Unions: Learning From History

As State workers protest for their rights in Wisconsin; as teachers in NYC prepare to lose 8,000 in their ranks due to budget cuts; and as workers across America, legal and undocumented, unionized and otherwise, fear for their jobs and their survival, now would be a good time to be reminded about what unions have meant for American workers – and what they mean now.

Unionization here has its roots in the Gilded Age of Industrial America at the turn of the 19th-to-20^th century, and became the cause celeb of the 1930s and 1940s. Because of unionization, people who had worked and often become injured, sick or died in factories and mines under unspeakable conditions became heroes and agents of fabulous social change.

Through unionization, the general public became aware of inhumane working conditions. Unions brought forth the five-day week, the eight-hour day, the minimum wage, an end to child labor and, increasingly, the inclusion of health, vacation and retirement benefits. There is no question that communists/socialists played a role in unionization – and government and management used this bogeyman to undermine unions and turn workers against them. It was a shitty ploy way back when, and it still is now.

Since the 1980s, when President Ronald Reagan busted the Air Traffic Controllers union, working people have, in many instances, begun to take a step backwards. Office workers, in particular, who have rarely had the benefit of union protection, have had no recourse in the face of corporate downsizing, outsourcing, salary and benefit decreases, and constant pressure to take on more work in the same amount time and for the same amount of money.

I do want to acknowledge that contemporary unions in some industries have become corrupt, greedy and uncooperative, and as seemingly uncaring of workers rights and safety as small company owners and corporate monoliths. Given the noble history of American unions, this is a shame and a travesty, and no one can deny that such unions need to clean house and straighten up and fly right.

Members of all unions should be pushing for reform in their leadership and make unions the legitimate voice of working people once again. Some teachers’ unions, for example, which in the past did so much to ensure the protection of teachers and the quality of American education, definitely seem to have lost their way.

In New York, the union wants the 8,000 teachers who are threatened with dismissal to be “the last ones hired,” protecting older teachers and tenure, without regard for the quality of the teachers that remain. Teachers themselves are calling for cuts based on lack of talent and unproductive performance, but their union leaders are not backing them up. This will have a disproportionate impact on poor kids in low-income neighborhood schools, because it’s the newest teachers that generally get these undesirable assignments.

However, the fact that some unions are not what they should be does not exempt employers from treating workers fairly, or the general public from not supporting the rights of working people. Once again, the misguided belief on the part of many people who like to think of themselves as middle class instead of working class results in their not identifying with other workers and championing their cause.

It’s the same delusionary thinking that allows some working people to embrace Republican and Conservative values, even though those political platforms are antithetical to their best interest. In addition, the increasing employment of undocumented workers – illegal aliens whom much of the country fear and despise – have allowed factory work to return to pre-union conditions of sweatshops with child labor.

Indeed, it is a complete lack of a sense of solidarity with working people around the world that has permitted Americans to take advantage of cheap, imported goods, ignoring the fact that the workers in China, Vietnam, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and other locales are toiling under conditions we rejected 100 years ago.

It would be of great benefit to working people here and worldwide if Americans supported proper union goals and efforts. If we don’t, we run the risk of soon working countless hours for pennies under miserable condi-tions. As we watch the labor activities of the moment unfold, it’s something important to keep in mind.

Slave Shrimp – Time To Buy American Again

On Wednesday, just a few days after my Passover post about contemporary slavery (see Let All People Go, April 18th), there was an important story on CNN about the horrors of the foreign shrimp trade – particularly shrimp harvested in and exported by Thailand. I learned that America gets a full 80% of its shrimp (the #2 most popular seafood in the USA after canned tuna) from abroad, and a good deal of that from Thailand – where, good authority has it, young women are routinely forced into indentured servitude to process the shrimp and are subjected to cruelty and violence to prevent them from trying to escape and punish them when they do (one young woman was severely beaten and had her head shaved to “make her an example” to her co-workers).

I had shrimp on my dinner menu for Wednesday and promptly examined my unopened bag of frozen shrimp – and sure enough, it was clearly marked as being from Thailand. I cooked 1/3 of the bag that night and will finish it over the course of two more dinners, because I can’t afford to waste it (and doing so would accomplish nothing) – but there’s no way in hell I’ll buy Thai or other foreign shrimp again.

Indeed, I am beyond weary of looking at the labels on everything I buy or want to buy and seeing the words “Made in China” (that’s the one we see most often, of course). I don’t feel any better when I see that products have come from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Philippines, and other “third world” nations where labor is cheap and human rights are an inconvenience. American workers have their troubles, to be sure, and as I said in Let All People Go, contemporary slavery is alive and well in America, too. But one has to start taking action somewhere.

I will stop supporting the export of American jobs and the importing of foreign goods whenever and wherever possible. I just bought an indoor, reversible, stove-top grill/griddle and found one made right here in the USA by a company named Lodge – and it was no more expensive than the ones made in China and sold with the name of a celebrity chef plastered all over them. From now on, I will be buying American shrimp (online if necessary) and I’ll be looking for other products, from groceries to clothing, from American producers.

Unfortunately, that’s no easy trick – but I’ve located a few Web sites that I hope will make it easier for me, and I’m pleased to share them with you:

Specifically for seafood, check out Wild American Shrimp, Wood’s Fisheries (based in Florida), Pearl/Louisiana Shrimpers, and Fish Ex Alaska Seafoods. For information about other American-made products, check out Made In USA.com and How Americans Can Buy American.

I also plan on contacting all the retailers I patronize, telling them of my preference for American-made goods and sharing with them whatever information I can gather about American producers. I’ll especially make every effort to support local/regional producers, particularly since here in NYC, we’re surrounded by fish and seafood from Long Island and fruit, vegetables and other food from New Jersey and Upstate New York (sorry, couldn’t find online resources for these). Lastly, I’m sending emails to all the Presidential candidates about this issue. It may not be a revolution, but it’s a step in the right direction.