Important Release
from Todd Mertz: An Intelligent Opinion Piece on the Dangers of Governor “Cut Blanche”
Friends and
Colleagues:
Here is
most of a well-written article sarcastically titled "Let's Kill Unions" by Steve
Hochstadt, a professor of history at Illinois College in today's Journal-Courier:
"It’s been
a bit more than 100 days since Republican Bruce Rauner became governor of
Illinois. Despite our state’s enormous financial problems, he has yet to
propose specific methods of dealing with our deficit and our debt. He has yet
to propose any tax reform.
But he has been
very active on one of his pet projects – killing unions.
Rauner claims
that union-negotiated salaries have caused our state’s financial crisis. He
accused unions that represent public employees, such as firefighters, police
and teachers, of manipulating elections by contributing to campaigns of elected
officials. In his State of the State speech in February, Rauner said the state
should ban political contributions by public employee unions.
His most
significant action thus far has been to stop the payment of union dues by
workers who are not members, but who benefit from union contracts, so-called
“fair share” payments. Rauner’s anti-union policies may not get very far. His
proposal that communities be allowed to create local “right-to-work zones”
conflicts with federal labor laws, which only allow states to pass such laws.
To those who
believe that unions have too much power to influence government, here is a
surprising statistic. For every dollar that labor unions and other
public-interest groups spend on lobbying, large corporations and their
associations spend $34. Of the 100 organizations that spend the most on
lobbying, 95 represent business. The largest companies now have upwards of 100
lobbyists representing them. Lawmakers in Washington and in state capitals are
besieged daily by lobbyists representing corporate America, not by union
members.
The gains won
by unions in wages and benefits over many decades raised the standard of living
of all Americans. These gains also can raise costs. When teachers’ salaries go
up, so do the costs of public schools. But paying teachers good salaries
benefits our whole society by making this most important profession more
attractive to the best students and by strengthening the middle class. Paying
factory workers good salaries can raise the cost of automobiles and other
goods, but the 20th-century gains in factory wages contributed to the strong
American economy. As unions declined, workers’ wages stagnated, and the
share of total income in the U.S. that goes to the middle class has fallen from
53 percent to 46 percent.
Unions are
democracy in action, created by the working poor to speak with their voice.
Capitalists and governments fought them everywhere they grew. If threats of
jail and loss of job were not enough, armed violence with the overwhelming
power of the state was employed. The celebration of labor that happens across
the world every year on May 1 came about due to the Haymarket incident in
Chicago in 1886, itself the result of police shooting striking workers. Every
dictatorship of the left or right seeks to destroy the power of unions. Unions
are much more democratic organizations than corporations, representing average
Americans rather than wealthy stockholders and CEOs.
What is often
said about democracy should also be said about unions: they are not the best we
could imagine, but they are the best we have. For those who can’t afford to buy
a seat at a party fundraiser, who can’t pay for a lobbyist, who can’t invite
politicians out to eat or to play golf or fly a jet, no other form of
collective power is more successful and more democratic.
The struggle
between unions and business is about money and power: the boardroom or the
workers. The essence of a democratic system, and its challenge, is to allow
this struggle to take place peacefully, to insure that both sides follow the
laws, to allow corporations and unions the freedom to compete.
That’s not
good enough for conservatives like Rauner, Jeb Bush, Scott Walker and every
other Republican Party prominence. They don’t want a fair competition. They see
nothing positive about unions and never discuss a fair fight. Their desire to
destroy unions has not diminished as unions have declined in power – it has
grown.
Listen to
Bruce Rauner. He has not positioned himself at the Republican extreme, like
Walker, Cruz and many others. He must live with a Democratic legislature. But
he hates unions like the CEO he used to be, who doesn’t want to hear what
workers have to say and who is fighting them every day for money and power.
If he has
his way, our whole democracy will suffer."
And one more
cool thing--check out U.S Representative Bill Foster's 1 min. video on C-Span congratulating
Naperville, Aurora, and Oswego for shutting down Rauner's union
busting right-to-work (for less) proposal.
--Todd Mertz
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