Unionizing Struggles

Senator Bob Corker has said that the Senate almost came to a deal to bail out big auto, but thanks to the UAW and three words the deal fell through. That’s right let’s blame the unions and the union worker.

My father started a union back in the seventies that still exists today with more people joining.

The lesson I learned is that when you do something to help the little guy and make the workplace fairer for all, then you and your family will be punished, severely.

My mother had died before I went into third grade so my father got a job as a janitor at the school department to be closer to his kids.

A few years later when I was in sixth grade he started organizing a union. It was at this time that my father’s boss changed his hours so that he was forced to work the 2 to 10PM shift after he had been working the day shift, which created difficulties for us.

In the light of these facts, it not hard to imagine the decades long struggle American workers faced in the past.

When the unions were first organizing and calling strikes, the governors of those states would call out the National Guard to shoot the strikers. Something unheard of today.

There was a time in this county when if you were hurt on the job, that was your tough luck, there was no compensation and you were on your own. If you were sick and couldn’t go to work you’d lose the day’s pay, there was no such thing as sick time. Nor was there such a thing as the forty hour work week or the eight hour work day.

If you wanted to go to a funeral you had to find a worker to act as your replacement and if you didn’t and went to the funeral you were fired. Today it’s almost incomprehensible to think we’d be denied the right to funeral attendance.

Get rid of unions and it won’t be long before we face many of these struggles anew. The greedy robber barons are in control and at a time when there aren’t many people like my father with the intestinal fortitude, determination and foresight to leave a lasting legacy which empowers the worker with bargaining rights and protections on the job.