I am one of those
fortunate persons who produces a great abundance of kidney stones; two of the
three varieties. There is the debate which is the greater pain, passing a
kidney stone or giving birth. Since I can only speak to one of these experiences
I’ll refrain from an opinion. Though I can identify with how Carol Burnett once
described giving birth by analogy. First she said “imagine pulling your lip up
and over your nose.” After a moment to consider how painful that would be, she
continued, “Now imagine pulling you lip over your entire head.” Yeah, I get it.
Now to the labor pains
in this country or perhaps the pain of a lack of labor pains, if you perceive
labor unions as a pain.
The Bureau of Labor
Statistics says that in the U.S.A. the percent of wage and salary workers who
were union members was 11.9% or 14.8 million members. Union membership has been
declining in this country since 1954.
Now let’s take a
gander and unions in the world.
|
Rank
|
|||
|
# 1
|
82%
|
||
|
= 2
|
76%
|
||
|
= 2
|
76%
|
||
|
# 4
|
57%
|
||
|
# 5
|
53%
|
||
|
# 6
|
45%
|
||
|
# 7
|
37%
|
||
|
# 8
|
35%
|
||
|
# 9
|
30%
|
||
|
# 10
|
29%
|
||
|
# 11
|
26%
|
||
|
= 12
|
25%
|
||
|
= 12
|
25%
|
||
|
= 14
|
22%
|
||
|
= 14
|
22%
|
||
|
= 14
|
22%
|
||
|
# 17
|
13%
|
||
|
# 18
|
9%
|
||
|
Weighted average:
|
38.0%
|
Now you can draw your
own conclusions about these numbers but it appears to me that countries with
high unionization have better equitable income distribution than those with low
numbers. Check out this Wikipedia reference.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_equality
If you can find good
resources on this subject let me know.
In states like Michigan and Wisconsin, most union members are in the unions against their will. This makes them illegitimate organizations, in my view. I would respect them if they didn't force people to join. And I do respect unions in states where workers' rights to choose whether or not to join are respected.
ReplyDeleteUnions have dwindled to marginality; compare the political
ReplyDeletespending in Wisconsin, for example. Probably one of those cyclical things-when 80 hour weeks become mandated, 10 year olds work the mines and business does as they please-they
will return.
The unions only have themselves to blame for that dwindling; they have become quite worker-hostile.
ReplyDeleteWe need to know our history on this issue. While all groups will try to overstep their bounds, our history clearly shows that when unions are strong the middle class prospers and visa versa. You have to go back to the 50's to find corporate labor union balance. The battles the labor unions had to fight were amazing and inspiring. I think today's workers and labor leaders are too myopic to make significant impact and the country has suffered for it.
ReplyDelete