Bashing public unions has a long history in the SmallTowns of Massachusetts. I was speaking with a member of our Town Finance Committee recently—a perfectly sensible and intelligent person and a friend—and she was bemoaning that while the local union representing town departments had agreed to give-backs in their contract, the school teachers were holding firm on concessions. My friend was not happy. Unions are narrow and selfish. Often churlish and too rigid.
“I know people in Town,” she said, “who have taken 15% pay cuts, or are now working only part-time, or have lost their health insurance.” But the Teachers won’t recognize that suffering.
Now, I confess that all too often, my second thoughts are better than my first thoughts. So I regret that it was some time after this conversation ended that I came up with what should have been my response.
I should have said: “Keeping job security and pay rates in a labor contract are exactly what unions do and should be doing, especially in historically hard times. Perhaps if more of the people you know who have gotten whacked by their employers were union members at least some of them would have fared better. Maybe if the percentage of unionized workers in the U.S. were, say, double the current rate of 12% (and only 7.5% of private sector workers) business corporations wouldn’t have been able to so quickly reduce their payrolls by millions of workers to fatten their profits (and increase executive bonuses). If labor was a more effective countervailing power in the system, the system might work better—for everyone.”
No, I wouldn’t have “won” the argument with this line. The anti-union frames are too embedded. But perhaps in the shadow of the Wisconsin (and now, Indiana) messes we need to get back to basics on the role of unions. After the depredations of Goldman Sachs, CitiGroup, Bank of America, AIG and all the rest, I’ll take the American Federation of Teachers, AFSCME, and throw in the United Mine workers for good measure. Not even close.
peter-porcupine says
Back in 2002, there was a private sector unionized company. Its members held firm in exactly the way you describe, pooh-poohing management claims of lost revenue and inability to pay. They had bargained in good faith and were protecting members in bad times, like right after 9/11 and the depression then.
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p>The management wasn’t bluffing, declared bankruptcy and voided contracts. In fact, it eliminated the heath coverage of its retirees while simultaneously decreasing their pension amounts making it hard for them to pay for a substitute Medicare supplement – most just went without.
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p>This is what happens when unions are intransigent in the private sector. It doesn’t happen with government workers because government entities cannot (usually?) be declared backrupt.
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p>BTW – when this happened, this was the smug reaction of the government employee unions in the state retiree newsletter –
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p>The name of the company was Polaroid.
christopher says
…sacrifice of their own salary and benefits? It’s stories like this that makes me wish for more employee-owned companies, thus engendering a spirit of true shared sacrifice and shared success.
peter-porcupine says
IIRC, Polaroid employees had bought a large chunk of the company to avoid a hostile takeover earlier – so as employee-owners, they lost that too.
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p>As far as executives go, I have no idea how much or if they sacrificed their pay, but they would have lost any stock or options as well.
christopher says
…in on the decision-making? The reason I ask is that if they had access to Polaroid’s balance sheets they should have been able to come to a reasonable conclusion on their own. If you and I work for someone else and go to him and demand a raise, he could insist he can’t do it, but not tell us whether he’s sitting on a pile of profit he’s keeping for himself. However, if WE were partners owning the company we would know exactly how much we could afford to keep in our own profits while still having enough in the company’s bank account to keep it running. Presumably we would have the good sense to not pocket all of the revenue thus leaving nothing to keep this business going.