Not a book review...

If you are going to criticize me for my job, all I ask is that you have an original thought about organized labor.

I’m not going to even to mention the fact that when you barely know a person, it is considered rude to begin by criticizing an issue to which they have obviously dedicated their life. I don’t mention the inhuman and un-American labor practices of Wal-Mart on our first meeting when you tell me you work as the manager of my least favorite big box retail store. I don’t say that I believe the Catholic Church is misguided in its dogma and has caused more suffering in the name of Jesus Christ that any other institution when you tell me you lead the women’s group at the local Parish on Tuesday nights until we have at least shared a drink together.

But please… have just one original idea about why labor unions should be banished from the Earth and do not regurgitate the same old, lifeless, illiterate arguments that I have heard nearly every day of my life since I was old enough to get tossed in the back of a cruiser for throwing rocks at trucks that crossed the picket line.

For ease of operations, I have broken these “arguments” into three categories:

Labor unions were probably necessary at one time, but we don’t need them today.

This is probably my favorite, simply because the person is attempting to placate me. Hey, if you were doing this work seventy years ago I would have totally supported it… now, you are just irrelevant. Thanks, I appreciate the ‘Atta Boy.

To begin with, here are some things labor unions have done since 1959:

Helped pass the Equal Pay Act of 1963, Civil Rights Act of 1964, Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) of 1967, Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1974, Americans with Disability Act (ADA) of 1990

Help pass, spent union dollars advocating for and in some cases helped draft the 1966, 1974, 1977,1985, 1989, 1996 and 2007 amendments (we don’t take any credit for 2004) to the Fair Labor Standards Act (think minimum wage and overtime)

Instrumental to the passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) in 1993 and have advocated in several states, cities and other municipalities for the passage of sick leave coverage for workers

Creation of OSHA in 1974

Took large strains off Medicaid, Medicare, the Social Security Administration, Veteran’s Affairs, local food pantries and charitable organizations from the 1960s to present (though decreasing in recent years with the reduction of union density) due to use of short and long term disability plans, defined benefit plans (both in the private and public sectors), and health insurance coverage for retirees created, enforced and guaranteed in collective bargaining agreements

All prevailing wage laws, unemployment compensation and workers’ compensation laws

Increased the standard of living for all workers, union and non-union alike, creation of the 40 hour work week, the weekend, overtime, break time, lunch breaks, environmental and safety standards, oh.. and a little thing we like to call employer paid health care

Union membership in the U.S. declined by 21.1% during the last decade, giving the US one of the lowest levels of unionization among industrialized countries. You think it is coincidence that employer paid health care and retirement plans are under attack? Wait another decade sitting on your hands and see if you can afford to go to the doctor or stop working before you die.

Labor unions kill the free market.

I love me some capitalism. I am an American after all. But the free market is amoral. It cares for neither good nor bad- it is merely a tool. And news flash- people can manipulate the free market and there are some bad, greedy people out there… making the free market a bad, greedy tool to serve their bad, greedy needs.

Capitalism without a counterbalance, whether that be regulation or united labor, is like a ship without a rudder- sure it will move, but you can’t guarantee a direction or that you won’t run into an iceberg.

Much of the world hasn't yet learned the lesson that labor unions already know- by increasing the wages of employees it not only increases corporate productivity but boost employee purchasing power. Workers spend their pay checks, demand goes up and profit increase and you can pay your workers more… sound somewhat familiar from economics class?

Plus as you anyone who has bought a pair of shoes at Payless can tell you, cheaper isn’t always better- and there is more to the cost of doing business than this race-to-the-bottom, globalism goodness. This is America- the land of the free and the home of the brave- and it should be a place that does not accept the mistreatment of women and children and workers simply so if can save a buck. Nothing is free and that Made in China label on your back probably broke somebody’s back. But if you are fine with that, it probably says more about your morals than mine.

And we have all now know what the deregulated free market tastes like…

I know a union carpenter that makes $450.00 per hour.

Well, I know a union nursing home worker that can barely afford to feed her family and a lot of non-union ones that have to go to the food pantry. I know union janitors that can’t pay for prescription drugs and workers that have been denied a union that haven’t had a raise in fifteen years (except when the minimum wage increases, see above), have no access to health insurance and are fired when they call in sick for the first time in a decade. I also know workers that have been spit on, shot at, run over and/or have been sprayed in the face with bleach for trying to unionize a facility (which, incidentally, they have the legal right to do in this place we call the land of the free).

By the way, I don’t know any union carpenters that make $450.00 per hour or $150.00 per hour, but I know plenty that work hard, make a good living at what they do, own their homes, have health insurance, and can afford to send their kids to college. And I am pretty damn happy about that. I am of the opinion that all people, union and non-union alike, that work hard should be paid a fair wage and support themselves. Go us.