The Middle Class Has The Koch Flu

When unions catch a cold the middle class catches the flu, and right now the middle class is on life support.  Unions have been in the cross hairs of the Republican Party for over three decades but lately they have made serious ground, convincing hard working Americans who would benefit the most from union membership, that unions are the reason the economy, is struggling. The carefully crafted, but patently false, P.R. campaign would have you believe it’s the pensions and health care costs that are dragging us all down.  It couldn’t possibly be the enormous compensation packages that are commonplace amongst CEOs at every level of business. How about NAFTA?  Need to raise profits?  The answer is simple; cut labor costs.  The game plan is always the same.  Step one; crush unions, step two; crush unions. In the event that step one and two fail, step three; outsource the labor.  

 These strategies have succeeded in accomplishing one major achievement;   an income gap that is larger than anytime in modern history. That is a fact supported by a variety of accepted data.  As union membership has gone down the income gap between business owners and the people that work for them has grown to unsustainable proportions.   As middle class Americans we need to ask ourselves one question; who benefits from the destruction of unions?  The first time I ever considered that question I was around 10 years old.  My father was an Air Traffic Controller during the 80’s.For those of you that don’t remember how Reagan handled that, let me say it changed my family’s financial path forever, and not for the better.  I was too young to understand the political ramifications of the battle that had taken place at the time, but I was old enough to understand the practical ramifications. My father lost his family health care, my mother got sick, and eventually my father lost the house that I had grown up in with my 2 brothers and my little sister.  Thank you Mr. Reagan, but at least you tore down that wall.

  The next time that question would affect my life came in my 20s when I made the decision to join the International Brotherhood of Ironworkers, leaving the non union company I was working for at the time.  It didn’t take me long to figure out that I had made the right choice.  Within a year, I was able to qualify for a mortgage which I found out was fairly common with union members.  During my time as a non union man, the norm was completely the opposite, in five years with the same company, the only person who was able to afford a home was; surprise, surprise, the owner of the company.  He had new cars and lavish vacations while rarely even showing up on the job.  The men who worked for him drove clunkers and rented apartments with little or no forward progress toward anything better. 

  So the question is; who benefits if unions go away?  Why would billionaires like the Koch brothers spend millions to make sure Scott Walker of Wisconsin, was victorious in his battle with unions?  It’s because they know that once unions are gone there will be little resistance to their vision of low wages, long hours and no health care. Strip workers of their right to bargain collectively! Profits will soar and all will be right with their vision of the world.  Is that your vision of the world?  If it is, support your local billionaire, if not, support your local union!