2007 Scholarship Winners

Brianna Kohr

 Brianna Kohr, a freshman at UCLA, is quite active in her community and a member of the school's Honor College. Her essay on the necessity of unions easily gained the scholarship committee's attention.


 

Why America Still Needs Labor Unions

 

"What does labor want? We want more schoolhouses and less jails, more books and less arsenals, more learning and less vice, more constant work and less crime, more leisure and less greed, more justice and less revenge. In fact more of the opportunities to cultivate our better natures, to make manhood more noble, womanhood more beautiful and childhood more happy and bright."

Samuel Gompers

 

When Samuel Gompers delivered his famous impromptu oratory now fondly referred to as the “More! More! More!” speech before a mass gathering of Chicago workingmen in 1893, the American labor movement was still in its infancy. Just seven years before, in 1886, Gompers became the founding president of the American Federation of Labor, America’s first labor union. This was a bleak time in the history of the American workingman. The health insurance, sick pay, overtime pay, vacation time and pension plans we now take for granted were unthinkable luxuries in the early days of union organization. Every day, workers feared for their job security, knowing that if they didn’t meet grueling quotas, they could be fired on the spot without the benefit of union legal representation. The Constitutional right of all Americans to peaceably assemble was constantly violated by union busters who rooted members out of their jobs and prevented unions from instituting collective bargaining practices. Hence, American workers became the victims of wage slavery. In revolting and dangerous conditions, these workers toiled for unreasonably long hours each day. Women and minorities were the victims of wage discrimination, and instead of spending their days in school, children as young as eight were subjected to slave labor. These men, women and children were dehumanized and robbed of their dignity; their fundamental rights were ignored.

This is a far cry from the situation of the American workingman today, who owes his worker benefits, job security and right to bargain for fair wages, hours and working conditions to the existence of labor unions. America’s underrepresented minorities and women owe thanks to labor unions for ensuring their equality in the workplace. Because of labor unions, American children are where they belong: behind desks in schools instead of conveyer belts in factories. American needs labor unions because they stand for the very essence of what it means to be an American. Unions preserve the institution of the American family and protect the Constitutional rights that lie at the heart of this country.

 

Without a doubt, union rights are family rights. Union efforts ensure that employers must take the needs of working families into account and respect their rights. Before union representation lobbied for workers’ benefits, employers showed no mercy on sick employees or their family members. Because of tireless union efforts, today’s American workers enjoy the benefit of sick pay, and extended paid leave is available through disability benefits. Additionally, union efforts are responsible for the health insurance benefits of American workers. I cannot begin to express how instrumental these benefits have been in the preservation of my own family. When my dad dislocated his knee, not only did his company provide him with paid leave on disability, his surgery was covered by his company health insurance plan. When my mother was pregnant with my two younger siblings and I, she had no difficulty taking paid temporary leave and returning to her job. Countless times my parents have benefited from sick pay when either they or my siblings have fallen ill. Because of my father’s company provided health insurance plan, my family was able to afford the open heart surgery that saved my life as a child. My family’s indebtedness to labor unions is not unique. Any worker who has used health insurance, taken a sick day or benefited from disability leave, virtually every American, owes their thanks to labor unions.

 

Unions have also successfully lobbied for safety standards that prevent dangerous accidents in the workplace and provide worker’s compensation for those who do encounter an accident on the job. The sad reality that occurs when unions are shut out of the workplace is apparent in the case of my childhood babysitter, a former employee of Home Depot, an openly anti-union company. Due to the company’s unsafe working environment, she sustained a serious back injury when a heavy box fell off a forklift on top of her. Because of the lack of union representation, she received no disability benefits, had to finance the majority of back surgery and rehabilitation on her own and was forced to find a new job. Her family was devastated by this accident. With a main breadwinner suddenly out of work and incurring huge medical expenses, they were forced to move to a rundown apartment, and the family’s college age son had to discontinue his education in favor of working a minimum wage job. An immigrant from Laos, my childhood babysitter could not read or write and was therefore helpless against the juggernaut Home Depot Company, which at the time barred union membership for its employees. If she only had the benefits of a union appointed lawyer, I have no doubt she and her family would have been protected from the financial burden of immediate unemployment and exorbitant medical expenses the company should have covered.

 

Labor unions are responsible for the fair pay and reasonable working hours that help American families to remain strong and stable. They are perhaps the most important factors sustaining American family life. Without unions, there would be no minimum wage, no limit on working hours and certainly no vacation time. Collective bargaining for fair wages enables workers to provide adequately for their families, while negotiation for appropriate hours ensures that working parents are able to spend time nurturing their children. Vacation time provides families with room to relax, bond and strengthen family ties. Before unions played a prominent role in American society, families suffered from the poor wages and unreasonable hours demanded by their employers. This is strikingly evident in The Jungle, Upton Sinclair’s groundbreaking expose of early twentieth century working conditions. The novel follows a young Lithuanian immigrant named Jurgis Rudkus, who represents American workers before unions offered them much protection. At his job in a Chicago meatpacking plant, Jurgis witnesses unbelievable labor practices that violate every single one of the rights unions now defend, including fair wages and working hours. One of the novel’s most striking examples of wage slavery occurs when the meatpacking plants “hire” extra men, driving down wages by creating a labor surplus. Later, the workers become aware that these extra men were being trained as strikebreakers. Due to wage slavery, every one of Jurgis’ family members are forced to work in the factories, including his pregnant wife, his stepmother’s young children and his dying father. Because the family can’t afford a doctor, Jurgis’ wife, newborn child and father all die. At the end of the novel, Jurgis is left a transient, wandering the streets without a family.

