These should be among the best of times for working people. Unemployment is low as economic growth chugs along. More Americans have the things labor unions have long fought for –health insurance, paid holidays, workplace safety regulations.
But despite all this, workers aren’t sharing equally in the expanding economy. They haven’t for a long time. Decades of wage stagnation have taken their toll. American workers aren’t doing as well as their counterparts in other developed nations. A stark example: The European Union’s 28 nations guarantee workers at least a month vacation.
Our minimum wages are lower as a portion of typical wages than France or Britain. Canada has a larger middle class and better health care.
The labor economists and policy wonks debate why American workers are worse off in many measures than other nations. Yet, as Steven Greenhouse, author of “Beaten Down, Worked Up,” an analysis of U.S. labor policies, points out, no serious observer disputes that labor unions are weaker in the U.S. than in just about any other industrial nation.
Just one in 16 private sector workers belongs to a union. As Greenhouse states, “ In no other industrial nation do corporations fight so hard to keep out unions.”
In fighting unions, corporations have the law land government largely on their side. That may be about to get worse, if Eugene Scalia, President Donald’s choice to be labor secretary, gets confirmed. Scalia, son of the late conservative Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia, has worked as a corporate lawyer for such anti-union companies as WalMart.
Unions have their drawbacks, as does every other institution run by human beings. There have been too many instances of corruption over the years. Many unions were slow to respond to the increase of women and minorities in the workplace.
Still, today is the holiday unions gave us. Along with the 40-hour week, an end to child labor, workplace health benefits, paid vacations and work safety rules. Not to mention minimum wage laws, workers compensation and the strongest middle class the world has ever known.
It wasn’t that long ago –up until the 1970s and 1980s—that the New England economy hummed with thousands of union manufacturing jobs. Factory hands could buy homes, send their kids to college and had regular work shifts that gave them more time for their families. Many even had pensions to secure their retirement.
There is evidence that voters are looking back to the future when it comes to unions. A recent Gallup poll shows that 64 percent of Americans approve of unions—one of the highest levels in the past 50 years. Democrats and independents support unions at higher rates than Republicans. Still, 45 percent of Republicans said they approved of unions in the latest survey.
In New England support for organized labor swelled in the spring, when 31,000 Stop & Shop grocery workers went on an 11-day strike. Few shoppers crossed the picket lines and management struck a deal after losing millions in sales.
There are other reasons to value unions. In a society with many organized interest groups, unions are the only ones that challenge the growing power of big business and the global economy. Unions also help workers who aren’t members by lobbying at Statehouses for minimum wage laws and paid leave legislation.
New England has higher rates of union membership than most other regions. Connecticut and Massachusetts are both on a path to a $15 an hour minimum wage over the next several years. Rhode Island lags behind. The minimum wage in the Ocean State is $10.50 an hour compared to $12 in Massachusetts.
Rhode Island also doesn’t do as well for working families as Massachusetts. The Earned Income Tax Credit, which lowers incomes taxes for low-wage earners is at 30 percent in Massachusetts but just 15 percent in Rhode Island. Rachel Flum of the Economic Policy Institute, says she fears Rhode Island will face a shortage of low-wage workers, such as elderly caregivers, because they will head over the border for higher wages.
We don’t celebrate Labor Day with big parades anymore. But if you want to appreciate the meaning of the day, here’s a suggestion. Before you fire up the grill and pour the lemonade, take the family to Woonsocket for the Museum of Work and Culture’s annual celebration. Admission is free today. It’s a vivid lesson in how workers forged this holiday.
Scott MacKay’s commentary can be heard every Monday morning at 6:45 and 8:45 and at 5:44 in the afternoon.
