Union Yes 0
I carried a TCU card for 24 years. For 20 of those years, I was not in a union job, but I continued to carry the card.
Why?
TCU didn’t do a lot for me directly (except that, when my job went from non-union to union in compliance with the terms of the contract, my salary went from eight grand to twelve grand because it had to be aligned with pay scales of equivalent jobs).
What TCU did happened 30 and 40 and 50 years earlier (then it was BRAC), when it fought for recognition so that it could represent employees in contract negotiations.
I used to know a man who was one of the founders of the UTU. He could tell stories of having been shot at during the ’30s for his union activities (he was also one of the finest and most honorable men I have ever known).
American management had as much integrity then as it has now.
Now we look around us and see what happens to working persons when there is no one to represent them.
Robert Reich:
At the center of this virtuous circle were unions. In 1955, more than a third of working Americans belonged to one. Unions gave them the bargaining leverage they needed to get the paychecks that kept the economy going. So many Americans were unionized that wage agreements spilled over to nonunionized workplaces as well. Employers knew they had to match union wages to compete for workers and to recruit the best ones.
Fast forward to a new century. Now, fewer than 8% of private-sector workers are unionized. Corporate opponents argue that Americans no longer want unions. But public opinion surveys, such as a comprehensive poll that Peter D. Hart Research Associates conducted in 2006, suggest that a majority of workers would like to have a union to bargain for better wages, benefits and working conditions. So there must be some other reason for this dramatic decline. But put that question aside for a moment. One point is clear: Smaller numbers of unionized workers mean less bargaining power, and less bargaining power results in lower wages.
It’s no wonder middle-class incomes were dropping even before the recession. As our economy grew between 2001 and the start of 2007, most Americans didn’t share in the prosperity. By the time the recession began last year, according to an Economic Policy Institute study, the median income of households headed by those under age 65 was below what it was in 2000.Typical families kept buying only by going into debt. This was possible as long as the housing bubble expanded. Home-equity loans and refinancing made up for declining paychecks.
