Some Thoughts About Labor Unions and the Good They’ve Done

by Robert Wilkinson

I was perusing a political comment stream related to organized labor and the struggle we’re having in America with bought and sold right wing reactionaries trying to kill the labor movement’s right to collective bargaining. I found some quotes across 150 years that are relevant.

First, I’ll state I’m for labor unions because they gave us the American middle class. That inspired others around the world to hope and march and work for better working conditions and decent pay for good labor. Labor movements have supported human rights and civil rights for well over a century. For your consideration:

“What does labor want? We want more schoolhouses and less jails; more books and less arsenals; more learning and less vice; more leisure and less greed; more justice and less revenge; in fact, more of the opportunities to cultivate our better natures, to make manhood more noble, womanhood more beautiful, and childhood more happy and bright.” - Samuel Gompers (August 1893)

“With all their faults, trade unions have done more for humanity than any other organization of men that ever existed. They have done more for decency, for honesty, for education, for the betterment of the race, for the developing of character in men, than any other association of men.” – Clarence Darrow (November 1909)

“Today in America, unions have a secure place in our industrial life. Only a handful of reactionaries harbor the ugly thought of breaking unions and depriving working men and women of the right to join the union of their choice. I have no use for those — regardless of their political party — who hold some vain and foolish dream of spinning the clock back to days when organized labor was huddled, almost as a hapless mass. Only a fool would try to deprive working men and women of the right to join the union of their choice.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower (Sept 1952)

“Although it is true that only about 20 percent of American workers are in unions, that 20 percent sets the standards across the board in salaries, benefits and working conditions. If you are making a decent salary in a non-union company, you owe that to the unions. One thing that corporations do not do is give out money out of the goodness of their hearts.” – Molly Ivins (publication date unknown, but the link will take you to more quotes from this remarkable woman.)

"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration." – Abraham Lincoln (Dec 1861)

“Every advance in this half-century: Social Security, civil rights, Medicare, aid to education... one after another- came with the support and leadership of American Labor.” – Jimmy Carter (quote date unknown)

"The labor movement was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress. Out of its bold struggles, economic and social reform gave birth to unemployment insurance, old-age pensions, government relief for the destitute and, above all, new wage levels that meant not mere survival but a tolerable life. The captains of industry did not lead this transformation; they resisted it until they were overcome. When in the thirties the wave of union organization crested over the nation, it carried to secure shores not only itself but the whole society." - Martin Luther King Jr. (October 1965)

"History is a great teacher. Now everyone knows that the labor movement did not diminish the strength of the nation but enlarged it. By raising the living standards of millions, labor miraculously created a market for industry and lifted the whole nation to undreamed of levels of production. Those who attack labor forget these simple truths, but history remembers them." – Martin Luther King Jr. (December 1961)

So the next time someone bashes unions, remind them of these things labor unions have given us over the decades. The following is a list I encountered while on a stream. It may or may not be completely accurate, but I know almost all are true, so it's worth a look.

Did you know that labor unions made the following 36 things possible?

1. Weekends without work (5 day work week instead of 6)
2. All breaks at work, including your lunch breaks
3. Paid vacation
4. Family & Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
5. Sick leave
6. Social Security
7. Minimum wage
8. Civil Rights Act/Title VII - prohibits employer discrimination
9. 8-hour work day
10. Overtime pay
11. Child labor laws
12. Occupational Safety & Health Act (OSHA)
13. 40-hour work week
14. Workers’ compensation (workers’ comp)
15. Unemployment insurance
16. Pensions
17. Workplace safety standards and regulations
18. Employer health care insurance
19. Collective bargaining rights for employees
20. Wrongful termination laws
21. Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA)
22. Whistleblower protection laws
23. Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA) - prohibits employers from using a lie detector test on an employee
24. Veteran's Employment and Training Services (VETS)
25. Compensation increases and evaluations (i.e. raises)
26. Sexual harassment laws
27. Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA)
28. Holiday pay
29. Employer dental, life, and vision insurance
30. Privacy rights (via the Supreme Court)
31. Pregnancy and parental leave
32. Military leave
33. The right to strike
34. Public education for children
35. Equal Pay Acts of 1963 & 2011 - requires employers pay men and women equally for the same amount of work
36. Laws ending sweatshops in the United States

And there you have the good that can be accomplished when people choose to work together rather than separately!

© Copyright 2012 Robert Wilkinson

Comments

[cathy cataldo]

Thank you, some have gone so long with nothing, they do not understand what they are missing and demonize unions. I found this out working in a hospital in fl.that was on the verge of going union.It didn't Some people have been so brainwashed, that even a discussion would send some into terror. THANKS for helping to brake the lie.

[caliban]

I've worked in offices (non union jobs) in a union house and I can say the working conditions and wages were much better than in non union houses. Unions affect conditions for all of us by being part of the working standards.

My concern with the nixt of collective bargaining is the higher principal of collective involvement. All voices heard make for stronger more successful endeavors. It's the jellybean estimation experiment. The more people who estimate the amount of jellybeans in the jar, the closer the average of those estimates are to the correct number.

I was saddened to hear a human resources person and now author state that the employees who brown nose are the ones who keep their jobs. And we wonder how economies collapse. Control by the few is a horrible waste of human potential/group creative potential.

[Vetch]

Once again I say Thank you! from the bottom of my heart, for being a voice of awareness and reason.

[ull]

Labour Unions have done a lot of good in the whole world. In Sweden the conservative ruling party have been working really hard to demonize the unions - and they have succeeded..The conservatives are quite good at manipulating the truth and people just follow..They have taken the slogans and ides from the socialists and now use them as their own..to win the people.