If Unions are Outmoded, So are Human Rights

What can you do if your boss is Attila the Hun? For most Americans the answer is "nothing."

In Georgia, state officials unilaterally decided that all teachers would be furloughed for three days and some fulltime school staff would be made part time. In Florida, a roofer was dismissed from his company for having the temerity to take an exam to get licensed to do what he was doing! The salaries of Missouri Nextel workers are pegged to sales, but queries are routinely redirected to a “call gate” that prevents the person who initiated the sale from closing the deal. An Arizona trash hauler with nineteen years of outstanding service was terminated by a new supervisor who suddenly discovered that the employee was a trouble maker.

What all of these cases have in common is that there was no oversight over the actions of the employers; they were free to act as their whims dictated. The other common denominator is that none of the workers was unionized and thus had zero recourse. It gets bleaker. An MSNBC report reveals that employers have been emboldened by the recession: 78% of those surveyed reduced health care benefits for employees, 72% cut them for employee dependents, 43% reduced employer contributions to retirement funds, and 44% have reduced the amount of employee paid leave. A Yahoo lead story—your source for all that is hot and trivial—dispenses advice on “How to Keep Your Job and Your Sanity.” The gist of it is: suck it up and kiss ass.

As Labor Day 2009 approaches I hear anew the cry that unions are a relic of the past. According to this logic, once upon a time unions were a needed counterbalance to the power of industrial tyrants, but the disappearance of blue-collar work and the rise of a post-industrial economy have closed the books on the Dickensian abuses of the past. It would seem not. The robber barons of old have nothing on some of the heartless little Napoleons of today. (Check out the Website “America’s Worst Employers.”) That would explain why a whopping 60% of Americans approve of labor unions. The fact that a scant 12% of employees belong to one suggests that access is the problem, not ideological discord or anachronistic union practices. In all, an additional 60 million more workers would like to be in a union.

Belonging to a labor union isn’t a panacea for all employment woes—witness the cuts just absorbed by unionized American Airlines flight attendants—but the mere act of holding a union card makes one 28% more likely to have an adequate health care plan, and wages are roughly 20% higher than those of workers in comparable non-union jobs. Most of all, belonging to a union gives a voice to those who would otherwise be powerless. Standing up to arbitrary power—what could be more American than that?