By Niel Ritchie
I grew up in Iowa, a right to work state. There were a few union jobs in big companies like John Deer, Firestone and Amana, and a few construction jobs in the cities, but that was it. The guys that had those jobs did okay, at least seasonally. The rest of us, not so much.
After her divorce, my mom went to work as an elementary teacher in our town and joined the teachers’ union. She didn’t really have a choice in the matter because the school district had a contract with the union. But she was okay with that. She paid her dues, worked hard, gave a damn about her kids and her school, and made an okay living. She didn’t get rich but had health insurance when she needed it. It was enough, but not too much.
Looking back, I wonder what her life would have been like had the union not been there to make sure there was a decent wage and health care coverage.
Today big business is working overtime to kill the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), a proposal in Congress to level the playing field long tilted against workers. The bill sailed through the House of Representatives two years ago, only to stall in the Senate for a lack of 60 votes.
To hear WalMart and Chamber of Commerce tell it, the world will come to an end if this bill passes. It’s a job killer, they shout (and they are shouting). Of course that’s exactly what they have been saying about every minimum wage increase that has ever been proposed.
Anyone seen the devastating results from that last increase to $7.75/hour? Anyone?
They’ve spent millions hollering about workers “losing” the secret ballot, as if they give a damn about worker rights. The fact is, they’re lying about that, no matter how many times they repeat it. No one is losing a secret ballot.
Some Senators that supported the bill in the past are using the current economic collapse as an excuse not to support the bill this year. Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Evan Bayh (D-IN) are two examples.
By now we have become a little numb to the big lie/big buy politics and the “we must cover both sides equally” silliness that passes for journalism these days. It’s more than a shame. It’s a threat to our democracy. But I digress.
This country’s current economic situation isn’t the fault of unions or our workers. The housing bubble was created and home equity was used to mask decades of stagnant wages, until the bubble burst. Health care has reached the level of a national crisis with 50 million uninsured and the number rising daily. So far no one is willing to tackle the challenge on behalf of working families.
Investment bankers and securities fraudsters have stolen trillions of dollars out of the U.S. economy and sent the global financial system off a cliff while the last administration looked the other way.
The only way workers have a chance is to bargain collectively. The only way to do that is to join a union and the only way that’s going to be happening is if we reform our system of labor laws. The Employee Free Choice Act is a good place to start.
Niel Ritchie is the Executive Director of the League of Rural Voters. An Iowa native, his roots are rural. He’s spent his entire career organizing, networking and advocating around progressive rural issues and on behalf of all rural residents.
