The Weekend: Brought to You By Organized Labor. And Don't Ever Forget It

I spent the better part of Monday reading sad and disconnected observations about organized labor and the role the union played in the Mercury Marine decision to look at its bottom line and only its bottom line.

It is hard to believe that so many Americans forget the changes brought to the workplace by unions that benefited all Americans. Workers, white and blue collar alike, are no longer expected to work 10 or 12 hours a day six of seven days a week, more of us than not have health insurance, we have paid vacations, we have benefits and protections if injured on the job.

See Mark Roesler-Begalke: Teach the history of U.S. labor movement in the La Crosse Tribune.

We live in communities with a higher standard of living, which means less poverty and less crime. Our children can do better than what we did.

Children go to school, not to the factories at age eight. Parents get a leave when a baby is born.

There are other benefits that go beyond the obvious.

When a union contract provides a wage increase, everyone in the community benefits. It raises everyones' standard of living.

Taxes are lower in Oklahoma and there are virtually no unions. Perhaps the executives from Mercury Marine can find private schools for their children - we all know that every child does better in class when sitting next to a student from a wealthier family.

Perhaps Oklahoma's less skilled workforce is all that Mercury Marine needs.

I read comments like these yesterday:

• After Mercury manufacturing ...The best way to “preserve jobs” and “protect the economic interest of this community” would have been to vote for the contract changes. A job, after all, at less pay is better than no job at all.
• Union re votes...Sort Of...Then the union said they couldn’t re-vote on the same proposal.  Then they said that they wanted to reopen negotiation...The union leadership seems to be utterly incompetent.

• The Irony of the Union's Decision...The union has brushed aside the members of Fond du lac in favor of members elsewhere because the amount they would get from the local Merc employees is less than that where current negotiations are currently progressing.

If every union submitted to the threats of plant closings and drastic wages cuts, organized labor might as well close up today and burn their contracts. There are going to be tragedies like what happened in Fon du Lac but if every union capitulated under such threats you can kiss the minimum wage good bye because south of $6 an hour is where we are headed to maintain competition with overseas workforces.

This is all about international markets and competition. It is a race to the bottom and it must be stopped.

The union is run by its members. It is not run by the bargaining committed or the officers. Those leaders are selected by an election process by union members or are appointed by those elected.

No one is going to get hurt by this more than the union members at Mercury Marine. They took a courageous and principled stand.

They weighed the outcomes and frankly came to the correct decision. If they had accepted the company offer, all they bought was a few years. There were no guarantees that this was not just a stop-gap measure by Merc until the expiration of the contract and then Merc would move.

Wisconsin needs an economic plan. Last month Tom Hefty and John Torinous had some important things to say. 

An economic plan for this state will not work if it is developed with only a corporate perspective. Labor must share in its development as a full partner.

I will write more about this in the coming weeks.

Comments

[anonymous]

I've never been a union employee but I agree with your post. This was a State competition and the employees got the ultimatum.

Our low paid high tax State is getting worse because of these things. The State must put together a department of competent people for the only purpose of saving and creating jobs. If that isn't in the State interest I do not know what is.

[Aaron Rodriguez]

So what you're saying is that it was the correct decision to lose their jobs. Brilliant.

[Belleville]

There was a time and a place when unions served the US well and progress at all levels was unheralded. Those days will never be in America again. The US has shielded itself for decades from global competition. The reality is that the US is no longer the economic super power and can not protect its workforce organized or not. Our largest fortune 500 are owned by foreign invetors who demand returns. Wisconsin, the historical labor state will feel the brunt of this worse than most. So we don't negate unions and continue to acknowledge their dwindling existence. There will be a time as GM now sits, when one(1) Wisconsin state employee will be supporting four(4) retirees. When that happens, in large part to the warmth and generosity of vote getters, most should and probably will, leave.

[Chuck]

We owe our weekends to unions like we owe our lives to the knights who protect us from barbarians. Sure, they're the historical reason for a thing, but that doesn't make them relevant in a current context. Protecting us from cheap international labor, vote-getting as it may sound, is a long term bad idea in just about every way imaginable. Want to save rain forests/protect the environment/stop overpopulation/improve third world health care and education? Kill the unions and export our jobs to there; eventually things will balance out enough that the places that are currently cheap labor sources will develop reasonable standards of living, which is the only practical way that those goals can be accomplished.

Sucks for us, but that's life.

[anonymous]

Mercury is the world leader in their industry so this was not a matter of world competition. This was a state competition we lost. While everyone is pointed fingers at the union Mercury is slipping out the back door while our politicians are hiding in the closet.

Let's stop being stupid and get with the program.

[anonymous by request]

I've never been a union man. I have had the good fortune to work in sales and management. One question I have not seen asked or answered in all the back and forth about union wages vs company profits: who does Brunswick hope to sell their products to? I cannot imagine how a $13 per hour worker could possibly afford to buy a Mercury outboard. Henry Ford blew up the wage scale in 1914 by doubling his worker's minimum wage to the unheard of sum of $5 per hour. Ford knew that it was in his interest that his workers be able to afford to buy the cars they built. I think what Brunswick did will come back to bite them, and sooner, rather than later.

[Peter]

Unions have no place in America anymore; they served their purpose 50 years ago but now are the root of all evil when it comes to destroying jobs and forcing them out of WI and the USA.

[Mike Thompson]

You chastised Mercury Marine for looking at their bottom line, and only their bottom line---

I just don't know what to say to you. They HAVE to look at their bottom line. If you do not pay attention to that, you will be gone.

While there are probably lots of legitimate things to criticize managment for, this is not one of them and you are pretty lazy for making such weak sloppily thought out arguements to support you viewpoint.

[anonymous]

The real problem is that people are not bowling enough and Brunswick is Hurting. Does anyone know if they still have a plant in Antigo?

[John Hyland]

And I suppose you'll tell us that it was not the unions fault for the car bankruptcies or when Auto-Light left LaCrosse when they were the largest employer and had a three block long and block wide plant shut down over night. Hundreds of employees wanted more. And that was it.

[R.J.]

I hope they enjoy their 7 day weekends.

[R.J.]

The unions want to conjure images of 12 year-olds working 16-hour days in a sweatshop.
The managers want to conjure images of union employees sleeping at the switch 3 hours a day and pulling down $25/hr to complain and pretend to look over-worked.
Both sides always over-play their hand, but this time the business interests have a trump card...Right-to-Work states.
Mercury Marine doesn't want to be the next GM, sucked dry by the unions.
Why don't we blame the DNR for making every boating excursion feel like we're trespassing? Why don't we blame NINJA loans for sinking our economy? If you don't sell motors, you don't make money. That's the bottom line.