In addition to the protection labor unions afford American working families, unions play an integral role in defending our treasured Constitutional rights. The fourteenth amendment to the Constitution grants equal protection under the law to all citizens. Sadly, to this day, workers experience discrimination in the workplace on the basis of race, gender, religious persuasion, pregnancy, age and other factors despite Constitutional protection. In 2006, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission division of the U.S. Department of Labor received 13,569 charges of age discrimination, 14,893 charges of disability discrimination, 4,901 charges of pregnancy-based discrimination, a whopping 27,238 charges of racial discrimination and an unbelievable 23, 364 charges of gender discrimination. In a striking example of the American workplace’s glass ceiling for women, the US Census Bureau reports that on average, women are paid 77 cents for every dollar made by men. Thankfully, labor unions have played an integral role in helping to fight this kind of discrimination in the workplace. The AFL-CIO helped draft and pass the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. These two pieces of legislation combined to end discrimination both in and out of the workplace. Furthermore, unions continue to provide representation to workers who have fallen victim to discrimination in the workplace, ensuring that employers respect the equal rights guaranteed to all workers under our Constitution and other legal statutes. Union membership is important because it helps close the gap in wage discrimination. According to the AFL-CIO, union women earn 38% more than their non-union counterparts, African American union members earn 42% more than their non-union counterparts and Latino union members earn 52% more than their non-union counterparts.

 

Labor unions have also made possible the ability of workers to strike and bargain with employers. In the early days of union organization, workers strikes were vehemently suppressed, and workers didn’t have a means to end the unfair labor practices to which they fell victim. Employers constantly violated their employees’ Constitutional right to peaceably assemble when they blacklisted union members and striking workers. Without the union lobbyists who helped draft and pass the National Labor Relations Act in 1935, employers would still be partaking in the subversive and unlawful tactics that hindered workers’ ability to strike and bargain for fair working conditions in the past. My aunt is an employee of a southern California Safeway store. Three years ago, she actively participated in a one hundred day strike when Safeway tried to revoke employee healthcare benefits. As a result of the strike, Safeway was forced to bargain with the grocer’s union, and my aunt, a single mother of three, kept the benefits that provide for her entire family. Today, it is almost impossible to browse a newspaper without finding an article about American workers striking and bargaining for decent wages and benefits. But if my aunt and her fellow Safeway employees had conducted such a strike in the distant past, their names would have likely appeared on a blacklist rather than a healthcare roster.

 

We as Americans must realize that the fight for workers rights is not over, it is ongoing. Every time unions achieve victories for workers, new challenges arise in their place. If unions were to suddenly disappear, nothing would stop employers from slowly chipping away at all the ground workers have gained over the past century. Without the instrumental role of unions in the workplace, American workers would currently be experiencing grievous violations of their Constitutional rights. The salaries and benefits that sustain American family life are constantly under attack, and without unions, they would not be around for long. As famous columnist and political pundit Molly Ivins once said, “If you are making a decent salary in a non-union company, you owe that to the unions. One thing that corporations do not do is give money out of the goodness of their hearts.” Every American, union member or not, needs to recognize that their well being in the workplace depends on the continued support of labor unions.

Chelsey Donohoo

 Chelsey Donohoo will graduate this spring from West Hills High School in Santee, CA. Her essay about her grandfather's union and the importance of unions in America was well-received by the scholarship committee. She plans on studying biology at UCLA and has been an active volunteer with the Salvation army.


 

 

A Tradition Forged in Snow

           

Standing in the Alaska snow, a northern wind blowing, picket signs in hand, and a will of righteous determination that cannot be broken; this is where I come from. The history of American labor unions is filled with heart-breaking failures, gut-wrenching victories, and the blood and sweat of many a good man and woman. It is a cause that many have given their lives for and was a source of great pride for my grandfather, a pride that has been passed on to my mother and father and has seeped into my own roots, saturating me with a deep respect for the great tradition of American labor unions.

In these current days of political strife and economic uncertainty labor unions are no less important than in the days of my grandfather. Acting as the champion of the working man, unions continue to assert the rights of America’s forgotten silent majority. Without these safety nets, the needs of the working class would go unnoticed and overlooked as they once did in the days of the oil tycoons and railroad monopolies, days in which one man could quash the hopes of many and the president himself sent in the military to stop an attempted strike. Today, unions continue to function as their original purpose intended; they ensure that each member receives the treatment each human being deserves as well as just payment for their dedication and hard-work. To eliminate unions now would not only remove the voice of millions of Americans from public policy but initiate a widespread neglect of the average American’s claim to decency as literature, history, current conditions, and my own past have demonstrated.

