Work Life Without Rights

In light of the recent end run by Wisconsin Senate Republicans (stripping public workers of their collective bargaining rights) I’d like to relate a couple of stories.

There was a friend of my father’s who, despite his quite English-sounding last name, was of Polish ancestry. The old family name was (approximately) Vitczyorick. This man’s grandfather was new to America and working in a factory when he was called up front by his foreman. The foreman told Mr. Vitczyorick, “I can’t spell your name and I can’t pronounce your name. Change it or you’re fired.” Vitczyorick had a family to support, and times were hard, so he picked the name of a close friend and changed to that.

Think about this for a moment. Put yourself in his place – giving up your family name on the whim of a manager. This was how life went in the days before unions.

There is a plastics plant near where I grew up. A couple of friends of mine have worked there. It is hot, smelly, grueling work. Back in the day, before the place unionized, the management did have a pension plan for line workers, and not such a bad one. The only problem was that when an older worker got within a few years of retirement he would suddenly, mysteriously get shunted to the graveyard shift, 11 PM to 7 AM. There would be nothing these near-retirees could do about it. Some would grind through their last few years, but quite a number would give up in exhaustion before they qualified for their pensions.

I just read a piece about this on my favorite guilty pleasure blog, The Rude Pundit. He relates a story about friends of his who work for state governments in so-called right-to-work states. They have no union protection and fear for their jobs at every election. In practice, the next political appointee can pink-slip any of them on a whim and hire a relative or a crony. Experience, performance, and education count for nothing. You might just say “Tough luck for them,” but it also means that administrative decisions, legal decisions, environmental rulings, and other functions of government are even more politicized than elsewhere.

There are millions of stories like this out there. They range from negligent homicide all the way down to those little quarter-teaspoonfuls of shit that ordinary workers have to eat every day to keep their jobs. Whether or not you are a union member you are standing on a platform of assumptions about worker rights that didn’t exist a hundred or so years ago. For example:

• The weekend
• The minimum wage
• The 8-hour day and overtime
• Workman’s comp
• Unemployment insurance
• Workplace safety requirements
• Termination for cause

These things didn’t come to us because of the magnanimity of employers. Union members fought, and in some cases, died for them.

Think about the last one. Today, if an employer said to you, “You’re a Catholic (or insert other religion, ethnicity, or political affiliation) so you’re fired,” you could sue them and win. So they don’t do that. This wasn’t always the case, and it isn’t guaranteed to last if the corporate conservatives have their way.

Polls on the subject have found that roughly 2/3 of American workers would like to be unionized, but are afraid of losing their jobs if they organize. This is because the existing labor laws favor businesses, especially businesses with big budgets directed specifically at squelching unions.

Public employee unions are the remainders of a half-beaten union movement, and in Wisconsin they are now legally crippled. They also suffer from being scorned by the very class of people they would help. Unions are starting to realize that they have to fight the broad battle of public perception as well as their narrow battles over wages and conditions. Large corporations have been mostly responsible for shrinking state revenues, through the banking collapse, tax evasion, and corruption-based lobbying, but they have pinned the blame on unions .They have redefined  earning a fair income as earning too much.

I am reminded of an old Russian fable. A farmer does the discover-and-uncork-the-old-bottle bit and releases a genie. The genie grants the farmer a wish, but with one condition: whatever he gets, his neighbor will get double. The farmer considers a bag of gold, but realizes that his neighbor will get two. A house? A good team of horses? More land? Whatever he wishes, his neighbor will one-up him. Finally he has an inspiration, and smiles broadly. “Blind me in one eye!” he says triumphantly.

And so it goes in America. Some people can’t seem to stand the thought of others getting a fair deal. They have been propagandized into thinking that their own cheated status is the proper baseline for a working life. Thus we hear the canard about union members being privileged, when they are only getting their due. According to those who own businesses, working oneself to death while being underpaid and abused is some form of virtue. It is a myth that business interests and their captive politicians are happy to promote.

As an example, have you ever noticed that in news accounts unions always make “demands,” while management always makes “offers”? Oh, those unreasonable, demanding unions. Oh, those generous managers. We never hear that management is making a demand that people work for less money or with poorer conditions.

If you want an idea of what widespread unionism can offer, look into working conditions in Germany. They have a workforce that is over 50% unionized, with more than 60% working under collective bargaining agreements. They have mandatory worker positions on all corporate boards and regional wage agreements for many trades and professions. They have high pay, good working conditions, and a mandatory minimum of 24 days annual paid vacation. All this, and their economy is the strongest in Europe, with a thriving manufacturing sector, a trade surplus, and money in the bank.

Consider the German example, or the northern European example in general, when someone starts blaming unions for our economic ills. Remember that the basic rights you assume as an employee didn’t pop magically into existence. And remember that those rights won’t necessarily stick around if you don’t keep fighting for them.