My first union card was with the Retail Clerks, now UFCW. I was inclined to being a union guy, a young smart-ass who never liked authority. My father came to organized labor later in life and became a bit of a hell-raiser who took over his union but I caught it virally even before he did. Most of my work cohort did not understand what the union EARNED for them. I also had the benefit of knowing an older guy who was deep into the movement and, like me, loved jazz. My compats complained about the union dues. I tried to explain the wage and safety benefits, a young punk talking to people older than me. Mostly the women got it, the guys not so often.
I spend most of my days in places in the US where union membership is in decline, and in developing countries where unions are crushed.
Happy Labor Day. Please remember to celebrate it on May 1, when the rest of the world does so, also.
johntmay says
Was as a material handling worker at Xerox in Rochester NY. It was an entry level job and paid me, in today’s dollars, about $45K a year.
There are politicians who promise us that they will bring “manufacturing” jobs back to the USA. Well, those jobs are paying about five bucks a day.
Please, don’t fall for this line that “bringing back manufacturing” is the key to lowering our wealth disparity. It’t not. Neither is education.
We (laborers) need to be organized. I’m not certain that labor unions are the way, or the only way. We need to be organized within the Democratic Party and push for a tax code, trade policy, and labor policy that benefits us all.
paulsimmons says
Yes, laborers have to be organized, but given the size of the U.S. economy, we need to reindustrialize; specifically, we need more value-added manufacturing, as in Canada, where:
I mention in passing that Canada’s middle class has a higher after-tax income than we do in the U.S.
johntmay says
We have many, many manufacturing jobs in Mexico and yet, their middle class (AKA a laborer with a living wage) is virtually non-existent. We need labor laws, health care as a right, tax laws and more along those lines. However, to do any of the aforementioned, we need a government beholding to us and not Wall Street.