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Articles:
Economics
Workers
of the World, Unite (in poverty)
Friday, April 29, 2005
I
seem to have a love-hate relationship with organized labor.
On one hand, I see them as one of the few obstacles in the
way of complete corporate domination of society. On the other
hand, I can’t help but think the decline they are facing
was brought on by their own actions.
Going
back to their creation, labor unions have represented workers’
rights and basic human rights. It wasn’t so long ago
that workers in the United States were as downtrodden as their
contemporary third-world counterparts. Very low wages, no
benefits, hazardous working conditions, and health risks were
the norm. You could often die in a coal mine collapse or in
a fall from a skyscraper. You could be mutilated by unsafe
manufacturing equipment. Left without a provider, your family
would fall further into poverty. It didn’t used to matter
to the employer. If you were out, there was a line of hopeful
employees ready to step in. You either tolerated the unsafe,
inhospitable conditions, or let you and your family starve
to death.
At
some point workers had enough, and formed labor unions to
stand up to their employers. Demanding a living wage and safer
working conditions, they (along with timely legislation) forced
corporations into recognizing their employees not as disposable
assets, but rather as human beings.
Like
all else that gathers money and power, corruption came quickly.
White-collar crime such as embezzlement began to plague labor
unions. Ties with organized crime surfaced. Fueled by an ever-increasing
number of members and their union dues, labor became a force
to be reckoned with. With such a powerful lobby, the corruption
and greed that spawned within the system exploded in scope
and magnitude.
Over
time, increasing demands from labor began to put a serious
strain on employers. Calls for ever-higher wages, more benefits,
and more time off, along with escalating labor strikes forced
employers to react. Seeking to reduce costs, many moved operations
overseas to exploit cheap labor. Jobs were lost domestically,
and union membership declined in turn.
So
now the pendulum is swinging back in the other direction.
Organized labor is losing membership, money, and clout. One
of the strongholds for unions, manufacturing, has perhaps
been hurt the worst by overseas outsourcing. As time goes
on, more workers in this industry are becoming unemployed
and unemployable. Organized labor is in shambles.
Yet
despite facing this impending demise, labor doesn’t seem
to waver in its demands for more. It’s easy to blame
foreign labor, foreigners, corporations, or any other scapegoat.
It seems, however, that labor has demanded too much and has
made its workers too expensive. The only alternative for employers
was to continuously raise prices to consumers to offset increasing
labor costs. This would have fostered an upward spiral of
inflation. Either way, someone loses.
So
it’s hard for me to have sympathy for labor unions. Through
their greed and power they have only succeeded in shooting
themselves in the foot. Things were great for them for a few
decades during their meteoric rise, but it was too much too
quickly. The system has collapsed under its own weight, and
now we face the same issues that were inherent prior to organization.
The decline of organized labor has left a void for corporations
to once again exploit. The rising number of unemployed skilled
and semi-skilled workers provides a cheap labor pool of desperate
people. Counter to inflation and standard of living increases,
more companies are again paying less and demanding more. This
is especially obvious in the large retail chains such as Wal-Mart.
Though
labor is in decline and corporations are again gaining power,
I expect the two forces will reach equilibrium in time. A
pendulum will only swing back and forth so many times before
coming to rest in the center. While the demands and corruption
from labor unions have weakened their position, one needs
to look no further than nineteenth-century American history
to see the importance of organization. Labor has kept corporate
abuse of power in check, and now the opposite is proving to
be true. Eventually the bad reputation of labor will fade,
and increasing corporate malfeasance will push the pendulum
back in the other direction. Once-cheap Chinese labor will
become more expensive as their standard of living rises, making
American companies once again consider domestic labor. For
the time being, however, workers will have to lie in the bed
that they made.
Our
greatest misfortunes come to us from ourselves. --Jean Jacques
Rousseau
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