This past week, in the comments of an essay I posted, someone commented that there were teachers who made six-figure incomes—as if that is a bad thing. The commenter then went on to complain about police officers and train conductors who make six-figure incomes. These comments have weighed heavily on me this Labor Day weekend.
Those who work as public servants are our neighbors and friends. During the 2011 Wisconsin protests I saw these same people belittled by the right. Their union benefits were unfair, these critics alleged. Why should they get great health care? Why should they get decent pay? Why should they get a pension? On and on it went. This takes me back to those aforementioned comments.
“I’m tired of police officers and train conductors making $150,000 in overtime, but god forbid some of us mention that because unions.” and “When they use the insane overtime to pad their final years’ salaries so it inflates their pension, yeah, I don’t want that. Today’s young workers are growing up without pensions and/or saw our parents get screwed out of theirs, so we’re less kind to them.”
In other words: I can’t have that, so I want to take it away from someone who does have that opportunity.
Now maybe I am a little sensitive when people say things like this about unions. I come from a union family. My dad was union, my uncles were union, by brother and sister were union. Union wages put food on our table, and when my dad’s boss tried to break the union, it was the union who fought for him—and won.
I first posted the unedited version of what follows on February 14, 2011 after attending the first of what would turn out to be many protests against Wisconsin Act 10. It is the story of my dad and his union. It is why I will stand up to anyone who complains about a union worker making more money, whether it is in the public sector or private sector. You do not like what they make? Then join a union, or organize a union and get the same for yourself. If you fight to take away those benefits, then you are not on the side of the worker, and you have been duped by management.
The Hidden Cost of Union Busting
I am passionate about organized labor causes as I know that all of the benefits I have today are due to someone before me fighting for those rights. This why I am so fervent about what is happening to the unionized public employees of what used to be the Great State of Wisconsin. My family went through what the public employees are currently going through now when I was a teenager. I lived through an employer breaking the union my father was in.
In 1983 my father worked for Dane County Dairy, which at the time was a union shop. The drivers were members of Teamsters Local 695. My Dad had worked for the dairy for close to 30 years at that point of his life. If you went to school in Madison, Wisconsin, or belonged to a fraternity or sorority at the University of Wisconsin—Madison during the ‘70s and early ‘80s you saw my dad every day. During the school year he delivered milk to every school in the Madison Metropolitan School District, every parochial school in town, and every chapter on fraternity row. It was hard work and it was hard on my father's health.
When I was a sophomore in high school my dad arrived at work to find that his wages had been cut from $12.00 an hour (a pretty good sum back then) to $8.00 an hour. His vacation time was cut from five weeks to two weeks. The men who worked at the dairy were told if they went on strike they would lose their jobs. His boss was emboldened by President Reagan’s firing all of the air traffic controllers two years prior. Shortly thereafter my dad had a heart attack. While in a hospital bed recovering, he received a registered letter from his boss stating that he had to come back to work the next day or lose his job. The union stepped in and prevented my dad’s employer from doing anything due to my dad’s illness.
My dad’s boss refused to negotiate with the Teamsters, so the Teamsters notified the National Labor Relations Board. The NLRB then sued Dane County Dairy and Duane Bowman Jr. In the meantime my dad was out of work, and non-union workers were doing his job. Due to the lawsuit my dad could not drive truck for anyone; he had to find another job.
So he took odd jobs. One of them was with Pinkerton security—especially ironic knowing Pinkerton's history with the labor movement. My dad worked security at South Towne Mall during the day and worked security at the zoo at night. The security job was barely enough to make ends meet. I did not know it at the time, but my parents were in pretty desperate financial straits.
The costs of union busting are high. I saw my Dad, a very proud man, reduced to self-doubt and drowning himself in alcohol. The life he had known for more than 30 years was gone, the very thing that defined who he was disappeared in the blink of an eye. Whatever money that there was for me to go to college was gone.
Watching my dad go through this caused me to act out in high school. I saw no future for myself, and I started skipping school, and my grades faltered. Upon graduation, I had no choice but to join the Army.
Eventually the NLRB and Teamsters were victorious, my dad received a settlement, and he was able to retire. However, I often wonder how different my life and my family's life would have been had his boss just honored the contract.
Back to the present. If you complain about what public sector employees get through their union contract, then consider the above a cautionary tale for you. There is a reason the pension is on the endangered species list, and it is not because of unions. It is because unions in the United States have been weakened by right-to-work (for less) legislation and right-wing propaganda.
Having been through union busting, I could not have said it better than the Dropkick Murphys:
Take ‘em Down, by the Dropkick Murphys
When the boss comes callin' they'll put us down
When the boss comes callin' gotta stand your ground
When the boss comes callin' don't believe their lies
When the boss comes callin' his take his toll
When the boss comes callin' don't you sell your soul
When the boss comes callin' we gotta organize
Let em know
We gotta take the bastards down
Let them know
We gotta smash them to the ground
Let em know
We gotta take the bastards down
When the boss comes callin' you'll be on your own
When the boss comes callin' will you stand alone?
When the boss comes callin' will you let them in?
When the boss comes callin' will you stand and fight?
When the boss comes callin' we must unite
When the boss comes callin' we can't let them win
Let em know
We gotta take the bastards down
Let them know
We gotta smash 'em to the ground
Let em know
We gotta take the bastards down
We gotta take the bastards down