This Is What A Union Does

Last Saturday, I went to Madison. I have been in Madison every Saturday since February 21, as well as several weekdays when my schedule allows, and I will continue to be there as often as possible as long as it's necessary.

So far, the highest level of energy in these protests has been against Governor Walker's attempt to end collective bargaining rights for public employees. He is engaged in government-sponsored, legislatively-codified union-busting, which is a horrific prospect. Any government or elected official that actively seeks to strip the rights of a group of people is not fit to use office, as they have demonstrated a propensity for egregious abuse of power.

However, that's not the point of this. The point of this is this sign that I photographed while I was in Madison last Saturday. This man managed to encapsulate a point that I think needs to be made forcefully and with gusto. A variation of it is the idea (that I cannot remember where I first read) that conservatives have managed to make the question that everyone asks, "Why does that guy get what I don't?" And the job of progressives is to make people start to ask, instead, "How do I get what that guy has?"

I have seen it typed and heard it said by many, many people recently that teachers have ridiculously generous benefit packages. The implication is that teachers don't deserve them, and there's always some add-on to the effect that the speaker doesn't get a pension and has been paying for all their healthcare for years. It is true that teachers, like firefighters, policemen, unionized electricians and unionized auto workers and a whole host of other professions do have (comparatively) better benefit packages than non-unionized electricians, autoworkers, teachers, retail clerks and administrative professionals.

This is not because all of these unionized professions are overpaid, or because they are leeches on society, or because they don't deserve healthcare and pensions. The fact is EVERYONE deserves these things. We all deserve to get decent healthcare coverage that doesn't cost us everything out of pocket. We all deserve some guarantees of financial security in our old age. Why do teachers, police, firefighters, unionized electricians, et al. still have them, when 60 years ago everyone did?

And make no mistake, 60 years ago, these benefits were common. They were expected. They were part and parcel of having a job.

Teachers and electricians and auto workers still have this things because they have a UNION. Because when management or some fatcat said, "You have to accept this or we're all going bankrupt" they had an organization and a mechanism to say, "We'll do what's necessary, but we're not going to simply take your word for what's necessary. We want to see the books; we want to be sure that you're not screwing us merely to advance your own position."

Honestly, ask yourself: do you trust a corporation to have only your interests in mind? Do you trust a corporation or a government to ask for only what is absolutely necessary and never pad their bottom line or try to keep a little on the side for personal gain or pet projects? Really? You trust your boss to sacrifice as much as you when times are tough? If so, you are a far, far better and more trusting person than me. I certainly don't afford anyone that level of trust over my financial standing and future.

This is what a union DOES. It gives you that power, the power to know for certain that what you're giving up is necessary and that you're only giving up what is necessary and that you're not the only one giving something up.

That is the power each of us could have, if we all organized. And if we were all organized, the benefit packages that teachers and police and all the rest enjoy wouldn't seem exorbitant, because we all would have them. We would not have been forced to give them up over the course of the last 50 years, because someone at the table would have been looking out for our interests.

You would still have a pension. You would not be paying for every penny of your healthcare, simply because someone told you it was "necessary."

The question should never be "How can I take away what that person has?" It should always be, "How can I get what that person has, too?" There is enough to go around. We can all have what is fair. We can all have what we deserve.



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