Non-Negotiable: The Rights of Unions and Workers

Greetings all!

This post comes as March draws to a close and my week of extra writing comes to its end. After this, my usual schedule resumes its usual pace. I’d like to wish all Christians a late but happy Easter. Instead of celebrating said holiday, I stood in remembrance of Cesar Chavez, whose birthday was yesterday. He was a perennial leader for rural workers’ and unions’ rights, and his struggle earned him state holidays in California, Colorado, and Texas, as well as earning him a place as this week’s quote. In light of his legacy, tonight I write on the value of unions and the value of workers.

Unions have come under fire for years now, becoming an essential target of conservatives in the crusade to save the economy in their way. Indeed, union membership has declined lately, especially in states like Wisconsin and Indiana where Republican leadership has reduced the power and significance of unions. This is not a new occurrence in America; union membership has, as an overall percentage of population, been dropping since the 1950s when it hit a high of about 35%. Union rights and influence in American economics and politics have been dropping as well.

This is not a solely American problem, either. While unions in Europe have maintained a greater dominance and presence, they have been on the wane since the great liberalization of European economies began in the 1980s. Beginning with Margaret Thatcher and ending with Mikhail Gorbachev, much of Europe used this decade to inject fresh capitalism into the beginnings of what would become the European Union.

During the 1990s, most of the unions in Asia that did have power lost most of it. Central Asian republics formerly under the rule of the Soviet Union adapted capitalist “shock therapy” similar to what was prescribed for Russia during said decade, resulting in severe economic decline alongside worker’s rights which were torn asunder. Middle Eastern dictatorships, republics, and kingdoms did not have much protection for unions and most never did. The Indian license raj was removed after 1991, and while it transformed the Indian economy it also introduced massive corruption and made already harsh poverty endemic to many Indians. Many East Asian economies liberalized in the 1990s especially in light of the financial crisis, notably China which pursued state capitalist reforms.

Much of South America and Africa had no history of union presence or true worker’s rights. Most of South America had been plagued by military governments and other forms of dictatorship, and only now are they becoming truly modern economies where unionization is possible and necessary. Most of Africa is the same; the lack of true industrial bases and the severe exploitation forced upon Africans by colonial empires made independence a tough and often violent process where unions were much less of a problem than wars and suffering were.

However, no person should cry out victory or praise now that unions have diminished. Instead, we should be reminded of what good a strong, collective workforce can do. We should be reminded that workers do deserve the same rights and privileges as do their bosses, no matter what the economic situation.

Unions are certainly an integral part of any trillion-dollar class economy such as our own in America. For my example as to why, let’s begin across the pond in Europe as I do so frequently. While union membership in Europe has been dropping overall for many years now, most European nations have a labor force which is more unionized than our own. Some nations there have unionization rates higher than 50%, a large difference considering our own rate is only just above the French rate of 8%. If the conservative claim that unions hold back economic growth and prosperity were true, then those nations with the highest unionization would also have low economic growth each year. Instead, countries like Norway (where unionization is one of the largest in the world) had their GDP grow at a rate faster than our own. Meanwhile, Spain has pursued strict austerity measures including cutbacks on union strength, and the Spanish economy has been in deep recession for an uncomfortably long time now.

We don’t have to look outside America for examples of the failure of union-busting, either. Just look to a state like, say, Wisconsin. Tea Party hero and Governor Scott Walker made significant budget cuts to his state along with tax cuts, while also becoming a conservative icon by winning a recall election aimed to remove him for his actions against public employees and unions. But while Wisconsin started 2010 as 11^th in job creation, in Walker’s tenure it has fallen to 44^th in job creation. Compare that position to states with the highest rates of job creation such as New York or California. Not coincidentally, neither of these states has weakened its unions or workers’ rights in recent years.

That is all for tonight, and I hope I've provided enough information to support my ideas. I encourage feedback through the comments here, or at my email of zerospintop@live.com. You can also contact me through Facebook, Twitter, Google+, DeviantArt, Steam, Tumblr, and Reddit. Good night, and this is KnoFear, signing off.