9/3/18 – This Week’s Post celebrates Labor Day by honoring Lech Walesa and his nonviolent action to establish Unions and secure workers’ rights through Solidarity. For a brief summary take a look at: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1983/walesa/lecture/. A more in-depth perspective can be found in the book: “A Force More Powerful: A Century of Nonviolent Conflict” by Peter Ackerman and Jack Duvall.
I enjoy seeing the occasional bumper sticker “Enjoying Weekends Off? Thank Unions.” Unions have undeniably done a great deal for the rights of workers. Better salaries, safe working conditions, healthcare coverage, paid time off, and general worker’s rights are a just few of their achievements. However like all organizations they are subject to becoming corrupt, losing sight of their mission and ideals, and over time this corruption becomes institutionalized. Groupthink, oligarchies that benefit a few members more than the general membership develop while greed, the desire for power, and ego impose their influence. Various pressure tactics, forms of micro and macro aggressions, are sometimes utilized to persuade members to conform to the Union agenda including general harassment, denial of promotions, noncooperation from colleagues, shunning, and even threats of job loss should one not conform. When an oligarchy within a Union determines that they deserve more than the general membership the Union has then become exactly what they have fought against, a system that promotes inequality. The goal of any Union should be to secure equal rights for all members and support the rights of members as passionately as they would their own without expecting any special compensation. Their job is to support an equitable and just system for all and that is a reward in itself. Complicating this is the fact that the political system in the U.S. has been inconsistent in its promotion of equality and equal access. Congress, particularly the Senate, is one big oligarchy. Access to the “halls of power” is limited and to achieve its goals Unions have to participate actively in politics. Doing so will almost certainly lead to compromise of one’s basic values. “Pay to play” is a reality as politicians are essentially full-time fund raisers for their campaigns. An article in the NY Daily News in 2013 stated: “The average price of winning or holding on to a six-year term in the U.S. Senate averaged $10,476,451 in the 2012 election cycle. Slightly less pricey, obtaining or being re-elected to the U.S. House of Representatives cost an average of $1,689,580.” Unless you are a super PAC, an individual with a lot of money to offer, or perhaps a Grassroots Movement that can influence the vote good luck having your voice heard. How nice it would be if decisions were made on the basis of human rights rather than economic incentive and political influence. Nelson Mandela was one of the many voices who offered a perspective to consider regarding political and social change: “Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the action of human beings.” It is possible to change the system in a way that benefits greater numbers. A beginning is questioning the existing system and considering alternatives. It is your right to do so, you don’t need to ask for permission from a higher authority.
Part of the reason that Unions have come under criticism in the U.S. is they raised the standard of living for some people, Union members, without doing the same for the majority of the population. This makes Unions an easy target to focus on as the majority of people do not have the benefits provided by Unions. It is easy to point the finger at Unions rather than the U.S. economic and political system as the culprit. Both have their part in supporting a system of inequality. It is quite clear that some in the U.S. government has been actively attempting to weaken Unions since the Reagan administration. The recent Supreme Court decision in Janus v. American Federation of State, Country, and Municipal Employees, Council 31 means that public servants no longer have to pay a government Union as a condition of employment. This will likely weaken Unions. They will now have to develop different strategies to engage employees in paying membership fees. I have been in several Union workplaces and have been compelled to pay Union dues whether or not I chose to be a member, sometimes paying full dues for up to five years, until I received the full benefit. This arrangement was unacceptable to me and the “strong arm” tactics employed to achieve this position are not what I consider ethical. Forcing people to conform to anything usually leads to resistance. It’s a basic psychological effect called reactance theory identified by Jack Brehm. In essence, people want the freedom to choose and will resist more intensely when not given a choice. As an example of the powerful effects of reactance theory it was effectively applied in an attempt to prevent the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act from being instituted by emphatically stating “Obama is forcing Obamacare down your throat.” This statement was repeated over and over through media channels and was very effective in evoking resistance from Americans whose cultural norms support the value of free choice. I would have preferred meaningful conversations about Unions including education about the history of Unions, the pros and cons of them, and most importantly a choice in the matter. It is unfortunate such an approach was not developed before the present crisis emerged. I believe it would have led to greater investment and participation in the various Unions and greater solidarity.
The larger question here relates to the practice of Capitalism as it now stands in the U.S. “The Tragedy of the Commons” comes to mind. http://tragedy.sdsu.edu/ . The Tragedy of the Commons is an economic and environmental problem in which every individual tries to garner the maximum benefit from a given resource available to all. As the demand for the resource exceeds the supply, every individual who consumes an additional unit directly harms others who can no longer enjoy the benefits. “The Tragedy of the Commons” results when individuals neglect the well-being of society in the pursuit of personal gain. Our system of Capitalism as it exists now is not sustainable. There are numerous indicators pointing to the need to change the way that we consume including the growing increase in “lifestyle diseases” in the West, diseases of overconsumption, and drastic environmental decline that will affect all life on earth. We, who live with excess, simply cannot continue to seek more as the Earth will not sustain us.
There are also ethical issues to consider. The desire to gain more personal wealth, for those of us who have an excess, is an affront to those who are managing on a “livable wage” or in relative or absolute poverty. The future tragedy that awaits us will be the intense political and social disruptions as wealth continues to be consolidated in the hands of fewer people and climate change causes the dislocation of tens of millions who fall into deeper despair. It is time we look more deeply into the ethical principles which we claim to embrace and ask ourselves if indeed we are willing to commit to a more equitable and just society for all affording each an equal right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Continuing our hierarchal system of valuing living beings, in essence deciding that one is worth more than another based on arbitrary designations decided upon by those in power, is a brutal assault on humanity. We need global solidarity that is inclusive of all the world’s peoples, animals, plants, and resources if we are to survive as a global community. We owe each other and future generations this and more.