16 June 2011
The American Middle Class
Our country's Middle Class following The Great Depression and World War II was created by the struggles and victories of labor unions. The general strike of 1948 by railroad workers, dock workers and other union members who refused to cross picket lines demonstrated how powerful the labor unions had become in America. Labor unions of the AFL-CIO, the Teamsters, Longshoremen and the SEIU negotiated wages and benefits contracts that non-represented employees, and by consequence supervisors and management, also would receive in comparable measure. The only way to avoid having a work force unionized was to equal or better the pay and benefits that union-represented employees had.
Since the 1980 defeat of the air traffic controllers union by the Reagan Administration, union membership and concomitant power to negotiate wages and benefits has diminished almost to the point of non-existence. Abuses of power by labor unions have spurred their decline as well. Labor intensive manufacturing moved overseas where labor was cheap, abundant and non-union, closing down factories and cutting jobs in the US.
Today pundits write about the diminishing Middle Class and how the members of the Class of 2011 will not inherit the expectations of the Class of 1968 for home ownership, vacations, increasing salaries and benefits, and a comfortable retirement.
My question is: what will or could replace the power of labor unions for generating Middle Class incomes for blue collar and white collar workers in 2011?
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Since the 1980 defeat of the air traffic controllers union by the Reagan Administration, union membership and concomitant power to negotiate wages and benefits has diminished almost to the point of non-existence. Abuses of power by labor unions have spurred their decline as well. Labor intensive manufacturing moved overseas where labor was cheap, abundant and non-union, closing down factories and cutting jobs in the US.
Today pundits write about the diminishing Middle Class and how the members of the Class of 2011 will not inherit the expectations of the Class of 1968 for home ownership, vacations, increasing salaries and benefits, and a comfortable retirement.
My question is: what will or could replace the power of labor unions for generating Middle Class incomes for blue collar and white collar workers in 2011?
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