Strong in American literature is the theme of the battle of the underrepresented majority versus the powerful forces of the elite. A prime example of such books can be found in the writings of John Steinbeck. Throughout the novel Of Mice and Men Steinbeck subtly shows the conditions of men who were forced to cope in a world where unions were not available. Opening with a scene of two “working stiffs” looking for a decent job, Steinbeck demonstrates the circumstances of many Americans who were left jobless and defenseless in the wake of the Great Depression. These two men come to embody one of the greatest tragedies that can and has touched American soil, the man that has the desire and capabilities to work but is left without a job and without hope of a champion. Lenny and George are left to fend for themselves in a world that refuses to give them a chance. This novel is a call for men to come together in their times of need and support those, like Lenny, who can no longer speak for themselves, a philosophy that embodies the spirit of labor unions. In another Steinbeck work, The Grapes of Wrath, an American family during the dust bowl moves to California in search of a better life and finds only tragedy and heartache. More blatant than Of Mice and Men, in its petition for labor unions, this novel demands that the working man receive his just dues after years of mistreatment and hardship. Directly resulting from lack of organized labor the Joads are forced to except ever decreasing wages at a fruit farm or be thrown out of the job. Taking advantage of the job shortage the owners hire men at next to nothing wages so that a man must choose between starvation and near slavery. As the book vividly demonstrates, men will do anything, including accepting these insulting conditions, when their children’s bellies have begun to swell as a result of hunger. During the coarse of this novel the Joads begin to lose family members as their plight worsens and their conditions reach a new height of deplorability. Casey, the preacher, is killed as a result of trying to organize people to fight these injustices and Tom is forced to flee after defending himself against the bosses’ gangs who threaten to eradicate those that dare defy the rich and powerful. Calling for a social change, Steinbeck wishes to install in the American tradition a safeguard for the majority of working Americans who have been abused and tossed around without any means for protection. Steinbeck is calling for a champion of the masses, a champion that can now be found in labor unions.

Historically, America has been recognized as the land of opportunity and the protector of equality. Although these names are justly given there have been dark moments in America’s past that have threatened the validity of such names. Such has been the case when the American labor movement was rejected and violently suppressed. As Americans began to demand fair treatment and a guarantee of some semblance of stability bouts of battle and bloodshed resulted as men were forced to fight for this right. Gangs, corrupt politicians, and sometimes even police were sent to stop these men who threatened to put a dent in the bosses’ profits. Handing out next to slave wages and offering hazardous conditions, the owners stood to make more money but the workers refused to submit to this treatment any longer. At first in secrete, since unions were illegal, than in more brazen acts of defiance men began to call for change and protection. Soon, the whole country was in an uproar over the conditions of the people in which this country was founded, the men who were willing to give their heart and soul for a decent, honest days work. Fortunately, reason and justice was on their side and unions became legal and change began to happen. Steinbeck’s call had been answered, not by the powerful, but by those who had suffered silently for too many years. The time for a revolution had come and resulting from these men’s brave defiance is the sanctuary that unions offer.

Moving to current day, I find the product of unions at work in the stories that my mother and father bring home. My mother is a parole officer for the Sate of California and a member of the California Correctional Peace Officer Association (CCPOA). Keeping her rights intact the CCPOA advocates for public policies that will further the goals of its members. The CCPOA also ensures that the State of California does not violate the rights of its members; if only the men of old could see this day when a union could force the government to adhere to its demands, their pride and amazement would be an honor to receive. The gratitude my mother feels at knowing she has an ally in the CCPOA is enough to leave an impression and an answering appreciation that will remain with me for the rest of my life. Although my father is no longer in a union, as he is a civil litigation attorney, he also brings home stories that make me recognize the importance of unions. A great percentage of his client base is employees that are victims of unjust termination, dangerous work conditions, work place harassment, and unfair treatment. The common denominator among such clients is that they are not members of a union. This factor makes me realize that labor unions still play an essential role in the American work place and are the prime defense against employee mistreatment. Leaving no room for doubt, the stories told around my dinner table exemplify the work that unions still do in America’s present day. Without unions my family and a majority of Americans would be lost.

More important and prevalent than even the stories my parents bring home from work is the stories of my grandfather who was an Alaskan truck-driver and a proud member of the teamster union. Although he passed away a few years ago his legacy lives on in his respect for a union that he was willing to sacrifice everything for. My mother can vividly recall the days that, as a family, they stood on the picket lines, striking against a company that refused to honor a contract they had previously promised. Whether it was the dead of an Alaskan winter or in the eternal sunlight of an Alaskan summer, my grandfather, mother, and father (who was my mother’s high-school sweetheart) stood outside these companies proclaiming the injuries that had been brought upon them. The union, strong in its support of my grandfather’s rights, was a guiding light in these times of darkness and was a fitting match to my grandfathers determined will and unyielding work ethic. Through-out his entire life my grandfather never doubted the union or any of the decisions they made. A deep appreciation for labor unions did not die with my grandfather and is carried on in my family’s spirit and body. During the entire strike of California’s grocery workers my mother never stepped foot across a picket line, the memories of her past too important to forget. To think of a world without unions would be a dishonor to my grandfather’s name and all those who came before him.

Labor unions are as necessary and useful as they were in the days they were established. If unions were eliminated disaster would befall the current working man and the world would recess to days reminiscent of Steinbeck’s novels. My grandfather always said that any organization that took such good care of him and his family deserved his respect, and that is exactly what he gave. This respect has remained a tradition in my family, a tradition that was forged in the Alaskan snow.    

 

 

Emily Moberg

Emily Moberg's powerful essay about the importance of unions as seen through her family's eyes easily caught the attention of our scholarship committee. The MIT-bound high school senior from Media, PA is captain of her school's tennis team, and is incredibly active in her school and community. Ranked first in her class, she still has time to be a leader in school theatre, academic teams and won a local award for volunteering while working with her church's food center.

