Lugnasa Garlic Planting Moon
The current awareness of the 1% and the 99% is due to the Occupy movement last year. It is a useful division to recall on Labor Day. Why? Labor Day is a holiday that reaches out to the 99% of us that do not have inherited wealth, do not have elevators in our garages or fixed wing sail boats at our (non-existent) waterside property.
It puts a day on the calendar when we remember the value of labor unions, those democratically controlled voices of the 99% in organized industries and businesses. Why are labor unions important? In a contest of power between the 1% and the 99% who normally wins? Yes. If you don’t have money, you have to have people to have power.
(“Every cook should learn to govern – Lenin”)
Now, power is not necessary as long as you want other people to set your wage structures, to decide if you deserve health care insurance, to have the opportunity to fire you based on their whim. If, however, you want a voice on these matters that directly effect you and your family then you need an organization that answers to you, not to the bosses.
Back in the 1950’s and 1960’s my hometown supplied workers to General Motors factories in nearby Anderson, Indiana. Thanks to the UAW families headed by persons who did not graduate from high school had incomes sufficient to own homes, boats and take vacations. They had health insurance adequate to remove health care from their list of worries. They had grievance committees and union representatives who would stand with you in case of a dispute with a foreman.
Those days are gone, have been gone for a long while, but I remember them well because I grew up in those times. The Mcjobs that many of the same people have to settle for provide minimal wages, few benefits and no protections. We have seen the hollowing out of the middle class and especially the working class jobs, jobs where college was not a requirement. Where hard work and honesty could result in a decent life. Those jobs have become vanishingly few.
Who, General Motors, will buy your cars? Who, Best Buy, will shop in your stores? Who, Kitchen Aid, will buy your appliances? Who will buy homes? It is a sad and ironic truth that as capitalism pushes harder and harder for more productivity per worker, gains achieved often through robots and computer aided manufacturing processes, it loses the customers who drive America’s consumer economy.
If you’re an anti-union person, and many are, ask yourself whether you want a voice at work or not. If you don’t, maintain your position.
