Thursday, September 10, 2009

 

Unions and Usefulness

For many years now, I have been hearing people say that unions have outlived their usefulness. That they're corrupt, run by The Mob, The Outfit, The Organization, The Family, and The Other Obscure Euphemism for Organized Crime to be Named Later. This statement is almost always delivered by conservatives.

Yeah, right. Like Enron, Tyco, Wal-Mart and others too numerous to mention have their employees as their first priority. Especially their pensions, their health benefits and the eight hour workday.

I don't know a single person that works full-time that has an eight hour workday. Employee contributions to health plans have ballooned while benefits have shrunk. The U.S.A. is the only industrialized country without a health plan for its citizens. It is the country with the least vacation and sick pay. We have among the highest rates of drug addiction, teen pregnancy, infant mortality and clinical depression.

I attribute much of this to the weakening of the labor movement. This weakening has been a high-level priority of the Republican Party for years, and they have nearly succeeded at it. This goal made great strides in the 1980s under a president that had once been a president of a labor union who conservatives want to put on Mount Rushmore and on coins. One of his first acts as president was to break a union critical to the nation's transportation system. Another highlight of his administration was emptying public mental hospitals, causing homelessness to skyrocket. This president extolled the virtues of the military services while cutting funds to the Veterans Administration.

They tell us that American companies must operate this way in order to remain competitive, while the other nations seem to be doing quite well with their labor force working 8 hour workdays and getting month-long vacations.

People, and I am including me here, are working longer hours for less and less compensation.

I've got nothing funny here, because I can barely lift my eyelids just now. I am working two jobs at more than 50 hours per week and making less than what I made in one full time job. I know I'm not alone here. As I have heard, the economy is starting to go on the upswing and more jobs are starting to be created again. I know about this first hand. I have two of them.
Comments: Post a Comment

<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?