Emily's essay: 

Once upon a time, seventy years ago, there was a young man who lived and worked in West Virginia. He worked in a coal mine, and every day he went down into the sulfurous mine, hoping that today would not be the day the shaft collapsed or that a gas explosion took him out of the workforce. He hated his job, but he had a job and that was all that mattered. Every night he would come back up from the mine, knowing the clothes he wore, the home in which he lived, everything he owned, the bed upon which he slept, all belonged to the company.  Years later he would die of black lung disease, but not before he ensured that none of his sons would ever set foot in the mine he hated so much.

            That was my great-grandfather.

 I could imagine him standing at the edge of the mine, watching the canary going down to see if there was any oxygen in the mine, his mind filled with anger, yet powerless to rebel because he needed the work. He was a hero to me; he loved his family and sacrificed everything for them. He worked hard and saved his children from his own fate. He epitomizes the time when the welfare of workers was not given a second thought.

            Unions provide countless benefits to workers and prevent their rights from being systematically eroded along with their wages as has occurred in times past. This is the first time in human history when the disparity between the privileged and the worker has not been insurmountable; we have come so far from the factory-age, from the Gilded Age, from slavery.

            The problem is, detractors of unions are looking at the few problems they see in the system and not looking at the benefits. It is the same logic of anarchists; they see the few faults in the government and wish for its utter abolition, while failing to consider all the benefits they derive from it. For decades, the governments of the United States and Europe struggled to suppress unions, even at times using legislation intended to crush monopolies to prevent unionizing. Why? Because they are a powerful, potent force. Unions allow the small to take on the strong, allow the disenfranchised to challenge the empowered. So much of history is a tale of the aristocracy and the rich exploiting those who toiled by the work of their hands to support themselves; unions threatened to change that forever. Unions threaten the status quo because they allow the masses to speak on the same levels as the bourgeoisie. Take a look at the Gilded Age, the wealth of the monopolists J.P. Morgan and Rockefeller hiding the abject misery of their workers. Think of The Jungle—the conditions that prevailed in Chicago’s meatpacking industry when the workers had been stripped of all power to fight for themselves. Keeping one’s job was the only security. Each day, those miserable hours provided the subsistence on which his family lived. If he lost a limb, he was out of work, un-hirable, without aid. Another worker could replace him in an instant. No one dared be sick, for there would be no place when he came back. When unions finally fought and gained the right to be heard and to form, they managed to right these gross injustices. They fought for the basic rights and dignities of the workers. While the factory owners and bankers argued that the workers would cease to work and become lazy if given the representation of unions, they ignored the reality that those workers slaved for inhuman hours every day.

            At this time, “Social Darwinism” was accepted; laissez-faire economics prevailed. The fact that some could oppress was accepted, because they were “the strong” and it was the travail of “the weak” to eke out an existence. This theory failed to take into account that the system itself oppressed those in the lower socio-economic tiers and did not give them an equal chance to succeed. In my European history class, we did a very interesting experiment. We were given beads and a trading schedule to mimic an economy. Once we had traded, the value of the beads was revealed and those with the most “money” were allowed to make the new rules. In each case, they made new rules to benefit themselves. The rest of the class was slowly rendered powerless, as our economic and political power was eroded by the powers that existed. We were in no way less capable than those in power; we were systematically disabled. This simple activity demonstrated that the natural trend is for the strong to exploit; the exploited can band together to fight back.

            If we abandon unions now, we are abandoning the fight for equality and fairness in the workplace. We are allowing the system to slide inexorably back to the deplorable conditions of the past. Now, we are so far removed from those times that many do not recall the story of my great-grandfather, of many others’ grandfathers who suffered so greatly. Those people do not understand the protection the unions afford; they do not understand the situation to which the workforce could return.

            However, even beyond ensuring that we never return to an age in which the factory or coal-mine owner is the ultimate arbiter, unions serve important functions for today’s workforce. They serve as a second family and support for their members. For example, my uncle was recently diagnosed with cancer and has undergone many intensive treatments of chemotherapy and surgeries. His union supported him above and beyond their call of duty, helping him receive treatment at the best hospitals, supporting his decisions to get a second opinion, standing up for him while he convalesced. Not once did I hear of a problem he had with his work throughout this ordeal; his union’s support allowed him to focus on combating his disease. I cannot say how glad it makes me that he had the freedom to seek treatment without hassle from his workplace, because now he is on the way to recovery.

            Our country is built upon hard work. From the colonists’ landing here, those hundreds of years ago to now, we have cultivated the earth and built cities that touch the sky. We have built a country that is the best and brightest in the world. And it is the workers that make our country so strong. We are the base upon which this country is built. By banding together in unions, we can fight to keep our rights and wages in pace with our changing world and economy, just as the thirteen colonies once banded together to fight for our freedom.

 

Kyle Monette

Our scholarship committee was quite impressed with Kyle Monette's involvement in the community and excellent essay on Lewis Hine. A young activist, Kyle has been raising money for diabetes research and even helped with the introduction of a state bill to aid in the research. He will graduate from Mililani High School in Mililani, Hawaii and plans to attend the University of Hawaii.

