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Thursday, April 7, 2011

Truth and lies about unions

The Somerville News

Truth and lies about unions

On March 18, 2011, in Latest News, by The News Staff

By William C. Shelton

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News, its staff or publishers.)

“An investment banker, a tea partier, and a unionized public employee are sitting around a plate of 12 cookies. The banker takes 11 cookies, turns to the tea partier, and says, ‘Watch out for that union guy. He’s trying to take part of your cookie.’”

This little parable is circulating on email networks. It aptly summarizes what we are seeing in Wisconsin and the 15 other states where public employee unions are under assault.

Billionaire bankers’ reckless greed plunged the global economy into dire fiscal crisis. A Republican President and Congress chose to bail out the banks instead of workers and homeowners.

The cumulative effect was plummeting tax revenues and gaping state and federal deficits. On the federal level, this expanded a national debt already swollen by three Republican administrations’ overspending and under taxing.

Now the right uses these deficits as a pretext for making war on working people instead of taxing those who created the crisis. Its propaganda machine and politicians shamelessly chant falsehoods about unions and deficits.

Here are some truths about unions. Without the union struggles of the 20th Century, you would have no 40-hour workweek and no weekends off. You would have no minimum wage or workers’ compensation. You would have few paid benefits and fewer enforceable safety standards.

It is not an exaggeration to say that union militancy was a factor critical to the creation of social security. Nor that unions were essential to the emergence of a post-World-War II middle class.

Research by the Economic Policy Institute tells us that unions raise unionized workers’ wages and salaries by 20 percent, and their total compensation by 28 percent. Unionized workers receive 26 percent more vacation time and 14 percent more paid leave than nonunionized workers. They are 18 to 28 percent more likely to have employer-provided health insurance. They are 23 percent-to-54 percent more likely to be in employer-provided pension plans.

Workers in so-called “right-to-work” states earn on average $5,538 less per year than in states where workers can collectively bargain. And right-to-work states have workplace death rates 52.4 percent higher, along with higher poverty and infant mortality rates.

As stark as differences between unionized and nonunionized workers are, unions elevate nonunionized workers’ lot as well. Labor market economics dictate that union wage levels move wage levels for the entire labor market in their direction. It’s not merely coincidence that as the proportion of workers who are unionized dropped from 27.4 percent in 1970 to 11.9 percent last year, average wages and salaries have stagnated or declined.

The trend is similar with benefits. Employers once made contributions equivalent to 10 percent of an employee’s pay to “defined-benefit pensions.” These plans paid a retired employee a pre-agreed fixed rate over their remaining lives.

As union membership has declined, employers have replaced defined-benefit plans with 401K plans and reduced their contributions to four percent of an employee’s pay. With 401Ks, the employee bears the market risk as well.

I am not blind to unions’ flaws. Some rigidly enforce work rules that are irrational, inefficient, and create unnecessary costs. Some union policies protect workers who are lazy, incompetent, or hurtful to their coworkers. Some union operatives obstruct management’s efforts for no reason other than habitual malice.

But these legitimate criticisms are very different from the lies that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and his ideological companions use to rationalize their war on unions. Intending to isolate and promote resentment toward public-employee unions, they charge that public-sector workers are overpaid.

Another Economic Policy Institute study concluded that, “On an annual basis, full-time state and local government employees in Wisconsin are undercompensated by 8.2 percent compared with otherwise similar private sector workers.” Estimates by other analysts place this disparity as high as 14 percent for public-sector workers nationwide.

When confronted with these facts, anti-unionists counter that public workers’ wages may be lower, but their pensions are at ruinous levels. Living in the Boston area, we are aware of some specific cases where this is glaringly true. But in a national context they are exceptions.

The average public-sector pension in Wisconsin is $23,000 per year. And the Wisconsin pension plan is close to fully funded.

Pension plans in other states are often far from fully funded. In past collective bargaining agreements, public officials insisted that, in return for accepting lower compensation, public employees would receive higher pensions. Politicians who negotiated these deals did not have the courage to raise taxes. Now that the bill is coming due, they are reneging on solemn promises and attacking their employees.

Most insidious is the lie supporting claims that public employees shouldn’t be allowed to unionize at all. The argument is that union dues go to support campaign contributions and union organizing that benefit union members; and that taxpayers are unfairly obligated to fund these exorbitant benefits.

During the 2010 federal election cycle, public-sector unions gave $34 million to political campaigns. The finance, insurance and real estate folks who brought you the financial meltdown made campaign contributions of $289 million.

