Viewpoint: The Decline of Unions Is Your Problem Too

There is a saying that history repeats itself and, time and time again, it’s proven to be true. 

While precise details can never again be replicated, the fundamental aspects of our history – both good and bad - have a tendency to recur like the skipping of a broken record.  Take for example the 1930’s: The gap between the rich and poor was tremendous; workers were forced into unsafe conditions, received little pay, and were made to live in poverty by company owners who exploited them for excessive profits… sound familiar, anyone?  But also in the 1930’s came another monumental event: an uprising of the workers. 

Poverty seemed an inevitable part of life; it was considered normal to struggle day to day, paycheck to paycheck… that was, until the workers started asking themselves why.  Why was it ‘normal’ for workers to suffer when the company profited hand over fist?  Why was it ‘normal’ to accept poor treatment when working harder than the bosses who merited so much respect?  Normal, they realized, is not indefinite; if you decide to change the way things are, then you set a new precedent for what is ‘normal.’  Banding together, these workers formed unions to create much needed changes.  Forty hour work weeks… overtime pay… a livable wage… safe working conditions…  none of these things were normal at the time, but became the standard at which Americans now live. 

While these changes have greatly impacted our lives for the better, another uprising has come due.  With new times have come new methods of worker exploitation for company profit.  You may find it normal if your company only allows you to work part-time in order to avoid paying for your health insurance.  You may find it normal if you’re paid wages low enough to still qualify for government assistance.  You may find it normal to take annual cuts in wages or benefits, despite record breaking company profits… after all, they’re all going to pack up and move to china, right?  It may be normal to get a write-up if you’re injured on the job.  It may be normal to ‘work through your break’ to catch up.  It may be normal to choose between bills and groceries… who doesn’t these days, right? 

Wrong. 

There is a difference between normal and cruel… though sometimes they are the same thing.  You do not have to accept these cruel circumstances as normal.  You’ve been brainwashed my friends, as many of our forefathers were before.  Day in and day out, you’re taught to obey.  You are taught that you work your way up or seek another job to “do better” in life.  Well the time has come that there is nowhere to go.  Promotions are rare and every other job pays the same pathetic wage. 

We must now look to ourselves, our existing companies and situations, to change what is wrong from the bottom up.  Workers must join together as they have so many times before.  To organize your workplace – or to become an active member if you are already part of a union – is not something to fear, but something to strive for.  It is an amazing thing to make the impossible not only possible, but a standard of living.  Imagine a world where you could pay your bills and buy groceries in the same week, where everyone was insured, where pensions weren’t something of the past.  Oh, and that’s not the limit.  Paid lunch? Yup, that used to happen.  COLA (Cost of Living Allowance)?  Add it on.  Paid sick days?  Throw those in too.  Christmas bonuses?  That’d be great.  Severance packages?  Why not?  Go crazy with ideas of your perfect world and maybe one day those too will be possible...  I’m sure that a forty hour work week sounded crazy to those people who worked mandatory 16-hour days. 

The point is, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.  So WAKE UP.  Wake up, join forces, and take these corporations by storm.  With the new technology of this day and age (i.e. cell phones, social networking, etc.) organizing has never been easier.  It’s now time for the better part of history to start repeating itself.   It’s time for workers to take back their dignity and respect – to demand a better life for themselves, their families, and even complete strangers – because as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “We must live together as brothers, or perish together as fools.”

Oh sure...... more unions and a one party goverment......... yeah that should work.  We can all be California!

Unions shoot themselves in the foot by costing employers twice the cost of an equally, and in most cases, better educated individual. Moreoever, while their process job steps ensure safety, they utterly preclude efficiency. It's one of the reasons why most folks will say that it takes three Union members to do the same job of one non-Union worker. If Unions cut their costs to their members by 25%, and in turn, the wage could then be decreased, they might have a fighting chance. Unfortunately, unless they do, China will destroy America in short order. Wake up Unions, we're global.

