Thoughts on Labor Day

I worked for the Illinois Department of Corrections for 20 years and 9 months. The entire time I worked there I was a member of AFSCME Local 1274. It was not always a relationship of love. There were times the Union did things I felt were wrong. There were times I felt they protected employees who should have been disciplined or fired for actions they took. Even with those issues I was always thankful for the overall fairness and stability the Union brought to the workplace.

All too often now you see unions under attack. Workers left to fight giant corporations on their own. No one there to back them up. We need to take a moment today and thank unions for some of the things we now take for granted. The 40 hour work week. Weekends off. Paid holidays. Paid vacation time. Sick time. The abolition of child labor. There is still so much to do. Equal pay for women tops the list. It is a subject that has caused me some pain. When I was promoted from counselor to casework supervisor I went from one union position to another. The casework supervisor position had just been unionized and had a pay scale set. The other casework supervisor (Karen) was female and had worked several years in the position as a non union employee. Pay raises were set in the union positions based on your rate of pay prior to unionization. Karen, in a non union position made less money than me. Keep in mind at the time I was one of her subordinates. It also was not a seniority issue as Karen had more time in than I did. Non union pay raises were given at the discretion of the Warden and he had a pool of funds to spread among the eligible employees. Sometimes a very limited amount of money. The union pay raises were generally higher than those for non union workers. So when Karen and I were slotted into the Union negotiated pay scale I was a pay grade above her. She had years of experience in the position and I was new to that job. The pay grade difference remained the same until we both reached the top of the pay scale several years later. It was wrong. Karen should have earned more than I did. The problem wasn't with the pay scale agreed to by the Union and management. It was the system suffered through by non union employees that had supervisory staff being paid less than the workers they supervised. Over the years that I worked at the prison I had several opportunities for promotion. Every time I looked at the pros and cons the thing that kept me where I was had everything to do with the stability and protection of being in a union. There are those who feel job titles are important. My position was always that no one at the grocery store cared about your job title they just wanted you to be able to pay for the items you brought to the checkout lane. I didn't care what job title I had I was concerned with what the job paid. Women and men should be paid equally for the same job.

I want to close with a brief statement about income inequality. We were sold a bill of goods about trickle down economics back in the Reagan years. My feeling is this. If you pay one person one million dollars is he going to spend that entire million dollars? I think not. If you pay 10 people one hundred thousand dollars are they likely to spend that? Maybe, and surely more likely than one person spending a million. If you pay 20 people fifty thousand dollars is it likely the money will be spent and put back into the economy? Probably. Way more likely than the first two choices. Finally pay 40 people twenty five thousand dollars and what will happen? It would seem a certainty that money would be spent and returned to the economy. Jobs would be created because consumers would be buying goods and services. The problem with money being concentrated at the top with the so called "job creators" is that they are not creating jobs or the jobs are being created in foreign countries where labor is cheaper. The truth is simple. When jobs are created here, money is earned here, and spent here. It creates more jobs and ultimately more profits for those businesses. It is however a long term investment and right now the folks with money are focused on short term returns.

Enjoy your day off thanks to American unions and think about the changes that need to be made to bring jobs back to America. When you shop look for two things on the label. Made in America and a union label.