In 2010, public-sector unions spent $14 million on lobbying. The finance, insurance and real estate industry spent $471 million on lobbying. And they represent only one industry, while all labor unions combined contributed only $92 million to political campaigns and spent $47 million on lobbying.

Which do you think costs taxpayers more, public-sector wages and benefits that are not significantly greater than those in the private sector, or public policies that support usurious interest rates, fraudulent financial agreements, a crashed economy, and a $700 billion TARP bailout? Which creates larger deficits? Which will Scott Walker and his allies work to change?

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

What Union Does Jesus Represent?

EVER HEAR...




True Christianity is Union with Jesus!



MOTHER JONES


Economy, Labor, Religion
| Mon Apr. 4, 2011 3:17 AM PDT

Wisconsin's ongoing labor battle has officially become a holy war. The Family Research Council, the evangelical advocacy organization founded by James Dobson, has been dipping into its war chest to defend Republican Governor Scott Walker's efforts to curtail collective bargaining for public-sector unions. FRC president Tony Perkins interviewed backers of Walker's anti-union bill on his weekly radio program and has tweeted his support for the bill, directly linking social conservatism with an anti-union, pro-business agenda: "Pro-family voters should celebrate WI victory b/c public & private sector union bosses have marched lock-step w/liberal social agenda."

The FRC's new political action committee, the Faith, Family, Freedom Fund, is airing ads on 34 Wisconsin radio stations in an effort to influence the April 5 judicial election that could ultimately decide the fate of the law. The ads target Wisconsin Assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg, who's running against a conservative incumbent, David Prosser, for a seat on the state Supreme Court. If elected, Kloppenburg would alter the balance on the court in favor of Democrats, giving them the ability to invalidate the recently enacted ban on public-employee collective bargaining. "Liberals see her as their best hope to advance their political agenda and strike down laws passed by a legislature and governor elected by the people," say the ads. "A vote for Prosser is a vote to keep politics out of the Supreme Court."

The FRC's anti-labor campaign in Wisconsin is part of its larger agenda to meld fiscal conservatism with its family-values message. Its recent priorities have included fighting health care reform, new taxes on the wealthy, and President Obama's budget proposals. In recent weeks, Perkins has used his radio show to hash through small-government talking points with House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), Tea Party caucus head Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), who told him, "The bigger government gets, the smaller God gets." After exploring the value of union busting with Republican state Representative Robin Vos of Wisconsin last month, Perkins expressed "our thanks to you, as conservatives across the country."

Perkins typically doesn't discuss the Biblical justifications for his ideas. (FRC did not return calls from Mother Jones.) However, some of the speakers at the "FRC University" online lecture series provide a clearer idea of the Biblical justifications for opposing limits on corporations and the wealthy. One recent speaker was Jay Richards, who edits a magazine published by the American Enterprise Institute, the conservative think tank that the FRC describes as its "sister organization." His book, Money, Greed, and God: Why Capitalism is the Solution and Not the Problem, is a free-market treatise aimed at the faithful. In his talk he maintains that the sanctity of private property is the preeminent Christian value: "You might call it an idea being made in the image of God."

"You get these funny quotes about people saying, well, 'Jesus was the first socialist,'" Richards explained. "If you read the Bible, this idea of private property is everywhere presupposed. There is not a 'Thou shalt believe in private property' sort of verse anywhere, but it's so fundamental that it's presupposed in two of the Ten Commandments. 'Thou shalt not steal' assumes that people have property that is legitimate and that should not be taken."

Another recent FRC lecturer offered a related interpretation of the Bible's calls for social justice. "Christ does not necessarily condemn the rich per se," said Mark Caleb Smith, the director of the Center for Political Studies at Cedarville University. But, he added, the good book does at times condemn the poor: "The Old Testament, especially in the Book of Proverbs, ascribes poverty to oppression, but also to other things like laziness, the love of sleep, the love of pleasure, the love of food, the love of wine. And so even Proverbs says, you know, sometimes you may be poor because of your behavior."

"Government-imposed social justice is unjust," Smith concluded, adding that Christians who support that notion are heretical and un-American. "For the Christian left, America is part of the problem. The American system of capitalism is part of the problem. They seek a fundamental reconstruction."

This strain of private-property-centric Christianity has deep roots within America's fundamentalist movement. For an excellent rundown of that history, check out Peter Montgomery's recent article in Religion Dispatches, "Jesus Hates Taxes." Among other things, Montgomery highlights an early Christian Coalition manual that interprets a New Testament passage in support of slavery to conclude that "Christians have a responsibility to submit to the authority of their employers, since they are designated as part of God's plan for the exercise of authority on the earth by man."

