Matthew McGorrin will be attending George Washington University in the fall.

For the past few decades, union membership has seen significant drops in the overall percentage of organized workers. Discuss ways to stop this trend and revitalize union organizing in America.

     Few ever strive to sell their soul, to do so would be to surrender one’s highest human qualities. Ironically, this logic seldom prevents us from buying the soul of a fellow human. We buy these souls in product form…cool new Nikes, cheap DVD players, comfortable jeans …each purchase representing a worker’s lost freedom and forgotten dignity. What do these soulless individuals receive in return? Insecure employment, nothing more.

      What can be done? Unions have fallen out of vogue in the United States, often seen as complacent, even corrupt, institutions. How, then, can we reconcile a decline in union membership with a rise in worker exploitation and poverty? These occurrences cannot be reconciled, they are correlated. The erosion of a unionized workforce has been the product of fear-based consumerism, greed, and ignorance.

     It’s 6:00 P.M., traffic is out of control, and dinner needs to be made. But first, groceries must be bought. Hurriedly scoping the aisles of a large, sterile, warehouse-esque shopping outlet, everything is…well, cheap. Having purchased several respectable dinner options, it’s back to the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Wait. How was this store able to under-price everyone else? The answer is sobering: none of the workers at, let’s call it Mal-Mart, are unionized. As a result, a company like Mal-Mart can take its significant savings (money that should have been used to give its employees a living wage) and pass them on to the consumer! This directly fuels “fear-based consumerism.” In other words, afflicted workers, afraid of losing their money, will buy only the cheapest products. Consequently, these mistreated workers can only feed themselves and their families by giving business to companies that subject their workers to similar mistreatment. After a disgusting cycle of underpayment and low-price hunting, Mal-Mart comes out on top…unionized competitors have lost a large piece of the market to their non-union counterparts.

     Where does this leave us? Despite the alleged existence of the “free market,” this scenario suggests something more along the lines of a “servile market.” The only remedy for this damning phenomenon is a conscious effort on behalf of the consuming masses to buy union-made/sold goods. Once this has happened, perhaps our friends at Mal-Mart (and similar companies) would be more inclined to support a pro-union agenda, and perhaps existing union-friendly businesses would have a fighting chance.

     Of course, the de-unionization of the American workforce cannot be seen as accidental. The management of concerned companies has an invested interest in the decay of unions. After all, unions defend the best interests of the workforce, demanding wage increases that might prevent obscenely affluent executives from padding their bank accounts with even more money each fiscal quarter. The subterfuge employed against unions is multifaceted: subversive legislation (Free trade agreements), management-led deterrents to union membership, and other means of preventing progressive labor policy.

     In fact, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA, implemented on January 1, 1994) has been an incessant obstacle to the pursuit of fair-employment and solidarity for American workers. In an economically foolish move, the governments of Canada, Mexico, and the United States decided to eliminate tariffs on goods traded between one another. This agreement ultimately encourages a reallocation of domestic capital and materials (with respect to manufacturing, for example) to Mexico. The cheaper labor in Mexican factories allows for consistently greater profit without blow-back from penalizing tariffs. Adding insult to injury, NAFTA predominantly victimizes unionized labor, cannibalizing organized sectors (manufacturing, agriculture, etc.). If NAFTA has so many prominent set-backs, why has it prevailed? One reason: Greed. White-collar industrialists have made exorbitant amounts of money due to NAFTA. With access to penalty-free substandard foreign labor, American companies have saved vast sums on union-mandated services and payments while providing consumers the same basic goods. NAFTA has been so profitable that American politicians ushered in the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) in 2006. However lucrative these agreements might

seem, they are first and foremost predatory; precious union jobs disappear as wealthy entrepreneurs consolidate superfluous profits.

     Next, a plethora of currently non-organized sectors have been antagonistic towards pro-union workers. The result has been a steady decrease in pro-union sentiment among workers that, in order to support their families, depend upon their current, albeit unfortunate, employment. Too few workers are willing to risk joblessness in order to challenge an established injustice. Therefore, vicious litigation must be thrown at companies guilty of firing (or intimidating) employees for expressing interest in unionization. This could include entirely dismantling “right to work laws” in each of the twenty-two states in which they exist. These are insidious laws preventing unions from mandating union-membership for all employees in a certain place of business. “Right to work laws”, sadly, act to diminish a union’s power when bargaining for better wages or benefits.

     A line must be drawn between what is right and what is profitable. Perhaps the existence of a non-union economy allows for the greatest possible wealth amongst those at the top, but it also provides for the greatest possible poverty for everyone else.

Surely this greed must be the exception rather than the rule, right? Unfortunately, it is the rule. Let’s take a recent imposition by Qwest, a large communications company, for instance. Management at Qwest gave “urine bags” to its field-workers in order to cut down on time wasted by workers looking for public restrooms. (For more, see “Union: Workers Told to Use Urine Bags” AP). Luckily, union officials nipped this affront to basic humanity in the bud. Yet, companies are able to commit greater and greater outrages in sectors without a prominent union presence. The only way to pull corporate interests in line with those of workers is to support companies that embody ideal behavior. So, instead of allowing companies to persecute and humiliate their employees, change the system with buying power. If a company seems to be avowedly anti-union, support their pro-union competitors. By including friends and like-minded individuals, a desirable change can be attained quickly.

     What if grass-roots protest and economic rebellion is ineffective? Political action never fails in the United States of America. By vocalizing pro-union affiliations and a desire to see systematized anti-labor movements such as NAFTA/CAFTA abolished, politicians will ultimately serve their unsettled public. Presidential candidates without a committed pro-labor stance should be avoided like the plague; meanwhile those that support worker solidarity should be given ardent support.
 

     In an age where perhaps 1 % of teenagers recognize the name “Cesar Chavez”, while 99.9 % recognize the name “Brittney Spears”, the realization that unionized labor will prosper or fail due to popular support can be frightening. Indeed, the decline in union membership over the last several decades has been symptomatic of an increasingly ignorant American public. Removed from pivotal economic situations such as the “Great Depression”, perhaps the standard worker has forgotten why unions are necessary. Instead of perceiving solidarity as a means of ensuring valuable employment for years to come, solidarity might be nothing more than a synonym for “paying dues with no benefit.” Needless to say, union membership has never been as important as it is now. In the wealthiest nation on earth, no one should be forced to choose between unfair wages and unemployment. Therefore, it is the responsibility of every capable citizen to promote union membership, solidarity, and fair labor policy throughout his or her community. Companies that haven’t been unionized should be introduced to pro-union literature. Only through massive publicity can the future of unionized labor be guaranteed. To reiterate, public sponsorship of pro-union politicians is essential to the longevity of organized labor, but smaller operations could also promote a desired result. Bake sales, carnivals, and/or information nights for curious, non-union, workers could act to eradicate misconceptions and doubt. As an individual, even contacting local newspapers or radio stations about labor concerns could enliven new segments of the community that had been previously disinterested in unionization.

 

     It is time to face the facts, the state of organized labor in the United States will change only through our efforts, and we can’t afford to wait. This isn’t a matter of triviality, the livelihood…nay, lives, of millions of Americans hang in the balance.