A Dying Labor Movement Wounds Us All

It certainly is no surprise the Congressional prostitutes of “big business” have targeted UAW as the problem in recent hearings and meetings to bail out the “Big Three” auto-makers of the US. And, of course, the non-union states catering to the Japanese auto-makers had Senators leading the charge against union members in the former "industrial states".

It has been clear for some time Republicans, and many of the so-called progressive Democrats, have done their best to bust the unions of America in an attempt to further erode the rights of workers and fatten the wallets of the multi-national corporate world.


The saddest part of the discussion about unionism in America is that the corporate world is succeeding in the dismantling of unions. Unions now make up less than 25% of the workforce in the US. But we can’t put the blame entirely on the lackeys of the rich oligarchy. For some unfathomable reason the American worker tends to put more faith in the bosses of the world than other workers who seek some equity and justice in their work for CEOs making 500-1,000 times more in salary than the average worker.


For some reason American workers are stuck on the idea of paying dues “to work” as an affront to them but meekly allow the bosses of Wal-Mart to continually abuse them and deny them a living wage. They allow foreign automakers to reduce benefit packages for healthcare and retirement plus tie the retirement into a volatile stock market. For some reason American workers think the bosses will treat them fairly while the union will cause them to get laid off.


The recent uprising by the Republic Window workers in Chicago is a classic example of the union versus the non-union workforce. Republic management gave the 250 workers less than a week’s notice the company was going out of business. To make matters worse the vacation/sick pay and promised severance pay in the union contract wouldn’t be paid by management because their financier, Bank of America, refused to put up any more credit for the company.


Unbeknownst to the union workers, at first, was the fact Republic was closing the union company at the same time they were opening a new company in another part of the country friendlier to business interests. The new code of the time for “friendlier to business interests” means, of course, unions aren’t welcome. Sure enough, the new company, Echo, was opened as a non-union shop without the “high” wages and expensive benefit package that meant all workers could afford health insurance and dental.


The 250 workers at the defunct Republic decided they weren’t going to put up with the rip off of vacation and severance pay they had legitimately earned. They were especially enraged Bank of America was withholding money to pay Republic’s workers the money due them. Bank of America had just received over 25 billion dollars in the “bailout” program to save America from economic disaster. And, like the many fat cats receiving the money intended to open up credit to businesses, Bank of America was holding on to their billions to make their own bottom line look good to investors.


The workers of Republic took over the closed company’s work place with a sit in. Word of their revolt soon reached the media and spread like a wildfire across the nation. A worker revolt in America was a surefire story because it was very unusual any worker in this nation stood up for themselves against the corporate masters. Union leaders attempted to arrange meetings with Bank of America and Republic management but Bank of America failed to meet the union leaders.


A strange thing began to happen, though. Americans identified with the injustice of the 250 workers of Republic facing unemployment without notice and without being paid for what they had rightfully earned. As usual, politicians came into things late, once they saw the public was outraged and the political fallout could be a problem. Soon President-elect Obama was calling for justice to be served for the workers. Only a few days later Bank of America changed course and negotiated with the union leaders to have the workers paid what was owed.


The uprising by the union members against Republic and Bank of America is an example of a strategy that needs to be used by all activists and the American worker. It was clear the worker was morally right in taking their stand against the company and the financier. Publicity of the injustice struck a note with most Americans facing similar situations of unemployment and loss of benefits. Bank of America had a choice of looking like the evil money grubbers they truly are or defusing the outrage by doing what was right. They paid the workers to avoid the negative image being seen by so many.


Only a few days after Bank of America paid the union workers of Republic the money they had rightfully earned, BOA announced layoffs of 35,000 workers across the nation. Happy holidays, Bank of America workers! Where’s the union to protect you from losing accumulated vacation and retirement pay? Weren’t the billions of dollars provided Bank of America intended to stimulate the economy? Apparently keeping Americans working isn’t part of such a plan.


Soon after the bailout GM, Ford and Chrysler CEOs came before Congress asking for their own bailout package. The first trip to Congress saw them arriving in three separate corporate jets. Nothing like flaunting their power and wealth to impress the public and Congress of the great need for bailout. Pressured by already angry constituents who saw the 250 billion bailout of Wall Street as a scam for the wealthy, Congress feigned outrage toward the auto-makers. The bailout was refused until the CEOs were prepared to provide a detailed plan on how the money they asked for would be spent and assurances the plans would include alternative fuel cars.

It was sickening to watch members of the prostituted Congress chastise CEOs of corporate America that often times buy favors from them. Their outrage was simply incongruent with the facts of political campaigns and political action committees. Drama Queen Pelosi and others looked like poor actors in a small town theatre production.


Now, there was certainly nothing wrong with scolding the CEOs of the “Big Three” and demanding a spending plan but we have to wonder why the same standards weren’t demanded of AIG and all the other Wall Street types when they received far more than the automakers were asking.



The 250 billion plus bailout of Wall Street firms basically came with no strings attached. There was a hopeful expectation the money would be invested in reopening lines of credit for business and helping home owners refinance from onerous loans causing record foreclosures. Of course, Wall Street failed to meet any such expectation. Instead they continued to schedule bonuses for management, prepared golden parachutes for themselves (just in case) and openly went off to luxurious retreats at warm resorts.


