Unionism: Its rapid decline and affect on workers in the workforce – Peterson Lochard

“This country will not be a good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a good place for all of us to live in” as Theodore Roosevelt once famously said. In the past few years, we have witnessed a gradual change in the labor movement in America. Such change or lack thereof is due to a lack of union membership in the workforce as suggested by many economists and various scholars. However, the brutal conditions many workers are experiencing in the workforce unionism alone cannot change them. So upon further analysis and critical thinking, it has to be deeper than that. What must have happened for workers to suddenly abandon or reluctant to join labor unions? Are modern day workers prone to accept what is given to them by their employers? Or could it be that labor unions aren’t given a chance in modern day society. The emphasis of this manifesto is to answer as a result such critical questions, show the widening gap of income inequality between employee and employers and call on all workers to unite as they usually said in unity there is strength.

Most movements unlike the labor movement have impetuous beginnings. The roots of the American labor movement can be traced as far as to the French Revolution, marking a clear conscious conflict between those who control the means of production and those who don’t. With that being said strategically the labor movement begun when it did because there was nothing being done by public officials to relieve the sufferings of the unemployed. Government officials basically ignore the general welfare of the common people, which were the workers, and in contrast, they only served the interests of their business friends. In short, labor laws were geared towards to benefit businesses as oppose to workers. The Taft-Hartley Act also known as the Labor Management Relations Act, for instance, restricts the activities and power of labor unions. The Act, which amended the National Labor Relations Act, prohibited workers from striking, boycotting and picketing. Clearly as a result that certainly gives management the upper hand in negotiating with union leaders. However that didn’t restrain workers from going striking and demand higher wages.

Union leaders in return tried their best to cooperate with management. In fact leaders from the three major unions, the American Federation of Labor, the Socialist Party of America, the Industrial Workers of the World, at the time were competing to lead the American labor movement. Each of these unions had different programs to win better working conditions and social justice for workers. The AFL itself “advocated an approach known as “business” or “pure and simple” unionism, which emphasized collective bargaining to reach its goals. Demands were centered around improvements to the immediate work environment, like better wages, hours and working conditions” (wikipedia union membership). Union membership begun to grew significantly. In fact during World War II, unions’ membership quadrupled. So fast forwarding to today, a time in which where we are currently fighting a war in Iraq, again why aren’t we seeing an increase in union membership as oppose to the decline in unionism?

The globalization of the world economy, outsourcing, the removal of tariffs and other barriers to international trade are among the leading factors for the decline in unionism in America. Manufacturing jobs, which were best unionized, have been exported to places like China and other foreign shores where labor is relatively cheap. In fact, “the United States has lost one-sixth of its factory jobs over the last six years and the hemorrhaging of manufacturing is hurting America down to the local level” (Greenhouse p.1). What we are seeing now is a very segmented U.S economy, which means that those with certain high tech and entrepreneurial skills do very well in the job market while those with fewer skills work in low paying service jobs, which have not been unionized much at all. Higher education will be more important as it has ever been only for those who can afford it. As Alan S. Binder, Princeton University Economist and perennial adviser to Democratic presidential candidates, best said “the U.S. education system must be revamped so it prepares workers for jobs that can’t easily go overseas” (Wessel, David p.2). In addition, the usage of the Internet and computer technology has dramatically changed the workforce. Computers and machines have pretty much replaced a lot of workers.

The United States undoubtedly is the richest country in the world. Without the labor of millions of people, the U.S could not have built its dynamic economy. That great economic prosperity also comes with a price by producing poverty and inequality of wealth among people. “The number of poor people in America has increased by five million over the past six years, and the gap between rich and poor has grown to historic proportions. The richest one percent of Americans got nearly 20 percent of the nation’s income in 2005, while the poorest 20 percent could collectively garner only a measly 3.4 percent” (Herbert p.1). Most workers, if not all, aren’t getting an equal share of the wealth they are creating for their employers. The inequality of wealth between the CEO’s and the blue-collar workers hasn’t stop increasing. The salary of a CEO is nearly four hundred seventy times that of the average worker. Even head fund managers are cashing in by making as much as 5.3 million to 1.7 billion dollars in salary yearly. Our President George W. Bush is now recognizing such inequality as he said in one of his speeches “I know some of our citizens worry about the fact that our dynamic economy is leaving working people behind…Income inequality is real” (Ip, McKinnon p.1). Similar to many other people I, myself, don’t know what took him so long to recognize such crisis maybe after all changes is near.

Going back to the original question, modern day workers need to unite better so we can solve these “never ending” problems. Believe it or not every worker now should be concerned and has a stake in the treatment of other workers elsewhere. Join unions at all cost as we used to do in the past. The unions are funded with working people’s money as oppose to government’s or even billionaires like Bill Gates as the case may be. Working people has nothing to lose since they already lost the best of people, young people and working people to a current war. With a strong labor movement, working people can fight for equality one corporation at a time and gain their respective jobs and identity back.

Greenhouse Steven A Unified Voice Argues the Case for U.S. Manufacturing

New York Times, April 26,2007

Herbert Bob The Millions Left Out

New York Times May 12 2007 OP-ED Collumnist

Ip Greg, McKinnon John Bush Reorients Rhetoric, Acknoledges Income Gap

The Wall Street Jounal – Online March 26,2007

Wessel David, Davis Bob Pain From Free Trade Spurs Second Thoughts

The Wall Street Jounal pg A1 March 28, 2007

Wikipedia Union Membership www.wikipedia.org/wiki/union_membership

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