There's been a lot of talk lately about how unions and governments are destroying the economy, and salvation can only come from emasculating government and killing the unions. The free market and corporate America will then be free to ride in on their respective white horses and save us. These folks have it exactly backwards.
Consider, for example the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of March 25, 1911, when 146 workers died. They were locked in the building by their heroic employer. The fire led to legislation improving safety standards, and helped fuel the growth of the I.L.G.W.
The National Labor Union lobbied Congress for an 8 hour workday beginning August 20, 1866. Over the next 80 years, unions worked and fought to obtain it. Governments passed laws requiring it. In 1938 The Fair Labor Standards Act was passed, which established the minimum wage and other improvements for workers. The business class, those arbiters of all things economic, opposed the minimum wage, using the same arguments they still use every time Congress debates an increase.
The difficulty with this free market fantasy? The mighty steed on which the intrepid corporation rides is, in fact, a one-trick pony. Profits matter. Employees don't. Workers are just another cost of doing business, an expense to be trimmed at every oportunity, whether by outsourcing jobs or importing illegal immigrants, ignoring Federal law or busting unions.
Sources:http://www.minimum-wage.org/history.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fire
http://www.unc.edu/~andrewsr/ints092/sweat.html
http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/recon/jb_recon_workday_1.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight-hour_day#United_States
No comments:
Post a Comment