In the trials and tribulations of the Auto Industry Bailout hearings a lot is being said about how the Big 3 deserve to fail. There are good points to be made on both sides of the argument. The one argument I can't accept is that the UAW is the cause of this failure and their continued existence makes any kind of bailout untenable.
For full-disclosure I'm a non-union computer programmer (I don't even know if a union exists for us).
Union Labor is close to being a chapter in a history in today's America. We are dangerously close to looking around and seeing that as we blissfully enjoyed our 40 hour work weeks, safe work conditions, paid time off, health insurance, and all the other innovations that the labor movement of America fought for, that we have lost all of our Unions.
"But wait!", you say, "we don't need the unions anymore, the government mandates these things now." You good sir or madam are correct, the unions fought hard and lobbied our government to make OSHA and overtime apply to all working people. Let's for a second play a game of what if:
What if we let the Big 3 fail, and allow the pundits to assign blame to those mean old labor unions? What if that leads to no more labor unions in the country?
I propose that this will lead to an undoing of the advancements of labor that we have seen since the 1800's. I can hear the critics and pundits already, "Pish tosh", they sputter, "that could never happen here".
I would like you to look back at some other things that "could never happen here", some ideals that were "too big to fail".
We would never....
- Torture Prisoners
- Maintain secret prisons
- Declare preemptive war
- Remove Habeas Corpus
- Limit free-speech to "only in that approved cage over there speech"
- Spy on our own citizenry
This is just a small list of the most egregious violations of the things that we as Americans would never do. But if history has taught us anything, once we remove the voice of opposition, the force that that voice once opposed will piece by piece turn those "never will"s into "I can't believe we did"s.
"But that's different", the right wing will squeal, "we had to do those things to protect us from the terr'rists, it won't happen here." Oh, how I wish that were true, but replace "9/11 and terrorists" with "worldwide economic collapse and depression" and "civil liberties" with "rights of the workers." You will see an all too disgustingly familiar picture develop.
First, the corporations will begin lobbying hard, for little things at first, relax a regulation here, fudge a regulations there. It will start with the people with the least clout and the most to lose, the working poor. Their hours will get longer, their paychecks smaller, their working conditions worse and worse. But its for "our own good" will be the resounding chant of the right, we need to keep the economy moving.
And before we know what hit us, we will be working low-wage, no-benefit, long-hour, soul-crushing jobs. Maybe then we will figure out the importance of the union, hell we might even form one then to get back what we lost. But it seems easier to me to fight to protect the one's that we have now, to save the generation of hardship and sorrow.
We must act now to defend the rights of the working class, to defend their right to a living wage, to health care, to pensions, to being repaid for your toil with dignity and respect. It is easiest to strip them of it first, but it is a slippery slope, and sooner or later it will be your benefits, your dignity, that falls to the wayside in the name of corporate profits and economic stability.