Labor Day 2005

Go workers!

Oh goody goody gumdrops a subliminal advertisement draped in a message to get us to praise the AFL-CIO. Let us all now sing the praises of the late Jerry Wurf and AFSCME and the 1970's. Could someone tell me what purpose unions really serve these days? Think about it. Due to worker demands of staggering salary increases and various other benefits and shorter work weeks, unions have increased consumer costs. Additionally the overall costs have moved companies to take their business elsewhere. i.e. out of the country. Unions no longer do much in the way of protecting their members and they do less every day.

Things have changed from bad to good to bad. At the start unions were a blessing. They made work weeks reasonable, and pay became decent and substantial enough to live on; however, over the years the same type of greed which overpowered the corrupt company owners has crept in and overpowered Joe and Rita Average. Now they want 15% salary increases annually, 8 weeks of vacation and a 30 hour work week along with a massive retirement package and full 100% health coverage.

Let me tell you about unions. I know this man who worked for 20 years for the telephone company. He has 100% medical, his phone service is paid, he receives a substantial pension (by his own admission he could live okay on it even without the Social Security check). The ALA in the late 80's pushed for a shorter work week and bigger pay along with many other things. The result was a modest salary increase and a cut of 1 employee from every print shop. The union did nothing to protect these guys.

Back when Ernest Poole wrote The Harbor, it made sense to have unions and in all fairness if unions had stuck with what they had been doing at that time...getting 5 day/40 hour work weeks and health coverage among other things, I would still be a gung-ho supporter of unions. As it is, I can only offer tepid support to unions. They are still needed but they must get back to their original purpose.


Oh, and Happy Day after Labor Day everybody.

Recently in San Diego SEIU organized janitors and day laborers. They are in the process of negotiating a contract.

The AFL-CIO and the faith based labor coalition were able to lobby the San Diego City Council to pass a living wage ordiance. (San Diego is a high cost area). Average apartment rent $900.00 and home $350,000. A living wage here is not $10.00 and the above people were making minimum wage which is $6.60 I believe.

Lots of people still need unions.

Go workers of the world!