5 Reasons Why I Am Pro-Labor

1.      I Grew Up in a Working Class Neighborhood

I grew up in a large northern rust-belt city. My father worked as a pipefitter for the railroad, my friends’ dads worked for the steel mills and in the auto industry. About 80% of the parents of my high school classmates were blue-collar workers.

 Thanks to unionization and collective bargaining these workers were able to live the American Dream by making payments on mortgages and purchasing late model cars. One by one the houses in my working class neighborhood began sprouting television antennae.

 2.      Working Class People are Heavily Invested in their Communities

These workers coach youth sports teams, lend muscle on community projects, and continually deposit money in the emergency needs jars found at convenience stores and elsewhere. They volunteer for EMT and Fire Department duty. Their volunteerism includes local churches and community groups, such as the Lions and Kiwanis.

 3.      I Believe in Collective Bargaining

Through union lobbying and government regulations the work week was lowered from 12 hour days/6 days a week to 8 hour days/5 days a week. Pension funds were established to help retired workers subsist. Through OSHA dangerous and unsanitary working conditions diminished.
 
One has only to read about the nineteenth century robber barons or the living conditions of the meat packing plant workers in Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” to understand the many positive contributions of unionization and collective bargaining for the American worker. It seems that Big Business rarely establishes wages, benefits, and working conditions in the interest of its workers. But, business seems much more interested in the bottom line, the percentage of profit, and its stockholders.

 So, it seems that I am pro-union. In spite of the fact that we still don’t know what happened to Jimmy Hoffa, I am. Unions provide protection for the individual worker against abuses of the employer. Unions require the employer to abide by the negotiated contract when good will breaks down.

 4.      Capitalists Constantly Attack Workers Salaries & Benefits

The only voices advocating abolishing unions are capitalists. Often they disdain the worker as lazy. Some suggest that workers start their own businesses if they want to bring home more income.  And we are supposed to emulate these people?

I find it even more disturbing that republican led state governments, such as Wisconsin, are also attacking public service employees unions. Their employees are the ones that make state offices and agencies run. Isn’t this policy short-sighted at the least?

 5.      Working Class & Lower Middle Income Families Comprise 60% of American Society

Working class Americans and those from the lower middle class comprise 60-65% of society. Their household income is $75,000 or less. However, they are the largest segment of society. Look at the Dennis (2002) and Thompson & Hickey (2005) models in the Wikipedia article "American Middle Class".

When the US was a manufacturing economy these workers were invaluable to Big Business. Now, it’s this group that suffers the largest number of job cuts and has the hardest time finding new positions with roughly the same wage and benefits packages.

Because working class and lower middle income comprise over 60% of the economy, because their wages are not rising at the level of inflation, and because proposed tax plans don’t favor them, they feel particularly squeezed.

 

Both state and federal governments need to provide relief for working class and lower middle income families and not place the burden of subsidizing government programs on their backs.