A change in date to fix the pseudo Fiscal Cliff  Top Senate Democrats have prepared a plan to slicethe Pentagon's budget by $3 billion a year in an attempt to avoid far steeper cuts that defence hawks warn would cripple the military. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., hopes to stage a vote on the measure before $85 billion in automaticbudget cutsstart to take effect in March. The bill is expected to produce about $120 billion in deficit savings over the coming decade, enough to block the automatic cuts through the end of the calendar year. ButRepublicansare likely to block the measure because it contains a 10-year, $47 billion tax increase known as the "Buffett Rule" that would require people with million-dollar incomes to pay a minimum 30 percent income tax. The rule is named after billionaire investor Warren Buffett. The measure would also raise about $24 billion by cutting much-criticized direct payments to farmers. Republicans vow that they won't accept tax revenues as part of any deal with President Barack Obama to shut off the so-calledsequester, which would require across-the-board cuts of 5 percent to domestic programs and 8 percent to the Pentagon. The cuts, called a sequester in Washington-speak, are the result of the failure of the 2011 budget "super committee" to agree on a deficit-cutting pact. "Absolutely none. The president's accepted no spending cuts back in the fiscal cliff deal 45 days ago," Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., said on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday. "Then you're going to get no revenue now." House Republicans do not have a rival plan to shut off the cuts and instead point to a plan that passed twice last year, most recently by a slender 215-209 vote in December. The GOP now controls eight fewer seats in the House and there's hardening sentiment among some tea party Republicans to allow the sequester to take effect. So it's not clear that GOP leaders like Speaker John Boehner of Ohio could muster enough support to stop the sequester before it takes effect March 1. I thank you Firozali A.Mulla DBA

The whole story may some day come out. Right now they are covering for Obama, distancing him as far as possible from the tragedy. Now, Obama only gave one quick phone call as an American embassy is attacked killing the ambassador and three military men who were told to stand down. RIGHT. The inside word is that Obama was running guns to the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria through that embassy and Ambassador Stevens. Illegally supplying weapons to Muslim extremists is the cover up. A seven hour attack and no U.S. response in that amount of time?  It was already stated in the hearings that money was not the issue to increasing security. The ambassador got into bed with the wrong people. American lives mean nothing to Obama where his agenda is concerned. He even targeted and assassinated an American citizen abroad. But really, if a dictator cant assassinate his own citizens what can he do?  Oh yea, he can do his best to disarm the citizenry to make his transformation of America that much easier. Funny, no talk of the gang violence that kills hundreds every month. Don't go after criminals. They can't help it. They are a reflection of society. I thank you Firozali A. Mulla DBA

Need employments, try these areas!! The economy is inching back to health, with companies hiring here and there and people who had given up on finding a job starting to look again. Employers have added 5.5 million new jobs since the economy bottomed out in 2010, yet total employment is still at 2005 levels. At the current pace of hiring, the total number of jobs won't exceed the 2008 peak until late 2014. Some industries, however, have already hit new records for hiring. There are a variety of reasons: Some businesses are naturally recession-resistant, and they tend to grow along with an expanding population, no matter what. Others are well suited to a demanding economy or simply booming because they meet an important need. U.S. News scoured Labour Department data to identify these 20 industries that are at record employment levels, and are likely to keep on growing:Amusement parks and arcades, 186,000 jobs: Americans rely on the fun industry for a break from it all.Bars and restaurants,10.1 million jobs: People are eating out again, especially at fast-food joints and value chains.Booze,at least 400,000 jobs at breweries, wineries, distilleries, wholesalers and retail outlets: Drinking is apparently as popular as ever.Celebrity handling, 123,000 jobs: The official category is "agents and managers for artists, athletes, entertainers, and other public figures." Whatever you call them, celebrities are big business.Management, 2 million jobs: Most big companies have slimmed down, but they need more skilled managers to run operations that are often spread all over the world. Management and technical consulting is another booming business, with 1.2 million workers.Motion picture and video production, 223,000jobs: Hollywood remains a uniquely American--and highly successful--institution.Professional organizations, 79,000 jobs: Networking matters now more than ever. These are from the USA.  In other words these may be promises. I hope not, but I am sceptical on these figures. I thank you Firozali A.Mulla DBA

