The American Dream

Unions...
Who Needs Them?
What�s Up With Them?
Where is My American Dream?

Did you know that Union workers make 27% to 54% more than their non-union counter parts?

And did you know that you could still form a Union in spite of today's employer tactics?

Did you know that if your entire work force signed Union Authorization Cards to be represented and hung together for six (6) weeks, you would have formed your union?

The need for Unions goes as far back as biblical times and all the way up to present day. (For in-depth history on Unions, click here.) In fact, today there maybe even more reason for Unions with people losing their pensions, health care and real wages for many are actually equal to wages of 1968.

Where has the American Dream gone? Perhaps it has gone with the decline in Union membership. If you will look back at the 1950's and 60's, or if you are too young to look back, just watch the old television episodes of "Leave It To Beaver", "The Donna Reed Show", "My Three Sons", all the shows of the era and notice the American Dream was the house with the white picket fence, 2 car garages in a nice neighborhood with 2.5 children (not sure where you get the .5 child) but that was the Dream. But today, we find ourselves in a downward spiral competing with "who can work for less", no pension (only 401K plans) that few can afford to contribute to. Health Care benefits, what a joke! Soon to be something only the rich can afford.

Yes, the American Dream is stuck in your television set, with those old shows during a time when Union membership was 35% of the work force or, in other words, more than one (1) out of every three (3) workers belonged to a union (compared to today-13% or one (1) out of every ten (10) workers). Unions set a standard in every industry, giving workers a real wage, health care and pensions. Back in the heydays of Union membership, even management benefited from Unions because they would essentially receive what their Union workers received. Everyone flourished and everyone spent.

Back then, people spent money on the "American Dream", new house, new car every 2 years, latest in appliances. All that spending kept the lumberjacks working, the carpenters working, the electricians working, the meat cutters working and the auto industry flourished. WOW!! What a country! The economy was never stronger and all because people had a living standard set by the workers. The standard was the Union standard, and the Union contract. You see, a good economy comes from the bottom up, not the top down (trickle down). The people on top keep their money and the people on the bottom spend and keep us all going. The Union movement brought working people into the middle class and that�s where they stayed, until now.

Now, the middle class is dwindling and we are faced with the working poor of America. We have a wider and wider split between the Haves and the Have-Nots! This is a direct effect of workers failing to take back what is rightfully theirs, a fair share.

According to the May 31, 2004 Business Week Magazine, 63% of US families who are below the poverty line have one or more workers trying to make ends meet and they are not just minorities, nearly 60% are white. Education used to bring workers into the �middle� class, but among these working poor, you will find the majority possess high school diplomas and even some college and there is still no advancement.

Without Union support for this fastest growing group of workers, a boss pressured to increase profits can slash hours, force employees to work off the clock and as they get close to qualifying for benefits, may see their schedule cut back.

The talk of economic recovery and the current brisk growth has not hit the average workers as Business Week states in their article, "Many of today's economic gains are flowing to profits and efficiency improvements." Again, the workers on the bottom are working harder and earning less. American workers are the hardest workers with the highest productivity of any industrial nation.

President John F. Kennedy once said, "Any free nation that can not help the many who are poor cannot save the few who are rich." I think history shows clearly that premise.

How can this free nation help Americans rise above their present plight? Well, ideally the Government could give workers real rights and protection to join Unions. But we live in a country and a political time that believes in business profits over a living wage for workers with health care and pension benefits. This is sad and it is true. How else would America have the highest child poverty rate among industrialized countries? Seeing that we cannot count on our Government to level the playing field, then we must take it ourselves.

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