Fools, Tools, And Unions

This morning’s headline and subheadline on HuffPost tells the tale:

Supreme Court Issues Devastating Ruling Against Labor Unions

The Janus v. AFSCME decision means the entire U.S. public sector will now be “right to work,” and the political ramifications will be felt for years to come.

We knew this was coming, of course. Even a union-friendly God couldn’t stop it, although he tried: Antonin Scalia died in his sleep a couple of years ago, which gave the public time to put a Democrat in the Whites’ House who would have replaced Scalia with someone who wasn’t hostile to unions. But nobody listens to a union-friendly God anymore. Not even some union members, those who supported Tr-mp and cut their own throats by doing so.

You can look up the details of this ruling and what it means. I’ve been over it a few times and I see no use in going over it again. What I want to do right now is get something off my chest.

Nationally, in 2016 Hillary Clinton only received 51% of the vote among union households, which were a paltry 18% of all voters (in the 1950s, union households made up 28% of the electorate). Compare that vote result to the 58% of union households that voted for Obama in 2012 and you have as good a reason as any why we have a Tr-mp and a Supreme Court whose conservative majority is hostile to labor unions.

Even after retirement, I am still involved in my local union, as an officer. Although I don’t actively represent employees on the workroom floor anymore, I am in constant contact with those who do. I am told, and I found this to be plausible when I was president of our branch, that somewhere around 70% of our active members are Republicans, which today means they are Tr-mpers. Now, it is true our local union here in southwest Missouri is in a very conservative area. I suppose it figures that we have a lot of right-wingers in our ranks. But 70% of our active members? Yes. It’s probably close to that, as sad as that is to admit. And among retired members, the percentage is probably higher.

Which leads me to two things I want to say, not as an officer of my union, but as a beneficiary of unionism:

♦ If you are a union member who voted for Tr-mp, knowing that unions—whose collective power has given you and your family a better life—would be a prominent target of Tr-mp, Republican legislators, and conservative legal groups who have for years tried to destroy organized labor, then you are either a fool or a tool—or both.

♦ Because the Supreme Court has now made it legal across the country to freeload off dues-paying members, Democrats should push their politicians to change what is called “the duty of fair representation.” That duty—which was itself established by a series of Supreme Court rulings in the 1940s and 1950s involving the Railway Labor Act and National Labor Relations Act—requires, among other things, that unions represent freeloaders in terms of negotiating collective bargaining agreements and processing grievances arising in the workplace.

In other words, the moochers are entitled by law to get negotiated pay raises and improved working conditions, as well as defenses in disciplinary actions and contract violations, without paying a damned dime for them. That obligation under law should end now. Let me say that again with a shout: IT SHOULD END NOW. No more duty of fair representation, when it comes to people who want to come to a workplace represented by a union and have breakfast, lunch, and an afternoon snack that is paid for by union members.

Now to get even more personal: If for whatever reason you want to dine at the union table but don’t want to pay for the privilege, then as far as I’m concerned you should have to beg for crumbs from management’s table all by your foolish self. Further, if you claim that you are voting for Republicans based on your “godly” anti-abortion convictions, or are voting for anti-union assholes like Tr-mp based on your Bible-inspired homophobia, then, by God, you ought to have to suffer the consequences of lower pay, poorer working conditions, and fire-at-will workplaces. There should be “no duty of fair representation” for you. You should get what you pray for not what you don’t pay for.

I suppose you could always ask GOP Jesus to take some time away from fundraising for Republicans and help negotiate your next pay raise or settle an overtime grievance or save your damn job. Many of you are more than willing to pay him tithes for his divine “representation,” so the least he could do is get you a raise, some time off, and job security.

Amen?

 

 

Posted by R. Duane Graham on June 27, 2018

https://duanegraham.wordpress.com/2018/06/27/fools-tools-and-unions/