We introduce a system and we cannot keep this updated  VISICALC like ? The Pentagon is currently implementing a system it calls FIAR, an acronym for Financial Improvement and Audit Readiness. The plan is now in its eighth year. Three years ago, Congress mandated that this plan must produce a Pentagon that can pass an audit by 2017. Panetta wants the Pentagon to be able to pass an audit by next year.Under the plan, the Defense Department is working to keep better records of transaction, create a system in which different computer systems can communicate, and develop metrics to determine whether accounting standards are being met. But the basic goal of the plan is to be able to track money to specific purchases, said Engel.“Did they build a tank? Did they buy cars? What did they do with that money?” Engel asked. “They need to make sure their financial statements properly document assets purchased. Reading this list of basic accounting failures is perplexing to the average business person or head of household. How could the so-called greatest military on earth be so incompetent about basic accounting? They know how to get sensitive communications systems to talk to one another; they invented the Internet; they oversee the most advanced robotics technology in the world. But they can’t balance their books. One might assume that they simply don’t want to be placed under the same scrutiny as other agencies, especially since the DOD budget is nearly 20 percent of total annual U.S. spending. I thank you Firozali A.Mulla DBA

With notable speed after the Nov. 6 presidential election, a number of Republican politicians and opinions makers — from House Speaker John A. Boehner to the talk show host Sean Hannity — altered their positions on immigration and expressed a new openness to comprehensive reform.

Since then, the push to overhaul the nation’s immigration system appears to have sustained momentum. A new ABC News/Washington Post poll found a jump in public approval of President Obama’s handling of immigration, andmost recent polls have found a majority of Americans support providing immigrants who have come here illegally a pathway to United States citizenship. I am coming by boat. I say this sound like fun, the immigration bill I mean and then the tax and the guns, there seems to be more fun, fly the drones too I thank you FirozaliA.Mulla DBA 

Are we having the best in USA economy or Is USA divided not on one issue but many? I wonder After more than two trying years in the political wilderness, House Democrats who gathered here for their annual retreat are starting to appreciate a new political reality that few of them expected: They matter. It is one of the more notable aspects of the current House of Representatives, which is still controlled by Republicans and more deeply partisan than ever. With Democrats now in control of 200 seats, a handful more than they had in the last Congress, and Republicans often sharply split on big issues like spending and taxes, Democratic votes have been decisive in getting major legislation through the House. Other issues that are equally threatening to Republican unity like gun laws and immigration changes will likely be on the agenda early this year, giving Democrats what they hope will be an even bigger opportunity to play a pivotal role both in shaping legislation and in deciding its fate. So far this year, two major bills — the multibillion dollar Hurricane Sandy aid package and the fiscal compromise that let tax rates on high-earners rise — have made it through the House without a majority of Republicans voting yes. That left Democrats as the ones who provided the needed votes. Before that, the last time a bill passed the House with a minority of the majority party behind it was in 2009. And even before then, it was an extremely rare occurrence. “It was somewhat of a pleasant surprise,” said Representative Joseph Crowley, Democrat of New York, “that the minority votes have relevance.” Mr Crowley, the vice chairman of the Democratic Caucus, said he anticipated that the pattern would repeat itself because Republicans would continue to struggle to find consensus. “Some of these items are going to be difficult for their caucus,” he said. “There’s no doubt about that.” In his remarks to the Democrats who gathered here on Thursday, President Obama recognized the legislative partnership he hopes to have with House Democrats moving forward. “We got a lot of work to do,” the president said, pointing to the lessons from his first term. “What I’ve learned over the last four years is that it won’t be smooth, it won’t be simple; there will be frustrations, there will be times where you guys are mad at me.” But he added that he expected Democrats to “continue the extraordinary progress that we’ve made already.” Representative Steve Israel, the New Yorker who leads the Democrats 2014 House campaign efforts and also held the job in the last election cycle, said party members felt buoyed by their suddenly larger role. “We are, I think, more powerful than we’ve been since 2005,” he said. “We’re more united. We feel empowered.” Their relevance is thanks in large part to an unlikely ally: Speaker John A. Boehner. Mr Boehner has broken with Republican tradition by dispensing with one of the party’s unwritten tenets. It is known as the “Hastert Rule” for its chief adherent, former Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, who declared: “The job of speaker is not to expedite legislation that runs counter to the wishes of the majority of his majority.” I thank you Firozali A.Mulla DBA

