Today is Labor Day. How ironic. Labor, according to the crazy right, “labor” is the BIG problem in America today. Well, not the workers they say, the unions that represent the workers! It’s like they don’t know who makes up the unions. Or, more than likely, “they” choose to deny reality for their political ambitions. It’s great beating up on the unions, considering they almost invariably come out endorsing Democrat candidates for all the various offices.
There was the exception in the 1980’s when a couple of unions endorsed Ronald Reagan for president. One of those unions was PATCO, The Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization. They backed Reagan in the 1980 presidential election in the mistaken belief he would back them when it came time to negotiate their contract with the Federal Aviation Administration.
The workers soon found they had put their trust in the wrong guy. When the workers went on strike to win concessions for a shorter workweek, among other demands, in August 1981, Reagan fired all air traffic controllers that didn’t return to work. Since then it’s been pick on the unions.
When the bailout for General Motors and Chrysler was being negotiated, what the Right really wanted to do to give any support to the deal was break up the unions. It was incredible to see the auto companies standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the autoworkers union in those heated hearings on capital hill. The “Big Three” would not let go of their workers and the union that represents them.
To be sure, the union gave a lot of concessions, lowering the cost of producing the cars, but in the end GM and Chrysler got the bail out, rebounded financially and have since paid back.
On a side note, how did that bail out for the financial institutions work out? The one Bush and his administration pushed through, with Bush’s Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Paulson, insisting there be no oversight attached to the nearly one trillion dollars.
The money was paid back, sort of. The government, we the people, own about a fifth of the banking world.
The government is no longer in the automobile business.
Labor built this nation. Did all the heavy lifting. And until the unions came into existence, the workers paid a heavy price for all that labor: long, long hours, no such thing as overtime, dangerous and often deadly working conditions and no laws to protect women and children from predatory employers.
These days, with unemployment at its highest levels since the Great Depression, the workers of America have taken it on the chin. Read in the Union-Tribune’s letters section, right-wing nuts blaming the police and firefighters unions, along with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees—AFSCME—for the city’s financial woes. Apparently, providing for one’s family and future is too much for government employees to ask. But it isn’t the workers, it’s the unions,.
Well, here’s a newsflash, the workers are the unions and Labor Day was created to honor the working class and the unions that represent some of them, now less than 15% of all employees in America; 12.3% actually.
So, salute to all my fellow workers, the one who actually do the heavy lifting, and the unions that have worked hard to make life in America better for those of us who do the work. Maybe one day the monied class will have a little respect for us. Call me a dreamer.
TheForkesReport