Kyle Monette's Essay:

A leader who I admired the most who stood up for working families and labor unions was Lewis Hine.   His photographs were significant in leading to the demise of the power of corporations by exposing inhumane working conditions for women and children and the growth of unions.   Driven by profits and no regard for the health and safety of women and children,  they offered nothing but poor wages, longer working hours, and no educational opportunities.  Because women and children were viewed as a commodity and more manageable, cheaper to use and less likely to strike, employers used them in hazardous industries including mines, glass factories, canneries, textiles, etc.    However, since labor unions were the only organizations defending the rights of women and children, Hine’s photographs help to elevate the importance of labor unions in defending the rights of all skilled and unskilled workers.  His photographs also revealed an abusive and ugly side to corporate America that federal courts could not deny. 

 

 Lewis Hine began his career as a sociological photographer in 1906 for the National Child Labor Committee.  Hine was so moved by the plight of working conditions for women and children in sweatshops that he gave up his teaching career and became an investigative reporter for the National Child Labor Committee.  He often disguised his appearance to gain entry into many factories to photograph children (who took photographs that managers did not want the public to see) operating dangerous machines under little or no supervision.  What he observed and photographed were children under the age of fourteen suffering from tuberculosis, bronchitis, mutilation, and death. Hine’s most haunting photos were in the dark tunnels and grimy breaker rooms of coal mines. He observed two boys under the age of twelve with their hands mutilated. On another investigation, he found two boys were smothered to death while working in a coal chute.  In the glass blowing industry, he found that children had eye trouble, lung ailments and heat exhaustion from the open furnaces that reached temperatures as high as 130 degrees.

 

The power of photography was realized when newspapers and other media began to use photographs of child labor by Lewis Hine from 1908-1912 who expressed his outrage at what he saw as the exploitation of children.

 

One advantage of Hine’s photographs was the ability to offer evidence and authentication. The earlier illustrations and engravings of the nineteenth century were so crudely drawn that it was hard to credit them with much accuracy and trustworthiness. The majority of America believed that child labor wasn’t that big an issue, but the few that saw the problem like Hine were horrified. The use of photographs had a definite impact in altering public perceptions of women and child labor in the twentieth century.  By publishing volumes of photos showing how children were being abused and deprived of an education, he created such a public outcry that politicians took notice. Mary Lynn Stevens commented about Hine’s famous Breaker Boys Photo and stated that the children staring out in magazines presented us with terrible contradictions to what we understood represented the definition of childhood.  These children looked neither happy nor healthy.  For others, these photographs represented a terrible state of affairs that could no longer be ignored in a civilized country like America.

 

When a fire broke out at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York City in 1911, 150 women and children needlessly died as a result of the company’s lack of concern for their safety.  When the fire swept through many of the upper floors of the building, workers were not able to escape or had to jump to their death because the safety exits were locked.  These exits were secured because the company owners wanted to prevent the loss of goods by its workers.   However, it was photographers like Hine who published photos of tragedies like these that aroused the public to take action and unite unions like the Ladies Waist and Dressmakers Union Local 25 and the United Hebrew Trades of New York against corporate America.  

 

As a result of the work of photographers like Hine, more and more Americans saw that the only effective organizations to represent their interests, and safety and challenge big business over these issues were the unions and federations of unions.  When hazardous working conditions were brought to the attention of the government, the interests of big business were represented at the expense of women and children.  When unions asked their membership to strike over such issues as unsafe working conditions, poor wages, longer working days, etc. the federal government supported  big business by sending in troops to break their strikes.  Corporations were notorious in obtaining injunctions from the courts against unions and prevented them from organizing and forcing their workers back to work. 

 

Although there were over 1500 laws limiting or prohibiting women and child labor throughout the states, they often did not apply to immigrants who worked long hours for low wages.    Thus immigrants were the ones who ended up being exploited and living in slums with their families.    Because many of Hine’s photographs were of immigrant women and children, his photographs were also significant in forcing the public to look at these immigrants as individuals rather than as second class citizens.  

 

From an historical perspective in America and worldwide, Hine’s photographs along with union support had a direct impact on laws governing the employment of women and children. Because Hine worked for the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC) which was organized by citizens and politicians, his photos were introduced in Congress to enact the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 which prohibited child labor under the age of 16. However, no age limit was set for non-hazardous agricultural employment. On the international level, the NCLC pushed the International Labor Organization to adopt in 1919 two agreements- to fix the minimum age for admitting children into industrial employment and to prohibit night work for young children in various industries. With the help of the NCLC and the Children’s Bureau, Hine’s photographs and supporters were able to get attendance in schools to improve both nationally and abroad by stressing that working excessive hours caused children to be truant, perform poorly academically and were prepared poorly for survival in a changing economy. Hine’s efforts also helped in the creation of the Child Welfare League in 1921, the National Association of the Education of Young Children in 1926, a separate justice system for juveniles, child protection laws and even the spread of playgrounds in parks and schools.

 

Even in the twenty first century, photographs are still needed today as documents of truth and unions are needed to advocate for the safety and welfare of women and children.  My grandmother left her company after facing considerable ridicule by her superiors for trying to unionize her co-workers.  When members of her nursing department came to her to express their concern that their excessive workloads were jeopardizing the health and safety of their patients, they sought re-dress by seeking the help of unions to curb the abuses of management.   When my father tried to express his concern that health and safety of children under his care were being jeopardized, he faced considerable ridicule by his superiors for speaking out in the media and telling the truth. 

