The late nineteenth and the twentieth century was a period of amazing global economic growth. Resources were discovered and new industries blossomed as the world, and particularly the United States, became powerful industrial enterprises. The drilling of the oil well at Titusville, Pennsylvania, added a new dimension to the coal-fired industrial movement already in progress. Mining, manufacturing, drilling, smelting, assembly and transportation all experienced phenomenal growth. New workers migrated from the farms and small villages of America to seek jobs in the new industrial environment. Although the jobs were plentiful as the economy accelerated, some of the titans of industry abused their workers as they sought to capitalize on the growth and secure near-monopolistic market share.
If you are familiar with the Tennessee Ernie Ford song, “Sixteen Tons,” you probably recall the line “and I owe my soul to the company store.” Some manufacturing and mining companies constructed entire villages complete with stores nearby the worksite. These developments were constructed for the hordes of workers who arrived from the towns and farms of rural America. A worker could receive staples and other items from the store, and his purchases would be deducted from his weekly paycheck. Some of the “company stores” charged exorbitant prices, and the workers would find themselves in debt to the store…a position of virtual bondage.
Workplace safety was a huge issue in the early days of the United States’ economic expansion. The old technologies and some of the newer ones were extremely dangerous, and workers would suffer debilitating injuries or even die. Though the owners of the mining and industrial appear to be insensitive and calloused, their recognition of the dangers associated with their work places may have been somewhat blunted by the steady stream of new workers arriving from offshore and rural America. There were some workers or their advocates who rightly recognized that many of the working conditions in industrial America were deplorable and dangerous. As a result, they sought to organize the workers to achieve safer conditions at the worksites and better contracts for the employees. There are several nuanced elements of the early labor movement in the United States that I have left out of this little flashback…such as some of the international unions’ affiliations with the socialists or communists. My purpose was to provide a thumbnail sketch of the environment when industrial unionization began.
Zoom forward to the present time. For the most part unionization of the industrial and extraction industries has been successful. Conditions have dramatically improved as technology and contracts have provided safer, more humane worksites and conditions. In addition the unionization movement has spread to other sectors of the national scene such as retail workers, the craft trades and government employees. The unions’ efforts have been so successful and pervasive that it is difficult to identify a sector of the national economy that has not been impacted by them. The power of the labor movement has been assisted by various states allowing the “closed shop” rules that make it mandatory for an employee to join the union at a given company. The forced membership has generated huge amounts of money to underwrite full-time union officers and employees and provides vast sums for political activities to assure that union-friendly politicians are elected to office in local, state and national positions.
Just like a government program that seeks to over regulate within its sphere after its original mandate has been achieved, the labor movement has morphed beyond its initial purpose. Nonsensical workplace rules, restrictive prevailing wage laws and massive political power have transformed the union movement from that which protects the abused into one which often is the abuser. The public good and the community’s, state’s and nation’s best interests have been thrust aside to protect the greedy interests of the “working people.” Incompetent or slothful employees are protected by the system while energetic and creative ones are discouraged. As a result, the balance has shifted from insensitive industrial barons to greedy, power hungry union bosses and capos whose primary interest is their own self-interest. They do not serve the nation, and consequently they do not serve their membership. If the nation falters or fails, so do the “workers.” The bosses will slink off to their island retreats, smoke their high-priced stogies and enjoy the good life. Our country, our people and our children will be left holding the bag. The new dangerous alliance in America is the government, big weak-willed corporations, and huge immoral unions. It is a mixture and a recipe for disaster.
Your analysis is spot-on, speaking as one who does not want to be represented by a union, but is anyway.
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