Nowhere is this more apparent than in the union battle being waged in Wisconsin. Corporations are using soaring state budget deficits to eliminate worker rights. They have quietly set the stage by getting the politicians they elected to blame “powerful unions” for budget deficits, deflecting their own role in the problem.
A brief history:
The industrial revolution in the United States brought much wealth. However, the wealth was not shared. There was a huge gap between the rich and the poor. Workers were poor. There were no laws protecting workers from unsafe conditions or unreasonable work hours. The average work day was 12 hours. There was no minimum wage or child labor laws. Most manufacturing plants then, looked like today’s sweatshops.
We can thank the collective bargaining of unions for our minimum wage, 8-hour work days, child labor laws, emergency exits and other job safety requirements. We can thank them for sick days, vacation days and holidays. These, and many other policies built America’s middle class. They enabled workers to earn enough money to actually take vacations and build the tourism industry. Workers could actually afford to buy the products they were making, propelling America’s economy, and the world economy.
At its peak in 1970, union membership across the country was greater than 25 percent. According to the AFLCIO, overall union membership is less than half that, at 12 percent. American union membership in the private sector has in recent years fallen under 9% — levels not seen since 1932. Hardly at levels harmful to the U.S. economy as conservative pundits would have us believe. Yet unions remain under attack.
Wisconsin is the beginning:
With all that is going on in Wisconsin, as workers fight to protect their collective bargaining rights, you will witness the media siege, No doubt, this weekend, you will find an article in your local paper supposedly showing you the dark side of the teachers union, or perhaps another union. The television news programs will comment on how the unions must negotiate away some of their benefits in order to save states from financial disaster.
No doubt, unions will need to take less and pay more for their health benefits and pensions. However, do not mistake the need for this negotiation with the desire of some to end the union’s right to collectively negotiate in this process.
In the end, who will benefit the most from the loss of collective bargaining? Taxpayers will not benefit. State workers will still have contracts and benefits. Even in Wisconsin, Governor Walker’s plan will only save $137 million out of the state’s $3.7 billion deficit. Hardly a dent.
Our fears over budget deficits are being manipulated by powerful people who have been working for decades to rid themselves of unions so they can make bigger profits. In the end, an elimination of collective bargaining in Wisconsin would be a model for other states, and Congress, to give even more power and wealth to corporations over workers. Even as corporate profits soar higher and the wage gap increases, the American public will be convinced that unions are the problem.
Unions are not the problem. Unions and the workers in their ranks, will sacrifice in Wisconsin. They will preserve collective bargaining rights. And when history is written about this time, they will be credited with saving America’s middle class.