 

It can be said that Hine’s photographs provided authenticity to union claims that working families were being affected by profit and greed of corporate America.  Whereas it was learned that the camera could be manipulated, his photographs served as documents of truth that revealed emotions, and expressions of sadness, sorrow, disdain, perseverance, hope, illness, malnutrition, etc.. among women and children.   With corporations ignoring the consequences of their actions and the federal government abrogating its responsibility to represent the interests of its citizens, it was left to the photographers like Hine and unions to hold corporate executives to account.  Together it was their unified efforts that “exerted the force to right wrongs” and speak as the lone voice of millions of defenseless women and children.

 

Lila Zucker

America needs labor unions like fish need water

America still needs labor unions because workers are still being intimidated,attacked and pushed down by employers and the current economic status of our country. Despite the development of the National Labor Relations Act in 1935 the laws created to protect workers are not strong enough. Our country has labor laws, as does the United Nations, but they are not enforced as well as they should be. Legislation such as the Employee Free Choice Act, which makes it easier for employees to join unions,speeds up the process for creating unions and increases penalties for employers who violate worker's rights, can help to change this. Without decent standards of living and working for employees, the standard of living for all will continue to drop. Labor unions have been an essential part of our country's history, from the inclusive origins of the Industrial Workers of the World(IWW) and the Knights of Labor helping to organize and protect non-white workers to the mobilization of the current labor movement against outsourcing and globalization.

 

America still needs labor unions because the laws designed to protect workers in the workplace do not adequately protect workers. When I worked with the workers at the Three Mile Canyon Dairy in Oregon I saw firsthand how workers are still fired for trying to organize a union at their workplace. The right to collective bargaining is a basic right that no one should be denied. They wanted a union because the dairy where they worked sprayed unsafe chemicals which made the workers sick and because the workers were not given reasonable pay or healthcare. None of these things are unreasonable requests, they are basic things that every worker needs. Their protests of working conditions fell upon the deaf ears of the management. Our country still needs labor unions because when these workers won a contract with the United Farm Workers(UFW) their working conditions improved and workers were no longer fired for talking about unions.

 

There are so many situations when workers are forced to work in conditions which are unsafe, unhealthy and ultimately unfair. Two other campaigns I worked on were the struggle of the employees at the Parry Center for Children in Portland and that of the Providence workers at Providence Hospital. In both of these situations the staffing ratios was so unsafe that the turnover rate at these facilities was sky high. At the Parry Center the staffers who worked there were required to at least have their Masters degrees yet they were paid less then $10 an hour and the staffing ratios to patients was so high that employees felt unsafe among the physically and emotionally unstable patients they cared for. Once again the demands of individual workers was ignored by the management. Because they went through a long struggle to become part of a union they were able to stand together as a strong group and in one voice say they deserved better. Because they were part of a union they could go on strike and stay strong on the picket line until the management gave in to their demands. This is one case of  just how much power a union can have in achieving it's goals and improving the jobs of many people.

 

Labor unions have always been a part of our American history and they represent the American Dream: the ability to have fair access to moving up in life, having the means to take care of your family, and job security.  In addition to these things unions have always helped to provide, they also help to secure good wages and benefits in an economy that is increasingly destructive to the working class. Decreases in wages and in good paying, union jobs with benefits are some of the reasons full time employees cannot provide decent standards of living for their families. Because increasing numbers of jobs are being sent overseas, workers are forced to take lower paying jobs which often do not include healthcare benefits. If wages were at the same rate as they were in 1968, in real money they would be over $10 an hour. But instead they are decreasing; the minimum wage is not a living wage. These are all changes in our economy that have made unions even more important because they are the only means by which workers can protect their livelihoods and families.

 

Union density has dropped,partially because large businesses are now more able to hire union busters who try to break and stop unions. In addition, the number of industry jobs have gone down, and these were historically union jobs. Unions are one way to provide adequately for workers, and organizing union membership can greatly help to raise the number of employees at this standard. The security in benefits, such as health care and overtime as well as decent wages and hours that come with union jobs allow for members to better provide for their families. The wages of union members are 27 percent higher then those of non-union employees. Non-union members who are paid the minimum wage, or even a little bit higher, with few benefits still struggle to make ends meet.

 

Unions are important not only because the make lives better for those within but they also push to make life better for those not yet in unions. As more and more businesses become unionized the other businesses in the sector must also raise their wages and benefits to meet these same standards because these things create fierce competition in the job market. When labor unions offer employees higher wages or benefits they create a competition in which everyone wins because when the workers have better pay and healthcare they will put the money back in to the local economy, thereby helping everyone out. When workers have healthcare that adequately covers them they will get healthcare when they need it and no wrack up huge hospital bills when they are forced to use the emergency room. When workers are paid living wages they will be able to care for their families, put time and money into their local communities and schools. All of these things help out the society as a whole. Although it is possible to have higher wages and good healthcare without a union, a union is the best way to guarantee that these benefits continue.


Although the benefits are an important part of what it means to be part of a union another big issue is the treatment of employees in the workplace. When employees join a union there is a larger force that can speak to the management when various types of harassment occur on the job. Many factors have led to decreased sexual harassment in the workplace, one of which is the formation of unions. Many union contracts include clauses about these issues and make it harder for culprits to go unpunished when such things happen.

