John is a good friend of mine. Congrats on this getting printed.
OS
http://www.omaha.com/article/20100714/NEWS0802/707149979/-1#midlands-voices-important-lessons-taught-in-history-of-labor-unionsPublished Wednesday July 14, 2010
By John Kretzschmar
The writer is director of the William Brennan Institute for Labor Studies at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
Local labor unions and organized labor in general are in the news of late. Judging by letters to the Public Pulse and Midlands Voices commentaries, in the words of an old labor song, “there are no neutrals there.” People either favor or oppose the very idea of a labor union.
Generally, union supporters write from a personal, real-life experience perspective, while most critics echo talking points honed behind the walls of conservative think tanks. Neither side has an understanding of the historical role that organized labor played in “humanizing” the employer-employee relationship as it evolved from its roots in the master-servant and master-slave relationships.
How many of today’s current crop of union supporters or critics learned that industrial employees commonly worked 10- to 14-hour days and had six- to seven-day workweeks well into the first half of the 20th century; that it was the 1930s before regulations limiting widespread use of child labor were determined to be unconstitutional; or that until 1963, in nonunion settings, employers regularly paid women and people of color significantly less than white males were paid for identical work?
Union opponents don’t realize that unions introduced limited democracy and due process into the workplace where previously none had existed. Prior to unionization, quitting was the only option for an employee subjected to capricious and arbitrary employer behavior. That is akin to saying if someone does not like the decisions made by a nation’s elected officials, their only option is to move to another country.
Too few detractors appreciate that labor unions were our nation’s first successful anti-poverty programs. They do not appreciate that nonunion wage earners indirectly benefit from unions because negotiated wage and fringe benefit packages become benchmarks that have a “spillover” effect on nonunion employers. Conservative columnist George F. Will explained the union impact this way, “I think American labor unions get a large share of the credit for making us a middle-class country.”
Neither union supporters nor adversaries know that state and federal legislatures enacted laws legalizing unions and collective bargaining to enhance the general welfare of employees, employers and the economy.
FULL story at link.
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