Workers of the World Unite!

Living in a heavily Republican county, I am used to hearing the word "union" spoken with dirision or disgust, even by people that are busting their ass at a minimum-wage job. I'm sick of it.

I will grant that trade unions today do not do all they could and are even sometimes corrupt, however, I cannot imagine what conditions for ALL workers in this country would be like without them. No minimum wage. No health care benefits for anyone. No retirement benefits for working-class Americans. No Social Security. Working conditions from hell in many industries. Children working instead of attending school.

If business and government are going to collude in this post-Reagan era of labor relations by manipulating the inflation/deflation of the currency and the boom/recesssion business cycle in order to weaken worker's purchasing power; labor needs to collude to control the labor supply to some extent--employers are not by nature benevolent, and do not usually have the needs of the worker in mind. Their job is maximizing capital by making customers and stockholders happy, not workers. There are very few employers that actually realize that a happy worker is a productive one. Many make the noises, but few deliver.

Therefore, if the unions did not exist, it would be necessary to invent them to avert the crushing oppression of workers that existed before they came along. Be nice to the union guy--he and his predecessors are paying their dues for you, the American worker.