18. LABOR UNIONS: We are constantly told now, that the Labor Unions
are an evil institution.
However I remember life before the Auto Unions came to power in the 1930’s, when you could be fired for any reason, like needing to use the rest-room, wanting time to eat lunch, worked for 25 cents an hour, for 12, or more hours a day, 6-7 days a week.
Before the Unions, there
were NO benefits, NO security, and NO pay for overtime,
and NO health concerns for the employees. They didn’t call the Big
Business owners “Robber Barons” for nothing.
In 1938 Employee Benefits became a Federal Law, Limiting,
“hours at straight time”, what hours for overtime, how much an employee could
be forced to lift. Before then, there was “no” concern for employee safety. If you got
injured or killed on the job, so what!
There were many unemployed
waiting at the company entrance ready to take your job.
YES: This is a degree of
Socialism, but necessary to ensure the safety of employees in the job market.
Only
when employees finally had Union backing did the employment scene
change.
We now have OSHA to
establish work place safety. Shall we “stop” protecting the American worker?
Even now “only” “Hourly Paid” employees
are covered for a lot of employment protections.
The Unions, and citizens
finally forced employers to protect the employee.
While the Unions have their good points, now they are Wining and
Dining the illegal aliens who are afraid to demand wages and benefits, I will
insist that all union members be legal American citizens, and that the unions
must have open books for the finances operating the unions. They have avoided
all open book policies for the last 70 years, and of course that has given them
a bad name for a reason, a little cooking the books.
It is time that employees know exactly how much the union takes
in from their dues, how much the union pays the officers of the union, what
loans the unions make with the members dues.
The members must have the
right to elect or throw out of office any union leader whom they don’t like for
any reason. Unions must be a democratic operation, run by the members.
Not a “You are not going to
work unless you pay the union dues”, sort of a protection racket.
Citizens must have the right
to work in any Union member company, and joining the Union must be a voluntary
decision. NO closed shops allowed. Non-Union workers
will join the union if they see a financial improvement if they join.
Now we have American companies leaving
America to hire employees, again not covered by any protection. Companies move
to Mexico, and Asian countries where there are no environmental laws on
pollution. No Unions to control worker safety, or to control worker pay
scales. Then they re-import these products to sell to Americans, Sunbeam, Black
and Decker, Price-Pfister (use to be in San Fernando, CA laid off 900
Americans, and moved to Tijuana, Mexico, as did another company in Northridge,
Ca Standard Wheel, who also laid off about 900 Americans), and most of our auto
repair parts, electronic devices, tools, and furniture products are imported.
How dare workers demand pay, and safe working conditions in America,
manufactures can just move to a country that doesn’t demand safety, or
environmental controls.
Time after time, researchers have found children as young as
12 working in these foreign factories. No laws to prevent this out of America.
Then they complain about young children being used for prostitutes in these
countries, great outrage over that, but not about the children in the
labor-pool force-hired to make your tennis shoes “Nike”.
The so called American Auto manufactures now get up to 80% of
their items from foreign countries that are assembled “as” “American Made”
cars. Thousand of factories closed in Detroit that use to make American parts
for American cars. Hundreds of thousands in the Auto industry out of work, to
help Mexico’s economy.
We must bring manufacturing back to America. “You” need jobs, other than working for
fast food restaurants, and other service type jobs. I know, there are many jobs
in America, not all is lost yet, but it’s slowly getting there and I am afraid
it is going to get a lot worse, because this does dribble down to every
industry as this continues. Lets return to prosperity, not surrender to
poverty.
Out-sourcing must also stop, jobs for “Americans in America”. We have “employee rights” for a purpose, to
protect the worker, to protect children employed in hazardous conditions in
America.