Guest post by Barbara J. Easterling, president of the Alliance for Retired Americans
As we near Labor Day, I want to encourage you to help younger generations better understand why labor unions are so important. Too many people either know very little about unions, or only know what politicians and Fox News tell them.
I joined a union on my very first day on the job as a telephone operator in Akron, Ohio. It was one of the best decisions I ever made. Our generation – and those who came before us – used our rights at work and in the community to create good jobs and good wages. We helped build strong neighborhoods where you could raise a family.
In my experience, a union is the only way workers can earn good pay and be treated with respect and fairness on the job. It’s just too tough any other way. When you look at the powerful interests that workers are up against – whether it is right-wing politicians or cold-hearted corporations – you see how badly the deck is stacked against you if you don’t have a union.
As union retiree, you can speak firsthand how collective bargaining helps earn the wages and benefits that support families and build strong, stable communities. Collective bargaining directly affects retirement – the better you work, the better you retire. I worry that decades of low wages, little or no health insurance, and inadequate savings are sowing the seeds for a serious retirement security crisis that will affect everyone in our country.
While some politicians mock unions as a cheap way to score political points, we all know the truth – collective bargaining is a backbone of the American middle class. We have a lot to be proud of – so let’s get out there and spread the word!
Barbara J. Easterling is president of the Alliance for Retired Americans. She was previously the secretary-treasurer of the Communications Workers of America. For more information, visit www.retiredamericans.org or call 1-800-333-7212.
As union retiree, you can speak firsthand how collective bargaining helps earn the wages and benefits that support families and build strong, stable communities. Collective bargaining directly affects retirement – the better you work, the better you retire. I worry that decades of low wages, little or no health insurance, and inadequate savings are sowing the seeds for a serious retirement security crisis that will affect everyone in our country.
While some politicians mock unions as a cheap way to score political points, we all know the truth – collective bargaining is a backbone of the American middle class. We have a lot to be proud of – so let’s get out there and spread the word!
This was Said by “Barbara J. Easterling, president of the Alliance for Retired Americans” just the last part of her posting. I can not express how much I want to hug this woman for putting it out there.
I used to live in Erie Pa., my father Ron Courteau, Sr. was a union man from the time he became a shop steward in about 1961 till his retirement, he has since passed on. But he taught me quite a few principles when I was growing up. One of the first thing’s that I learned was that management wasn’t going to pay any thing if they didn’t have to! I saw him on the news in the dead of winter out with the “LORD’S MANUFACTURING CO. Throwing snow balls at the camera men!
He never backed down! The mayor was afraid of him! He was known by almost any where we went in Erie, or surrounding towns, townships!
I broke my back in a stupid accident and became a paraplegic, I lived in snow for four years and came out to Arizona where there wasn’t any snow, Phx area. This state is what is reffered to as “A right to work state”? It should be called “Right to shove it up the emplyee’s butt, and don’t give them enough hours to make it full time! No bargaining at all. Even “Big “O” Tires. I know the guy who had part of that franchise, he went to one of the share holder’s confrence’s, When they asked how long he had had his employee’s, he told them, he had some of them for over a decade or more. The Bog “O” reply, “Fire them!” You’re paying too much! This man had the decency to withdraw his franchise, and has his own name tire shop now.
Eminant (s) Domain! Like Ms. Easterling had said, With the Decades of low wages, no health, or little health bennifits, this country’s Back bone, the middle class worker, which now has about dropped to the poverty level, the US will be so de-sensitized that the country’s going to be going right down the crapper with no turning back. “Right To Work State” my ass!
Not only do right to work states pay less they also have more injuries to employees. Remember, unions are not an entity ‘union’, they are our fellow average working stiff given a seat at the table by working together to take on the bosses. The AWS need unions to give them power that they do not have alone.
Did anyone else get an email today from American Rights at Work that mentions the AFL-CIO WEBSITE ? I checked it out and under issues it shows that Trumpka is in favor of illegal aliens coming here and taking Americans jobs ! I guess he figures that he will get the union dues from the illegals and also the laid off workers who’s jobs they took. I guess it’s all about the money. Don’t have to worry about exporting American jobs to Mexico he’s bringing Mexico here to take American jobs. SICKENING !!!
i work for a rehab center and i know all about working off the clock. Another person that works with me has come in at 6:30 not clock in till 8 and and clocks out at 4:30 and i have seen her work till 9 at night. I know because i have done the same thing right with her. This center is so greedy that the clients have to sign in for groups that are never held and the center gets almost $10.00 per client. yes we need help in this country, with so few jobs you either work like a dog and get nothing in return or you just might not have a job.
Barbara, you are so right. I have always advocated talking to young people about unions and the good they have done for this country and her workers. I am not sure the labor unions blow their own horn enough – some do but most don’t. It is expensive to buy ads but we should be in the schools and churchs too.
Wages in the country are not keeping up with inflation and has been flat since the 1960s becasue of several factors. First corporations put in hundreds of millions of dollars each decade to kill unions, now that is being pumped up even more. As then number of union members drops so do the wages and benefits. Key industries have been lost or given away in order to kill the unions in those industries. For every union lobbyist there are 500 Corporate lobbyists. Unions do not have the money to compete. Now with Citizens United decision to give corporations unlimited, tax free, donations of superPACs to work against union/worker interests.
If they are successful we lose Medicare, Social Security, and a host of other safety net benefits. Less than 20 billionaires are literally buying our government, state by state, and now the entire Republican Party. The only way workers can fight back is with their vote – HOWEVER – many workers vote against their own intrests. Despite the fact that the NRA lies at every turn about what the democrats are doing, workers believe them over unions that have only one interest – that is to give workers and their families a better future. ANY worker who votes for a republican today is voting to give the U.S. over to the Koch brothers and other billionaires. There is volumns of proof to that effect. Workers need to start voting their pocket books and stop being fooled by other special interest groups that are draining workers of their wages and benefits. Register and vote for your future.
When I hear the young people around me say “who needs unions, what good are they, I’m making good money without unions?” Let me say this:
What’s your pension plan-if you even have one-what kind of health,dental,vision benefits do you have? Sick time, vacations, equal pay for equal work-does that exist in your work place? Does length of time worked in the company give you any benefits, i.e. vacation choices, work schedule,etc.? This is what the unions call seniority. It means SOMETHING with a union contract.
I started in the “Bell System” in 1966 and retired in 1999 with ATT. I walked the picket lines in many strikes-kicking and scratching for “small” increases in pay, fighting to keep our benefits as I mentioned previously. No we didn’t always get every thing we fought for, but didn’t lose everything either.
The many different companies with union contracts in the telco industry after the break-up didn’t give us ANYTHING! They were hard fought, hard earned by the rank in file and by our negotiating brothers and sisters-many long, hard hours hammering out compromise after compromise with management.
Today, I still enjoy the benefits of unions. I have an excellent health and dental plan, a decent pension check, and along with a company/union savings plan, and social security, my wife and I are leading a comfortable life, and hopefully, with continued negotiating by my retired union local and national leaders, It will stay that way until the good Lord takes us away!!!
(as a foot-note-I will add that my wife recently had a double-lung transplant and without a union/company agreement I am sure she would not be with me today and given a second chance at life.)