What’s So Bad About Peace, Love, and Labor Unions?

Guest Opinion

By Karen Mulvahill | May 18, 2024

Like most grandfathers, my grandpa had some great stories. When he lived in St. Louis in 1918, he watched a man light the gas street lamps every night with a long pole. His family’s first car was a 1913 Studebaker. His earliest jobs were in factories run by steam engines. And when he worked at Fruehauf Trailer Company, he became a union activist, striking for better wages and working conditions.

Fruehauf was one of many factories that sprouted up during the early part of the 20th century, combining technological advancements with scientific management techniques. Frederick W. Taylor, a key promoter of scientific management, declared, “In the next hundred years, the wealth of the world is going to grow … to such an extent that the workman of that day will live as well, almost, as the high-class businessman lives now.”

The working conditions experienced by my grandfather and other workers of the era included unsafe environments, low wages, long hours, child labor, and lower pay for women and minorities. Their fight for decent pay and working conditions cost many lives, as companies and their supportive politicians responded to strikes with violence, bringing in the National Guard and/or private armies to intimidate, beat, and even kill strikers. Michigan experienced many violent labor struggles in both the manufacturing and mining industries.

Joining unions gave workers the negotiating power that resulted in the eight-hour workday, healthcare coverage, paid vacation and sick days, and safer workplaces. The influence of unions also contributed to establishment of a federal minimum wage, Social Security and Medicare, and unemployment insurance.

In the 1950s and 1960s, workers were not quite as well off as the “high-class businessman” Frederick W. Taylor referred to. But there had emerged a strong middle class that earned enough for a comfortable life, home ownership, and maybe even two cars. At that time, CEOs made 20 times the annual income of the average worker at their companies.

Today CEOs make more than 300 times that of their average workers. The U.S. has the weakest labor movement of any industrial nation while income inequality has worsened more than any industrial nation (Steven Greenhouse, Beaten Down, Worked Up). “The share of national income going to business profits has climbed to its highest level since WWII, while workers’ share of income … has slid to its lowest level since the 1940s,” Greenhouse writes. Ours is currently the only industrial nation where workers have no legal rights to paid sick leave or vacation time (paid or not).

The combination of globalization and recession in the 1980s eliminated many manufacturing jobs. Manufacturing employment, as a percent of total non-farm employment, fell from 22 percent in 1979 to 9 percent in 2019. Service sector employment gained correspondingly, with most of these jobs non-union and low paying.

Americans want and deserve a living wage and healthcare benefits. As far as increasing the federal minimum wage from its current $7.25 (37 percent lower than its 1968 level after factoring in inflation) to at least $10, 71 percent of Americans are supportive (National Restaurant Association survey). A New York Times/CBS News poll found that 85 percent of Americans want a law that guarantees paid sick leave.

Unions’ current favorability rating of 71 percent is its highest since 1965 (Gallup Work and Education Survey, 2022). Petitions for union elections are up 35 percent in 2024 (National Labor Relations Board).

Workers at a number of outlets of Trader Joe’s, REI, Starbucks, and Amazon have unionized. Yet the same old pushback against unions by many corporations and politicians continues. While the beatings of the 1930s have been eschewed, these corporations have responded with threats and intimidation, often refusing to recognize the union.

Big Business and their political allies refer scornfully to Big Labor, bemoaning its influence on politics. The reality is that Big Business spends 16 times what labor does in our political contests. In the 2015-16 election cycle, businesses spent $3.4 billion supporting presidential, Senate, and House candidates versus $213 million spent by labor organizations (Center for Responsive Politics).

That’s why I shouldn’t have been as surprised as I was to read that six Republican governors from southern states recently warned workers against joining the UAW, saying it would threaten “the values we live by.” Who’s “we?” The overpaid executives of the big corporations and the politicians who benefit from their campaign donations? The next day, nearly three-quarters of VW workers in Chattanooga, Tennessee, voted to join the UAW.

When you hear someone belittling labor unions, consider the source. Then consider the people in the past who risked their very lives to improve working conditions. Consider the people today who are suffering from intimidation and the threat of job loss by standing up for a fair wage and better working conditions. Consider throwing out the politicians who prefer a tax cut for the wealthy to an increase in the minimum wage.

Karen Mulvahill is a writer living in northern Michigan.