When US Airways flight 1549 went down earlier this year, Emptywheel spelled out for us how the survival of everyone on board was a miracle brought to us by America's unions.
Today, sadly, Matt Ortega points to a passage in a Washington Post article on yesterday's shooting at the Holocaust Museum that shows a union once again acting in its capacity promoting workplace safety -- but this time unable to prevail with the employer:
[Washington district director of the Security, Police and Fire Professionals of America Assan] Faye said that during contract negotiations with Wackenhut two years ago, the union pressed for company-issued protective vests. Although Wackenhut seemed open to the idea, vests have not been issued, Faye said.
"I hammered this in our negotiations two years ago because of how sensitive that museum is," he said. "Our guards needed more protection." He said that one of the guards at the museum was "verbally assaulted by one guy walking by, saying anti-Semitic remarks. For that reason, I made that the center of the negotiation."
It's not that Wackenhut wanted its employees to die, or even acted in wanton disregard. But the workers who make up the union know what things are like in the workplace every day. They know what they need for safety -- and that's why it's so important for workers to be able to join together to bargain effectively and be heard and responded to by their employers. Because unions aren't just about the increased wages and benefits they produce. They're about safety and respect, about workers being treated as experts on their own working conditions.