Americans, How about Developing a Little Self Respect?

GELFAND’S WORLD-The longshoremen won. To the rest of the American workers, you folks who never know from one week to the next which days you will work or what your hours will be, you ought to take notice. The longshoremen carried out a job action and they still have their jobs. 

I know that there is a propaganda campaign against unionization. It tries to convince you that unions are bad because they charge dues. But the longshoremen have a new contract, they have excellent benefits including medical coverage, and most importantly, they get to come back to work. If you look at the advantages of being in a unionized workforce, whether it be the Teamsters, the UAW, or the American Federation of Teachers, the story is clear. Your life would be made better if you could engage in collective bargaining. It's really that simple. 

Meanwhile, in the big box stores and the mid-sized private businesses, people can be fired at will. Managers get away with abusing entry level workers. This is typically carried out by the worker getting "written up" for some imaginary or petty offense. Worse yet, businesses make clear to employees that being sick is not an option. 

Here's just one example. An employment agency in a southern state has job announcements. One colleague of mine inquired about an opening, and was told that taking even a single sick day in the first 3 months gets you fired. This policy is wrong on so many levels that it would take several columns to discuss them adequately, starting with public health issues. But you get the idea. The worker has no rights, no redress, no grievance system to fall back on. The employer is king, and the worker is the serf. 

In a unionized working environment, there is some protection against arbitrary and capricious mistreatment of workers. It's not always effective, much less perfect, but there is something. In fact, the biggest complaint against this kind of system is that it can protect the bad workers and the slackers against legitimate punishment. At one time, the British Isles were so effectively unionized that abuse of the system, including the numerous strikes, became known as "The English Disease." 

What we have over here is exactly the opposite. Perhaps we should call it "The American Disease." We have employment at will, right to work states, and a well organized propaganda apparatus that fights workers' rights and unionization. 

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The right to self respect-It's not just the ability to increase your salary through collective bargaining. There is the simple right of being able to go through life with your own self respect. It's the right to be treated like a worthwhile human being rather than as some aspect of production. It's the right to file a complaint when some manager speaks to you abusively, or tries to force you into a political or religious discussion, or tries to get you to work extra hours without pay. 

It should also be the right to know how many hours you are going to have, well in advance, including a predictable and sensible schedule. 

These are all serious issues. The only effective remedy is for workers to regain some of the balance of power between management and the worker. When the worker is effectively alone -- the current situation for the majority of Americans -- it's totally one sided. Management represents the whole company, including the right to hire and fire. That power is awesome (in the negative sense) when you, the worker, are all alone. That's what the term "employment at will" means. Absent a contract that defines your right to appeal, you have nothing. 

And the way to create that contract is through collective bargaining. 

How do we get from here to there? The objective is to develop some kind of workers' rights system for the majority of Americans who currently don't have one. For the big box stores and major industries, the answer is unionization. The roadblocks are enormous, but as the American people gradually figure out that the economic system is rigged against them, they will have the option of changing the political and legal structures. The Democratic Party ought to make repeal of the Taft-Hartley law its highest priority. The major unions should provide resources to support this movement. 

For people who work in smaller businesses such as mid-sized law firms or independent retail establishments, the project becomes a lot harder, because we don't really have a useful model for how to get to where we want to be. Creating a union that serves 7 or 14 people is a major task that only serves those people. How do you manage to create a system that works for millions of people? 

That is a tough question. One possible answer would be a broadly based union that covers all white collar workers in a particular region, whatever the size of the businesses they work for. Another broadly based union could cover blue collar workers.  Perhaps the Teamsters could begin to organize at that level, and offer memberships to anyone and everyone who wants to join. This approach would inevitably run afoul of legal restrictions. That's where the politics comes in. The laws are rigged against workers' rights and we need to change them. 

It's not impossible. It's not even that difficult, provided the American people decide to assert their innate sense of self respect, and demand their rights. 

(Bob Gelfand writes on culture and politics for CityWatch. He can be reached at [email protected]) 

-cw