Counterparties - What you're seeing below is the text-only version of Counterparties. Unfortunately, this version makes it quite impossible to follow. Should the Fed try to use interest rates to control not just inflation and unemployment, but financial markets too? In a this week, Fed governor Jeremy Stein pushed for the Fed to change the way it approaches overheated markets, arguing that the Fed should consider raising interest rates to prevent financial bubbles. Along the way, Stein warned that the market for junk bonds and REITs might be overheating. Stein is honest about limitations of the Fed's bubble-spotting abilities: "We should be humble,” he says, “about our ability to see the whole picture". What’s more, even when Fed members do warn of possible bubbles, the Fed has been stopping them. As points out, the Fed has generally been opposed to avoid raising interest rates to stop bubbles, on the grounds that doing so is "the equivalent of fumigating an entire house after finding a small patch of mould". Or, as, surveying the economic consensus in 2011, "monetary policy is too blunt a tool to be routinely used to address possible financial imbalances”. Much better than raising rates, Bernanke said, it is to use the Fed's regulatory powers instead. But Stein sees an advantage in using interest rates rather than regulatory brute force. Raising rates, to Stein, is a way to get past what the Fed doesn’t know and into “all of the cracks” of the financial world. What the Fed doesn’t know extends beyond the banks that the Fed regulates, and to the shadow banking system too: In principle, what we would really like to know, for any given asset class--be it subprime mortgages, junk bonds, or leveraged loans--is this: What fraction of it is ultimately financed by short-term demandable claims held by investors who are likely to pull back quickly when things start to go bad? About the broader effects of higher rates, however. "If monetary policymakers begin getting skittish, then the unemployed will lose the one institution that seemed to actually care about their struggles: “There are worse things than overheating credit markets and wonder if Stein knows his history. In the late 1920s, the Fed tried to kill a stock market boom by repeatedly raising interest rates. Those interest rates helped push the economy into a Depression: "Only when the Fed caused the economy to tank did the stock 'bubble' finally burst,” Sumner notes. --Ryan McCarthyOn to today’s links owns a sacrificial Roman altar - Blodget and David Einhorn disagree about the theoretical value of money -: housing is "not really an investment" - Department: oh, right, Moody's -- we might sue them too - The tyranny of political economy" -- a must-read essay - says banker pay must be capped - sad rise of self-employment in the UK – North Carolina residents discover that they don't own the ground beneath them -Vikram Pandit and Bob Diamond might soon be "shadow bankers" (i.e.run a PE firm or hedge fund) -The livestock industry consumes four-fifths of America's antibiotics - Libor fixing "morphed from coveted asset to liability" in the arc of one career - Buffett has spent his whole life drinking Cherry Coke and learning to play the ukulele - Rubin is not impressed by Sandy Weill - About $3 billion is wagered on sports every day, most of it on soccer, mostof it in Asia" . I thank you Firozali A.Mulla
DBA

TRUTH!!!!

i will sweep floors for $28 an hour !!!!

This article does not address the inner workings of the Union.  Agreed that higher wages for skilled labor is important to the economy, however, Unions are not caring for their workers in more important ways.  For instance, there is no vacation pay or tenure that gives back to work priveledges to those that have been laid offof a job.  There is no unemployment fund to help subsidise contributing Union workers wages when they are laid off, leaving families near destitute on unemployment.  Health and Safety inspections of job sites are non-exsistent and no worker feels he can complain for fear of losing their job and becoming destitute.  It is not healthy for individuals or families to have Union workers, in physically demanding jobs, laboring 52 weeks a year without a week or two of paid vacation.  The opportunity cost of taking a vacation for most Union workers outweighs the benefits of the holiday when they are then behind in their bills and out of pocket for the cost of a family break.   In many Union jobs, workers toil in substandard and dangerous conditions.  They use buckets behind plywood sheets for toilets when plumbing has yet to be installed in the upper floors of high rise buildings, work in extreme heat in closed in new construction without ventilation/air conditioning or a simple fan, or they work in extreme cold in open air new construction in the winter.  Shame on the Unions for not demanding more from successful companies and their owners! Most dogs are treated better.  Certainly most government workers are treated better.  Not convinced that Unions help their loyal and paying members.  Instead, they take advantage of the lesser educated, working human!  Investigate that TIMES!!!!

