Be still my conservative friends, I have not drifted over to the dark side just yet.
I was going to write this column yesterday in celebration, belatedly, of Labor Day but the weather was so nice I couldn’t see myself sitting inside writing.
Growing up, my father was a dues paying member of the American Postal Workers Union. He would defend the union any chance he got, firmly believing that his family’s standard of living was a direct result of his membership in the APWU. Having two older siblings that begged to differ, the arguments were endless and as I morphed into an adult, I leaned towards the “Unions had their place” camp and really did not see a need for strong unions anymore.
There have been studies upon studies showing that union work rules and the overall higher cost of doing business with the unions caused many manufacturers in the Northeast and Midwest to close and move operations to the non-union South. The flight to lower taxes, non-union states turned Georgia into such a powerhouse in the late 70’s early 80’s that they even had a former Governor elected to President. The headlines in Time magazine and Newsweek (you remember them?) both exclaimed “The South is Rising” once again. This mass migration was due to corporations trying to avoid the inflated pay scales and ludicrous benefit packages that unions squeezed out in contract negotiations.
The higher cost of construction in New York was a not so direct result of higher union scales and the lack of competitive bidding on many major projects.
To put it bluntly, the unions may be potentially choking the life out of their communities. Don’t even get me started on the Teacher’s union.
However, as I age and mellow I have come to realize that everyone is entitled to a decent living wage depending on their job and skills. Well run and legitimate unions fight for that very thing. Making sure their members are paid commensurate with their job roles and keeping track of the negotiated health benefits packages that were negotiated. Are some of these packages outrageous? Absolutely, but remember a skilled union electrician making 65 or 70 dollars an hour is an engine of growth for a community. His buying power creates jobs and those wages grease the wheels of the economy.
Do I like paying $150 or $200 a service call to have an electrician come to my house? Not really, but the trust I have that he will get the job done right and safely is worth the cost. Same with a union plumber. Having a skilled tradesman to me is worth it and if they are all union members, so be it.
Granted, watching seven guys standing around a hole while two guys actually dig that hole on some public works project galls me, I do know that eventually contracts will be signed that will cut back on some of these egregious abuses. They have in many other contracts over the years, I am sure it will continue.
I do think that union contracts are being negotiated with all interests taken into account and this is a positive step. Unions used to hold an inordinate amount of power over various industries, not any longer. Judging by the amount of strikes over the last ten years, that power seems to be waning somewhat but they are still important.
As we all got older we would still argue about unions and their importance and my father would always come back with “ That union put the three of you through college”. Good point if it were totally true. It helped but my father bought savings bonds every week once he started working there and he also worked a second job. My mother also went to work in a factory(non-union) as well.
An interesting sidenote: In his later years, my father was on the other side of the table as president of his local school board. As he sat down with the teacher’s union rep, he told him, “Don’t think you are going to pull anything over on me, I sat on your side of the table for 20 years”. The negotiations ended with a threat of a walkout. It never happened and the teacher’s union ended up signing a contract they still complain about 25 years later. The school district taxes went up 3% over my father’s 6 year term and the teacher’s hated him. Residents loved him.
The point of all this rambling is that we do need unions and while their history is checkered, I do believe that over time, far and honest contracts will be the norm rather than the exception.
I have to take exception to your comment about me being against unions. I am in favor of unions for the people who don’t have them, since they are the most likely to be exploited. I am not in favor of unions that have become monsters choking the life out of communities. When they become so big that they’re calling the shots, then it’s something that’s become abusive. Power corrupts…absolute power corrupts absolutely.