 

Through my work with Jobs with Justice I have seen how important unions are to so many people. I have seen how belonging to a union can be a life or death choice when safety is the issue. I have seen how families have suffered during campaigns to form a union and how they feel the the union is so important the sacrifices have been made because they know that in the end, their lives will improve as a result of the union. Because so many workers are willing to risk so much to form a union there must be something right about them. These workers are willing to risk it because being part of a union means power, it means the power to speak so that the management will listen, it means the power to have wages, hours and benefits that work for them; it means the power to do raise up the standards for other workers so that all workers have these same benefits.

Roy Scranton

Roy Scranton's powerful essay on why America still needs labor unions stood out as he argued that our democracy is at stake without the presence of unions. Roy is working toward his BA in Liberal Arts at New York's New School University where he plans to further his education by pursuing a PhD. Originally from Oregon, he has spent the last ten years doing such varied things as protesting the World Trade Organization and serving as an American soldier in the occupation of Iraq.

Roy Scranton's Essay:

America Needs Unions Now

Looking into the 21^st century, we face tremendous challenges across the entire spectrum of human endeavor.  Global warming, resource depletion, international terrorism and nuclear proliferation are just a few of these challenges.  More importantly, our ability to handle these problems, our democratic power as self-determining citizens, has slipped through our fingers—the reins of power have been taken from us by transnational corporations and conglomerates whose only interests are more profits and more power.  They choose who we’re allowed to elect, they decide what issues the media calls relevant, and moreover, they set our wages, hours and conditions of labor.  If we don’t like it, they move our jobs overseas.  As individuals, as Joe Barista and Sally Shelf-stocker, Mike Plumber, Gary Teacher and Jane Accounts Clerk, we have no power.  We simply cannot individually resist the imposition of corporate rule.  Individually, all we can do is vote in the elections and gripe about health care.  Individually, we’re doomed. 

The good news is that we’re not individuals.  We’re not atoms bouncing around some abstract system.  In fact, we are the system.  We’re industry.  We’re transportation.  We’re service.  We’re the people who run the machine, not the CEOs who make 300 times our yearly wages, not the politicians they put up for vote, not the talking heads in the media, and we have tremendous power to determine our economic and political futures, power that can only be tapped through solidarity—in unions.

            Three main issues facing America today, all related to the concerns addressed above, demand stronger unions.  First of all, the American middle class is being squeezed out.  Inequitable and unfair wealth distribution is making the rich richer, the poor poorer, and wiping out the middle class entirely.  This is fundamentally warping the economic shape of the nation and killing the American dream.  The middle class has long been the heart of America, and the American dream is founded on the idea that anyone and everyone can climb into the middle class from whatever lowly origins.  A strong middle class, through economic self-determination, investment, savings and purchasing power, makes for a robust economy.  As well, through having a stake in the system, through education, through a concern for the future and through the leisure time their wealth affords, the middle class make democracy work, forcing it to respond to the needs of the people.  What’s happening now is that the downwardly mobile middle classes find themselves with less time than ever, working more and more, and as days go by they have little energy to devote to democracy, little time to insist on their political and economic rights.  The rapacious and power-hungry take advantage of their distraction and steal a little more, swindle a little more, write another bad law, and suddenly the downwardly mobile find themselves no longer mobile but just plain down.  Through unions, through the political power of solidarity, workers can insist on fair wages, demand better distribution of wealth in and through industry rather than through government, and not only slow the middle class’ disappearance, but bring it back and even make it stronger.     

Second, corporations based in America are behaving today with greater and greater irresponsibility both at home and overseas, destroying our world and ripping off consumers, workers and shareholders all.  Through environmental depredations, violations of workers rights, gross fraud and malfeasance, war-profiteering and gouging consumers, corporations have shown again and again that they cannot behave responsibly without strict oversight.  As consumers, we may urge a boycott of this product or “choose” a competitor, but the fact is we have little power.  In a globalized economy, local action means less and less.  Transnational companies don’t have to worry about the repercussions of their behavior in one town, one state, one country even, because they make enough profits globally to offset local damage, and there’s nothing consumers can do about it.  As workers, however, joined together nationally across a spectrum of service, production, clerical and technology industries, perhaps even joined internationally with other workers in other nations, we have tremendous, titanic power.  Through union bargaining, strikes, general strikes and political work the power of unions can hold corporations accountable, ensure laws are enforced, and counteract the baleful influence of corporate PAC money.    

Lastly, American democracy is dying.  Our republican values are eroding every day as we become more and more disenfranchised and estranged from our government.  In spite of the rhetoric declaring recent Democratic Party victories to express the voice of the people, American politics has for most Americans long ago descended to the level of pure spectacle, barely even news, with a vote once ever four years (if even that) forming the only meaningful method of participation.  Thoughtful and intelligent young people get their politics from a comedy show, while working families are preyed upon by fear-mongers spreading vitriol, hate, and snake-oil, and behind it all, our leaders and representatives lie, cheat and steal with the most flagrant disrespect for any kind of civic duty or statesmanship, much less public decency and integrity.  A democracy, it is said, gets the government it deserves.  Yet people want something better.  People want to do more.  Many voices are clamoring to be heard.  Blocked from public discourse, prevented even from organizing their labor, public struggle spills into the blogosphere, onto private web-pages, into ad-hoc protests and general malaise, but frustrated anger can only build so long before it sours to bitter cynicism—or explodes.  Through unions, through working together as economic and political agents, we can revitalize American democracy and save the dream of our promise from fading into distant memory.   

