|
|
SSA Blog #42 By Michelle
Drew January 19 2006
|
About our Sponsors...
The Google ads at the top of each
page represent some really good offers. I click often, and find the ads
both useful and interesting. In fact, I have found resources and
information that I use in many aspects of my business and personal
affairs. Do take a few minutes to check out the offerings. The ad
clicks help us pay for this web site, and offer valuable opportunities.
Editorial
The Sago Mine Disaster and Labor Unions by
Michelle
Drew
As a long
time
supporter of labor unions, it has been quite
disappointing to see the decline of labor unions in the US
over the past couple of decades. Since I joined the work force in the
late 1960’s,
I have worked at both union and non-union shops. Having flip-flopped
through
many different jobs from blue collar, while paying for my college
education, to
professional jobs, I was able to assess the impact of labor unions on
different
fields.
Overall,
what impressed me, and still does, is the power of
the unions to create and enforce policies that protect workers. Whether
the
workers need protections from business owners who value their equipment
more
than they do the safety and well being of their employees, to
businesses that
favor profits over the safety of their customers, business owners have
demonstrated a callous disregard for the overall good of humanity over
the
overall good of their bank accounts.
It
can, of course be said that business exist to make money,
but in fact, taken at face value, that can be a chilling thought. While
teaching in South Central LA, I was confronted on a few occasions by
drug
dealers who stated that they had made more money after school the day
before
than I had all month (teacher’s salaries are well known to all). Yes, I
had
replied, but when I look in the mirror, I am proud of the person
looking back
at me. It was a great conversation ender, and indeed, one that provoked
some
good thoughts in the offenders.
Making money, in
itself, is not a legitimate goal. Providing
positive opportunities and challenges to society while improving the
lot of
human kind is a better goal. For those who believe that we are put on
earth to
perform good deeds, it is a spiritual goal as well.
Labor
unions were born from the misdeeds and greedy thoughts
of business owners who thought that employing children, and making
adults toil
in unsafe conditions was okay, since people were willing to do the
work. In
fact, that is like saying that they were “willing to survive”. As can
be seen
in some recent television shows such as “Fear Factor”, just because
people are
willing to do certain things, does not mean that they should.
The
Sago Mine is a non-union shop. Other mines in the area
are unionized, so it can be said that the miners at Sago made a choice
to work
there. But what kind of choices are there really in an economically
depressed
area where daily survival is a struggle. That people are willing to
work in
conditions that they know are unsafe to feed their families is nothing
new.
That business owners are willing to risk the lives of their workers to
increase
their profit margins is nothing new. That families have lost their
fathers,
sons and bread winners due to preventable accidents is nothing
new.
What
is new, for baby boomers, at least, is that they have
relinquishes their voice in their own safety to save themselves from
paying
union dues. That there is no job security, social security or safety
net for
old age is new. That the middle and lower socio-economic classes have
no viable
plan for their future is new.
Some
of us supplement the pensions of our parents when
illness and other disasters complicate their plans. But this is not the
lot
that we are leaving for our children. Except for the small number of
highly
successful people, our children will need to pick up the whole tab for
the
later part of our lives.
The
generation of our children is entrepreneurial in nature.
They are people who have experienced the thrill of making it on their
own, but
not yet experienced the devastation of being alone in tough times. Most
people
have heard that it is lonely at the top, but far more will realize that
it is
dreadful at the bottom.
Making
it on your own makes cheaters and hard workers equivalent.
It makes society pay millions of dollars to sports figures and
entertainers
while paying millions of pennies to police, firefighters and teachers.
It makes
businesses outsource jobs to foreign workers while American workers are
underpaid or out of work.
Our
world is made up of human connections. We share this
planet, and the future. Looking out for each other, performing good and
charitable acts, foregoing immediate rewards for greater (more
altruistic)
rewards are not options, but are necessary steps in insuring goodness
in the
future for all mankind.
We
cannot continue to stuff profits into our pockets while
public servants take care of society at the sacrifice of not being able
to take
care of themselves. People who stand against labor unions stand against
safety,
against families and against the American way.
Could
labor unions have prevented the Sago Mine Disaster?
Yes. Labor unions exist to say no to management when they ignore safety
citations, or pay fines and continue to require that workers risk their
lives
unnecessarily to feed their families.
Labor
unions are not perfect. They need to assess the
differences in the American Labor market that have occurred in the last
100
years, and evolve to be more flexible and relevant to today’s work
force. The
time is right for the pendulum to swing the other way. Workers are
dying and
their families are starving. Decisions about how business and this
country once
again lies in the hands of the wealthy.
The
time has come for this generation of baby boomers to
look in the mirror. Does it matter at all whether it is a drug dealer
or an
educator who looks back at you?
