Labor law restores fairness

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.pennlive.com/patriotnews/stories/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1215800713249270.xml&coll=1

WILLIAM M. GEORGE is president of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
BY WILLIAM M. GEORGE

Restoring good wages, health care, retirement security and good jobs -- this is the way to rebuild middle class America and this is what the union movement does best.

There is one period in American history where wages, incomes and the middle class grew enormously. After World War II, and with memories of the Great Depression, people realized it was better to band together and organize unions than to trust management to pay fairly.

Capitalism generally seeks lower wages, so workers organized in unprecedented numbers and demanded a bigger piece of the economic pie. While unions never got above 37 percent of the total work force, their presence alone was enough to force all employers to lift wages and living standards of all workers, both union and nonunion, creating the middle class.

Our government, from the president on down, understood that greater prosperity could happen only through an expanded middle class and it understood that the only way to do that was to encourage unions.

Today, our government, including our president, encourages corporations to deny to workers the freedom to organize unions. Despite the hostility, the rate of unionization increased last year, reversing a downward trend of the last two decades. In today's uncertain economy with stagnant wages, less health care and diminishing pensions, workers are returning to unions. They know unions are the best ticket to higher wages, economic stability and the middle class.

Unionized workers comprise 13 percent of the work force but more than 60 million workers would join a union today, if they could. Why aren't more workers joining unions? Because companies can easily exploit loopholes or even break the law by firing workers who support the union. The penalties for breaking the law aren't tough enough to prevent companies from viewing it as the cost of doing business.

FULL story at link.

[Selatius]

1. All I gotta say is Obama better sign the Employee Free-Choice Act when it reaches his desk.

As it stands, the bill is sitting in committee because we all know GWB will never sign pro-labor legislation.