Rep. Barney Frank has since gone on national television programs like 60 Minutes saying “you can’t make anybody do what they don’t want to do”. Since Frank is head of a committee on banking and finance he wields great power but he’s disingenuous in his attempt to say there were conditions in the legislation for the 250 billion dollar bailout he, Paulson and Bernacke worked out. The carte blanche bailout of the rich was more a sell out than a bailout.


As we look around the landscape of the crashing American economy we can see the obvious greed factor as one of the major causes for the collapse. We can see hedge funds and selling short practices causing artificial wealth for the suckers hoping to invest in a fair marketplace. All the while, Wall Street became like a big crap game in some New York alley. Bettors put bets on the failures of certain companies in order to win huge sums of money. They used the ruse of calling such bets hedges or insurance but any gambler could tell us Las Vegas casinos run the same schemes.


So, along come the automakers asking for their payday in order to keep hundreds of thousands of union workers employed. At first the arrogant CEOs totally failed to include the UAW in the request for the bailout. Why would they want to include the workers that made their product in any plea for financial help?


On their second visit to Congress, the CEOs came by hybrid cars and had a plan. They included the UAW in negotiations with the Senate once the House passed a bill giving the automakers an original assistance package of 12 billion to tide them over until the Obama Administration took power.


Once the bill got to the Senate, Republican Senators decided they had the perfect opportunity to further weaken unionism by demanding the UAW concede lower wages and benefit packages as a good faith sign of “doing their fair share”. The UAW leadership balked at further wage and benefit concessions. Already they had offered future concessions in addition to the wages and benefits lost in the past twenty years to help keep the factories open. The CEOs had made a public spectacle of offering to accept only one dollar salary for the upcoming year to show their good faith. Of course, they had already prepared their finances for golden parachutes and offshore accounts.


Much is made of the average cost of labor being approximately seventy three dollars an hour for the Detroit automakers. The truth is the average worker’s wage at GM, Ford and Chrysler is around twenty five dollars an hour before benefits. The benefits have been consistently cut over the past two decades. The figures being spewed by anti-union politicians in bed with big business included money being paid workers already retired and the astronomical salaries of CEOs and management. In no other nation does an executive of a corporation make a salary a hundred times more than an average skilled worker.


Many say we should allow the American automakers to go bankrupt since they have mismanaged their business. Truthfully, the CEOs and management of the “Big Three” know they can’t lose either way. With bankruptcy, union contracts can be dismantled, pensions can be stolen and the smaller suppliers won’t be paid. The template has already been forged by the airline industry when they used bankruptcy as a tool to either destroy or fatally weaken their unions. Union members lost over half their accumulated pensions and they saw benefits shrink for healthcare. Wages remain stagnant and seldom match increasing costs of living.


And, of course, the union haters of the Senate blame the failure to give the automakers a financial bailout on the unions. The blue collar worker is being blamed for the problems with the economy not the greedy and cynical tycoons and brokers who have built the house of cards bound to crash on Wall Street.


I can only wonder how the brokers betting for companies to fail and then manipulating stocks to accomplish the failures sleep at night. I wonder how they can pose as patriotic while they systematically and deliberately drive companies out of business causing countless men and women to lose their jobs. And, then the same criminals have the gall to seek bailouts to rescue them from their own destructive practices and their prostitutes in Congress go along with the biggest rip off in American history. But, of course, the blame goes to the worker.


The American workers have become foolish sheep who continue to believe management is their ally despite every indication management will abuse and use them until they decide to excuse them from the workforce. Health benefits continue to decline with over 40% of Americans uninsured. Pension funds in 401K and 403K programs have lost 40-50% of their value in the crooked stock market of Wall Street. Job security is worse than any time since the Great Depression. Two wars bleed our youth and the money from our treasury while making enemies around the world. The failed economy has been a boon for enlistments and reenlistments. Treaties of globalization have devalued the wages of all workers worldwide.


The American worker wants to believe the villain is the union taking dues from their pay but fail to see the only reason their pay is where it’s at is because unions negotiate higher wages for union shops and the threat of unionism forces non-union shops to concede higher pay for their workers to stave off possible organizing. But big businesses, along with their lackeys in Congress, have created large campaigns to vilify and nullify unionism as Marxist, socialist and evil incarnate. And few Americans have any clue what the general principles of Marxism and socialism really are.


American workers need to understand the conspiracy against them is one which will indenture them to corporate power even more than it already does when the unions are destroyed. There are more than financial costs at stake for big business. They want total control of the worker. Breaking up the labor movement is the biggest step toward that goal.


Destruction of the middle class is already well under way. The oligarchy of America grows even bigger and stronger while the American worker foolishly thinks management has their best interests in mind by protecting them from the plague of unionism. Rising unemployment and covert and overt ageism, racism, misogyny and homophobia in the workplace are all signs management has no intention of allowing “undesirables” any power.


Undesirables are those who desire and seek economic justice such as a living wage with benefits to avoid total financial havoc in case of illness or damaging accident. Undesirables are those who want workers to have some security in the latter years of their lives in form of pensions that are stable and not dependent on the stock market.


I foresee a time when the workers of America will be not much better off than the Chinese or Thai slave laborer. I see workers being looked at as interchangeable parts that are thrown away when no longer able to do enough or when making too much. These things are already happening today. Only the labor movement has kept total management oppression of the workers from happening. When we kill the movement we kill ourselves as free people in the workforce.


Wm. Terry Leichner, RN

Combat veteran

Former union nurse and pipefitter