Follow up article to Nona's "In Labor" article on the situation of American employees vs. the employer. Read that first.

By

Carolyn D.

Outed Unions?

Nona Polichick’s latest exposé is impressive, as always:

“Today, while unions still exist, their heyday of power appears to be, for the most part, over.”

That was quite a statement to make as New York City was being held hostage by the very unions that she is calling you all to join and bear arms (oops, “down with NRA”…arm yourselves with, uh, celery stalks?) A better approach would be to create jobs and keep the government and unions as small as possible. What if big business was to hold the unions hostage the way the union held NYC in 24-degree weather at Christmas/Hanukkah when they hurt families and merchants alike?

Define irony: During the last transit strike, in 1980, white-collar workers were hurt in the back pocket as much as everyone else. These days, all of their work and shopping can be done on home computers. You know who the unions are hurting? The democrats. Huh, democrats hurting democrats, but that is another story all together.

Perhaps someone should do what Reagan did when the air traffic controllers threatened to strike. He said, "get your ass in there or the MTA will be free to hire people who will.” Reagan came off looking “tough and smart” as Nona put it because he had the balls to do his job. Indeed, shame on Reagan for upholding the law. Tsk-tsk. Or did they do away with union strikes being illegal when I was teeing off on the back nine at Augusta? Ah well… “FORE!”

Again Nona: “Never mind that this mode of economic distribution had led to a disastrous economic depression fifty years earlier.”

I do not understand. How can you compare the post World War I era to Reagan coming into office in 1981? The circumstances were completely different. Fifty years prior, consumers stopped buying but the young industries did not stop producing. Reagan inherited high inflation and unemployment rates which were due in great part to the oil shock of the 1970's, not the Great War or the infant country coming to terms with industrialization. True, one of the key components to Reaganomics is smaller government and supply side economics, but with history in his back pocket he lowered inflation and unemployment. True too is that Reagan, in all his glory, did not see the employment rates that Democratic presidents enjoyed, but the jobs which were created in that time were stronger. Recent statistics have been inflated by the boom in part-time jobs which people have two or three of, while still unable to make rent. But I have gotten off track… of course the older generation was against it... this was the biggest break from Keynesian economics ever. Don’t you know… old people know more than young people because the youngsters are little smart-asses whose pants are too baggy and music is too loud?

The other day my young niece and her teamsters were fortifying a clubhouse from the icky-poo boys down the street. They were filling balloons with water in an attempt to drop them on the unassuming foul smelling males. My Mom said to her, “girl, when I was your age we would climb that magnolia tree outside my bedroom window and throw the magnolia pods like grenades at the unsuspecting usurpers. That is the way you do it.” She rolled her eyes at her grandmother. “Well ‘girl’, we don’t have magnolia trees here ‘cause we’re in New Hampshire. And what the fuck is an usurper?” (Smartass little do-gooder she is.)

“The Auto Workers’ Union fell out of favor when it was implied that they’d fucked their own members… driving up the cost of product to a point that nobody was buying American anymore. GM, squeezed by competition from Japanese auto companies that opened nonunion plants in the States…”

Again, I don’t get it. You seemed to disprove your point. Wasn’t it just plain old competition that drove the consumers to cheaper, better made cars? America did seem to have their monopoly on that trade for a while…perhaps they just pissed away their own good fortune by getting greedy with the rest of us. Politicians started to shy away from the unions because they had (under Jimmy Carter especially) created a monster, and they knew it. One man alone is greedy. Put a bunch of people together… you’ve got yourself a union.

Yaawwwnnn… you know what? I’m feeling rather unappreciated at work today. I am a slave to The Man, you see, who owns me right when I step foot in the door. Never mind that I have a nicer car than I need, never mind that I just had to have those new Paper jeans that cost $175 (they look fabulous with my new dolce halter… to die for). Oh sorry,

Never mind that I am in debt up to my eyeballs. Hmmm… it almost seems as if I could possibly be held accountable for my actions in this life.

Unions had their place in time. You draw many important correlations to Teddy’s America (oh to be in that place). But we are not, and we cannot be held hostage by the seemingly omnipotent unions, their shyster lawyers, and the politicians that pander to them both. In the day… unions were created to protect the worker. Teacher unions. Perhaps I should start an Air Force union… forget this public service bullshit. Where is my fucking health-care?

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