Union Thugs | Hal Cohen

Hal Cohen -- World News Trust

Sep. 3, 2012 -- I thought an appropriate subject for Labor Day would be to talk about unions, since it was their idea in the first place.

This Labor Day offers us a chance to look at between unions and The Union, coming as it does sandwiched between the conventions for the Republican and Democratic parties. I don’t think anyone would argue that the difference between the parties views on unions are clear. Democrats are generally viewed to be supportive, while the Republicans seem almost hostile.

I grew up during the Cold War. In elementary school, we did “Duck and Cover” drills to prepare for “The Bomb.” As such, it was taken for granted that May Day was the Soviet New Year, and the phrase, “Workers of the World Unite!” was a Communist rallying cry. It was only a few years ago here in the photosphere, that I learned the true history of the day.

Had I never learned that history, however, it would confound me to see the animosity that I see on the Right to “workers.” Merriam-Webster defines a worker as “one who works,” and who doesn’t work? I mean besides the lazy “Blah People” (h/t to Sen. Santorum) who now get to sit around at home and get their welfare checks sent to them (h/t to Gov. Romney).

Perhaps the Right thinks about the other definition of “worker.” That is to say workers are, “sexually undeveloped and usually sterile members of a colony of social (insects) that perform most of the labor and protective duties of the colony.” In terms of this definition, the connection between workers and socialism does seem to have some basis. It would also explain why one might look upon those members with disdain. Executives in the bank bailout had to receive every penny of promised bonuses, but auto workers in the auto bailout had to give back pension benefits. But we’re not insects.

Watching Fox News, and Billo and Hannity in particular, the word “union” is often followed by the word “thugs.” Whereas Tea Parties are grass roots protests, liberal activism is the result of “union thugs” bussing in people from out of state. “Union thugs” force otherwise free Americans to join them, so they can take their pay and increase their power against the helpless “job creators.” This increases the costs of doing business making them less competitive. Hence, the need for “Right to Work” laws.

Republicans cherish Freedom. You hear them say it all the time. In their world, the opposite end of the spectrum from Freedom is government. It is not. The opposite of freedom is tyranny. A tenet of Republican dogma is that Americans don’t trust government. This is also a fallacy. Government only derives its power from our consent. If we did not trust it, why would we continue to give our consent?

What Americans don’t trust is power, and power is the oxygen in which tyranny thrives. This is why we set up our government in a way that limits its power. We broke up the power and separated it. We have Inspectors General, a Government Accountability Office, an Attorney General heading a Department of Justice, Congressional oversight committees, and judicial review. There is also, however, corporate power, and corporations wield power in ways that limit freedom.

Sometimes, government is the only check we have on corporate power. In school, I learned about Samuel Gompers founding the American Federation of Labor. Workers, exercising their First Amendment right to freedom of assembly, created another check on corporate power, the union. I always thought that “Norma Rae” was a hero, not a villain. After the devastation of the Great Depression, a strong labor movement created the great middle class that built this nation.

As the economy grew, as corporate profits grew, as unions grew, wages for workers grew, whether they were in a union or not. I was in Italy when the Air Traffic Controllers went on strike. After President Reagan fired them (call it the firing on Ft. Sumter by the anti-labor movement), I sat on a plane not knowing if we’d be able to land at JFK. Since then, union participation in the workforce has dropped from some 30 percent to around 7 percent today. Corporate profits have grown, the economy has grown, productivity has grown, but wages are stagnant.

Unions are not anti-America. If anything, anti-union is anti-Union. Unions can wield power. The workers in unions are not communists. In fact, the first successful uprising against the Soviet Union, and the crack that ultimately brought down the Berlin Wall, was begun by Solidarity -- a union.

Happy Labor Day!

Links:
http://www.dol.gov/opa/aboutdol/laborday.htm
http://archive.org/details/gov.ntis.ava11109vnb1
http://www.iww.org/en/history/library/misc/origins_of_mayday
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079638/