What is at stake is the very future of the nation, at home and abroad.  Will America become once again a proud republic, ruled by a free, middle class citizenry, of, by and for the people, or will America continue the path it now treads, into Empire, economic tyranny and disaffection, into a police state populated by prisoners of consumption, concerned only with their own comfort and entertainment?  We must affirm our identity as workers, as American workers, and band together against the plutocrats who have commandeered our lives and very dreams.  Only in solidarity—in unions—do working families have the economic and political power to ensure their rights.  The power we gain in solidarity, in stronger unions and more unions, would help preserve the middle class, hold corporations accountable and save democracy.  Without strong action in economic and political solidarity, all we have to look forward to is the further erosion of our rights, loss of national pride, economic instability and the abandonment of our democratic traditions.  Now more than ever we must rise up and protect what’s ours.  America needs unions now.

 

Sarah Brown

Sarah's Essay:

Why America Still Needs Labor Unions

 

My dad’s union helped save my life, and more. Unions can do the same for others, and that is why America still needs labor unions.

 

I am a ballet dancer. In May, 2001 when I was eleven, I developed pain in my knee. My mother took me to the doctor. After examination, the conclusion was that my pain was related to the dance practice, or from simply growing too fast. I danced all summer in an intensive dance school program.

 

Three months later, in August, my family and I were traveling to Chicago when the pain turned into a huge molten swelling, so bad I couldn’t walk or bare the pain in any position. Upon arrival, my mother took me to the emergency room of a Chicago hospital, where the in initial diagnosis was bone cancer. An MRI the next day revealed the equally life-threatening bone infection, osteomyelitis. I had the finest pediatric orthopedic surgeon as my doctor, who drained the bone.

 

I was in Chicago Children’s Hospital for six days, where the best pediatric infectious disease specialist prepared a plan to combat the infection. A PIC line was inserted to my heart for intravenous antibiotics. I was given these for six weeks. After I went home, I took oral antibiotics for six months. Recently I had another MRI for a dance related injury which revealed that the bone was completely healed – the doctor said he could not even see where the bone had been cut away to let the infection drain. Throughout this whole painful and frightening ordeal, we never worried about money to pay for my treatment; we were able to focus all of our attention on my recovery from a life-threatening disease.

In 2000, my dad’s union negotiated an agreement with his employer to allow the union to establish its own health benefits trust. My dad was elected the first chair of the Trust Board, and continues as Trust Board chair to the present.

According to my dad, his union Health Trust has been able to deliver more benefits, at better prices, to the union’s members and families, than the employer had been able to do previously. And, as indicated, the Health Trust has also been a big benefit to me personally.
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I also have asthma. I appreciate the ability of the Health Trust to help provide medicine to help me maintain my condition at a reasonable cost to my parents.
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America’s unions are working to do more to provide health care benefits for their members. For over 15 months, many unions supported the independent, nonpartisan Citizens’ Health Care Working Group which held public meetings throughout the United States about the health care system and how Americans want it changed. Based on the comments, the Citizens’ Working Group sent recommendations to the Congress and the President on September 29, 2006.

 

This is a time of crisis for our nation’s health care system. According to the Health Care Working Group’s report, the United States spends nearly two trillion dollars on health each year. The Group developed recommendations which included: 1. Establish public policy that all Americans have affordable health care; 2. Guarantee financial protection against very high health care costs; 3. Foster innovative integrated community health networks; 4. Define core benefits and services for all Americans; 5. Promote efforts to improve quality of care and efficiency; and, 6. Fundamentally restructure the way end-of-life services are financed and provided.

Health care costs are rising faster than union members’ pay, and the issue of health coverage has been the most important issue in nearly every contract union Locals have bargained all over the country in recent years. As suggested in the Working Group’s report, health care costs are continuing to rise much faster than the members’ ability to pay for those costs. The result has been that union members are being denied wage increases just to keep their health benefits.

America’s unions are working to help achieve health care reform in America. Although most people can get health benefits at work, not every employer provides an affordable health care plan.  America’s unions are supporting candidates and elected officials who are taking the lead on health care reform and who are trying to stop cost shifting to governments and to working people.

Because of my dad’s involvement with his union, I have seen first-hand how much unions have invested on behalf of its members. Twice my dad was elected as a delegate to a national political convention. Both times his union paid my dad’s expenses to attend. During the second convention, I was able to obtain a guest pass and go into the convention hall with him. I observed first-hand the convention speeches and floor debate as well as convention voting. I then wrote an article about the convention, which was published in my home-town newspaper.
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Unions have taken the lead in negotiating wages, hours and working conditions for public employees in my home state. Unions are able to help protect my dad and his coworkers from arbitrary actions by administration officials. Unions are also able to provide good advice and help its members avoid unreasonable consequences of decisions made during the course of changes in administrations.

In summary, I know from personal experience that unions are able to help keep access to good health care benefits and maintain a reasonable standard of living. Unions are able to offer families wonderful opportunities to develop leadership skills, and to learn about our country and its leaders. In some respects, America’s unions can provide the same opportunities for all union members.

America’s unions have consistently showed strength and determination to improve the lives their members and of all Americans. America’s union members should be proud of the fact that they are part of a national movement that is leading the fight for health care reform and for equal opportunities for all our nation’s citizens.