Unions are Salt and the population are King Lear

This is a great article and it is being circulated all over facebook on many union pages.Thank you!

This is assertion with no explanation of how or why. 
Unions achieve a higher than market rate of compensation by controlling the supply of labor to an employer or group there of. There is no logical reason this would have a beneficial effect on anyone but the union members. If anything it should be a negative pressure on wages for those not in a union. The union creates a higher price for workers at some employers which means those employers higher fewer workers and/or don't hire the lesser experienced workers who compete by lowering their price. These inexperienced workers are not productive enough for the union wages. So this surplus of labor competes for the non-union jobs. 

There are other issues like time in job being more important than what an individual does, etc and so forth. 

Improvements in non-union wages come when employers compete for the most productive people. Union agreements do not by and large reward productivity. They are collective, not individual. Much of what unions claim to be their doing actually occurred when certain conditions forced non-union employers to compete for people. 

Government workers, who are largely union, who politically achieve their wages, make considerably more than their counterparts in the productive sector. As time goes on the disparity increases. Many a private company went under, because unlike government, it couldn't forcefully collect money or print it. This naturally limited the disparities at private companies but leaves it unchecked with government. Here we see how wages at non-union employers are not increasing. As the size of government creates more and more burden, those in government jobs make more while those outside government make less. How one can say unions raise all ships in the face of this baffles me. 

The richest places in the USA now are those where government people live. 

Unions are ultimately political bodies that are supposed to work for their members' benefit and must control membership to do it effectively. Their wage scale in the end has no bearing on that of those outside of it. 

Bravo for writing this.  It is obviously true.   And to all the people who argue that globalization, or bad union work rules, or the need for corporate competitiveness, or vague ideas of "freedom" mean that unions are bad or useless, I urge you to recognize how we are all losers in a a society that prioritizes the interests of an increasingly concentrated - and increasingly non-American - group of corporate owners over the interests of the nation as a whole

Yeah, let's do away with unions and let wages plummet. Also, lets make everyone part-time so companies don't have to pay benefits. Lets let corporations tell us what a fair wage is, because we all know they will be fair and equitable with their profits and not exploit us. Wake the hell up!! Without unions it's a race to the bottom....for everyone.

they are a waste do away with them, there is no need to pay someone 28 dollars an hour to sweep floors

I think one of the biggest problems unions have is that people have lost faith and trust in union leadership. You read about huge retirements with full medical benefits, not to mention for the big unions the bosses are making sometimes 10 times what their average member makes, it can be hard to trust them. And there is the fact that your dues go to political donations for reasons you may not agree with, but doesn't matter because union leadership decided it. Unions have done good and can continue to do good, but they have become just as corrupt as the bigwigs they are fighting in many cases.

A question for the union opponents here (who have argued that you have to compete with low wage states and countries with a race to the bottom): 

How do you explain what's happening in Germany -- where they have strong unions, high wages, good benefits, and high quality, profitable manufacturing?

The hole in the article's theory is that,with the rise of international trade,the US economy isn't as vital to a company's bottom line as it once was.Coupled with the fact most non=public unions are services like telecom that  people are unlikely to go without,their profit is not as damaged as one might be led to believe.

Just ask Hostess.Detroit.

Apparently most here don't work for big corporations

Just an observation - MI, IL, NY are pro union states. People are leaving these states in droves for more economic and business friendly states like FL and Texas. Why is that?

The Tampa Bay Region, not enough discretionary income to support MLB, is a prime example of what this guy writes.

On the other hand, neofascist-capitalist lobbies are thriving.

..Big Capital Leaders and Big Social Leaders --bouth of them-- are a neccesity to a Big human advancment.. and.. bouth of them--must have enough knowledge and enough money to complete the task they have to do..( Wenesday the 30 of January--2013)..Saltillo, Coah...

Band aid issue for a deeper cultural issue.

If the negativity and anti-union sentiment above had credence, then the stark decline in unions should be leading to more economic prosperity and opportunity. However, as the article points out, it isn't! The right to work states have lower standards of living and lower education test scores than heavily unionized ones. Try and explain why no unions are good again???

Yeah right, according to the liberal media.

Why do you need unions if the same people who want unions love big gov labor laws? Its overkill.