Of course, exegetical disputes with liberal Christians aren't the only reasons why FRC opposes labor unions. Not only do unions' economic principles put them at odds with evangelicals, so do their social values. A recent press release from Dobson's Focus On The Family, which was once conjoined with the FRC, complains that most political donations from labor unions go to Democrats and liberal social causes. "Over the past several election cycles, unions and their members contributed millions to fight against core American values—especially on issues of life, religious freedom and marriage." Still, explains a spokeswoman, "There are many good, hard-working Americans who are union members, but they would do well to consider whether union support of same-sex marriage and the taxpayer funding of abortion in government health care represents their interests."

Josh Harkinson is a staff reporter at Mother Jones. For more of his stories, click here. Email him with tips at jharkinson (at) motherjones (dot) com. To follow him on Twitter, click here. Get Josh Harkinson's RSS feed.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Massive: More than 1,000 solidarity events! How big can this grow?

AFL-CIO Logo

MASSIVE

Over 1,000 events have been scheduled!

More than 1,000 solidarity events in all 50 states and several foreign countries have been scheduled on and around April 4.

The energy, and the number of solidarity actions, keeps growing.

Sign up for an action near you—and bring your friends and family.

This is just incredible. More than 1,000 solidarity events in all 50 states and several foreign countries have been scheduled on and around April 4. Rallies, teach-ins, worksite discussions, vigils, faith events and more are planned for the next few days.

That’s just what we know of—so far.

Every time I look, the number of events—and the number of RSVPs—has grown. An unprecedented coalition of labor unions, progressive allies and individual working people has joined in.

This is going to be massive. And Ernest, you can be a part of it. Won’t you join us?

Sign up for an action near you during the days surrounding April 4—and bring your friends and family.

April 4 is the day Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., in 1968. He had gone to Memphis to support city sanitation workers demanding their dream: The right to bargain collectively for a voice at work and a better life. They went on to become members of AFSCME.

Right now, we’re building a movement to advance Dr. King’s dream—a dream many of us share: economic justice for all.

Be a part of our movement. Sign up for an event near you—and bring your friends and family.

As our movement grows stronger, corporate-bought politicians are pushing back hard. But they’re losing public support, fast.

Just this week, Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) signed into law a bill to severely limit collective bargaining rights for more than 350,000 firefighters, nurses, teachers and other public workers. And bare-knuckled assaults on workers and their rights in other states continue full force.

But we’re fighting back: Democrats in Wisconsin have enough signatures to recall the first of eight Republican state senators.

Meanwhile, we’re seeing assaults on collective bargaining at the federal level, too: Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) recently tried to rig the voting system for some union elections so even if there are more “yes” votes than “no” votes, workers still could be denied their union. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) has even introduced a national "right to work" for less bill.

But we’re fighting back: President Obama has threatened to veto Rep. Mica’s anti-worker proposal, should it ever reach his desk. And Sen. DeMint’s bill is dead in the water.

On the federal budget, House Republicans are playing a game of chicken with people’s lives and livelihoods—pushing fundamentally immoral, scorched-earth cuts to critical government services working families rely on every day. These cuts would destroy middle-class jobs and hurt the most vulnerable people in our country.

When the budget showdown happens, we’ll be ready to fight back.

When corporate-supported politicians try to balance budgets on the backs of working families, and attack our rights, we’ll stand up for justice.

Stand strong for justice. Show our strength. Sign up for a solidarity action near you.

Together, we’re strong enough to change the course of history if we keep this incredible momentum going.

Thanks for all you’ve done and continue to do.

In solidarity,

Manny Herrmann
Online Mobilization Coordinator, AFL-CIO

P.S. We’re winning the hearts and minds of America. But we need your help to get more people involved.

A Gallup poll released Friday found that more Americans side with public employee unions in budget fights than with governors attacking collective bargaining and balancing budgets on the backs of working families. Young people especially now reject attacks on working people by HUGE margins.

According to the poll, only 27 percent of 18- to 34-year-olds side with governors trying to take away collective bargaining rights—while a whopping 61 percent agree more with public employee unions.

So when you join us, consider bringing people with you—especially young people—to keep public support for our movement growing.

Join us, and bring as many people as you can. Find an event here and RSVP now.


To find out more about the AFL-CIO, please visit our website at www.aflcio.org.