on lobbyists petitioning Congress for overpaid, over pampered, but woefully under productive union members who possess almost non existent skills for mundane jobs. Other than that, unions are OK, I guess.....
Since Unions are against the law in China, you should demand a blockade of all Chinese goods comming into America.
America's success in the 50's and 60's had nothing to do with stronger unions or better workers rights, it had everything to do with fewer workers in a rapidly growing economy based on value added manufacturing and little foreign competition. Those who demand $20 an hour plus benefits to flip burgers and stock shelves still won't be able to afford their own products at the even higher prices that their employers will have to charge to pay those kind of wages.
Since the average worker seems to understand economics so well, I suggest that they start their own businesses, pay themselves whatever they feel they are worth, and charge their customers whatever it takes to to pay those higher wages. See how it works out.
Take any bussiness, take away the workers, all workers, except the owner, and how big a bussiness, and how much money are you going to make. Just because you own a bussiness and yes put up the capital, doesn't mean you're the only person in that workplace that can make a decent living. If the bussiness is such that it can only make money off the backs of its workers who needs it. Who needs Burger chains.. do you think the world would stop if they did? Same with any other bussiness. Why is it that the haves think it is their right to a nice life but not other people? Because they need someone to exploit!
The income distribution in 2005 is now equaling to that of the 1920's. The 1920's were also was called the era of the "robber barrons". If you need me to spell it out for you let me know.
We've have had the greatest stagnation of workers wages adjusted for inflation in ages.
Source....
You mean like all those little businesses that are run out of business by the big corporatio
Unions have their place, but not every place. Think about it, the business that is not Union creates competition to those who are. Competition is the only thing keeping prices down, duh. Don’t let yourself be fooled.
Teachers and police and nurses are union labor. As is the guy who built your car or house.
You state the following: "Think about it, the business that is not Union creates competition to those who are. Competition is the only thing keeping prices down, duh. Don’t let yourself be fooled."
Labor is an important and sometimes costly business component. But, business can create better products and services by allowing labor to organize. Unions provide continuity in the job, higher professionalism, lower absenteeism, a "guild of pride" in the work they do.
Notwithstanding, non labor businesses RAISE the costs on all of us through higher taxes.
Take Wal-Mart as an example: when they offer low (minimum) wages AND no benefits, guess who has to pay for the emergency room visits when the unisured get hurt or sick? WE, THE TAXPAYERS!! The competitive nature of Wal-Mart, Target, K-Mart etc have their place in providing lower costs to consumers that is subsequently spread around in the form of higher taxes, even if you do not shop there.
Over the course of histroy, unions have provided ALL Americans with the following options:
Collective bargining
Unemployment insurance
Health insurance
Social Security retirement
Anti-Child labor laws
Child Care (in limited cases)
Vacation time
Pensions, etc . . .
So, no I do not let myself be "fooled" by organized trade labor and unions. One lives better through unions.
Most nurses are not union, but they wish they were.
What good are lower prices if no one makes enough money to participate in the economy?
I certainly believe in workers rights to organize. Unions protect workers rights. I know sometimes there's corruption with union leaders, but without unions, many workers aren't treated fairly.
Sometimes there's corruption in Wall Street, Banks and Financial Houses.
Odd how that's never an argument to get rid of them ?
If there ever was a symbol that represents a robust working middle class it's:
UNION MADE
In this disastrous economy many of the corporations we bailed out are moving production off shore with the bailout money. I think congress should establish a tax on any product produced by an American company on foreign soil. These taxes to promote the general welfare of the workers. I have no problem with buying imported items, only ones produced by American companies at the expense of our labor force and environmental protection.
Martin Luther King Jr. was quoting Benjamin Franklin. It was as on point when King said it as when Franklin said it and it is equally on point now.
This is an excellent article. The degree to which employers deprive employees of their constitutional and natural rights when they step through the door is astounding. More astounding is the increasing degree of restraint many corporations attempt to put on their employees' rights /outside/ the workplace. Wal-Mart's campaign to organize its employees to vote against the EFCA is one of the best examples.
The principles of 'right to work' (which really means the employee's right to bust unions at will) and 'at will employment' (which really means the employer's right to fire his employees at will with no cause) are bigger threats to the rights of many Americans than the Patriot Act... yet the EFCA is vilified even by some Democrats.
Current corporate culture says that management is worth multi-million dollar contracts while labor is worth the least management can get away with paying. Whose paychecks are really leeching the profits from American corporations?
Ironic? The best years for America and the American worker were the mid-fifties and 60's, and early 70's when the unions were at there zenith. The average American worker was paid enough to actually buy a house and then buy the TV's from RCA, the fridges etc. from GE, and America flurished.
Now, who can afford what America makes? Why, because the average person works ununionized for $13/hr. WORKERS UNITE and don't listen to the corporate propoganda against unions. They not only used propoganda, they sent all the jobs overseas! Shame on Corps. like MacDonalds and Wal-Mart
that offer jobs to people at an unlivable wage. There should be a law that stops them from hireing people part time versus hireing them at full time (thus paying benefits), so people can work and earn an honest livivng, at a liveable wage.
I hope I live to see the day the present system in the US is smashed.
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