Hi Ranty Nation!  Ranty McRantyson har agin!

Well it’s bin since jus befur Thanksgivin since ah dun had a “Back to Basics” (B2B) talk wit y’all.  So ah thunk ah’d kick off the Back to Basics series in 2021 by talkin bout how we’all can start balancin the power tween “We, the People” (regular folk), an the rich an corporations.

In mah last two Back to Basics talks, ah talked bout negotiatin (Part A an Part B), but said how ah was gonna talk bout how we’all cud use this infurmation bout negotiatin to git our “fair share”.  In this Part A, ah’ll talk a bit bout both the gud an bad bout unions.  But keep in mind, the gud is way better’n the bad.

So har we go…

Unions?  Ain’t They BAD?

Well according to business folk, unions’re gonna be the death of Merica!  However, Robert Reich has dun a purty gud job talkin bout sum of them lies:

Ever since the late 1800s, the Republican party’s bin fightin aginst wurker’s rights an unions.  An they were fightin a losin battle back then.

But around 1981 or so, when then President Reagan broke the air traffic controller’s union, Republicans’ve bin tellin us that them unions dun be makin it harder an harder fur Merican companies to compete.  An they’s bin winnin that battle ever since.

An, in a (small) way, they was right.

Union Wurker’s Cost Too Much Fur “Commodities”

Y’see, when it comes to thangs that them economistic folk call “commodities” (thangs that’re basically the same no matter who’all makes them an they don’t require any special secret skills or knowledge).  Fur example, makin nuts an bolts.  Purty much any country in the wurld can make them.  Y’all can, so long as they’all’re the same size, take a German nut an put it on a Chinese bolt witout any problems.  That’s why thangs like nuts an bolts’re considered to be commodities.

Cuz commodities’re so much the same, they’s most often sold based on price.  When y’all’re sellin stuff an the customer don’t care much if it comes frum you or someone else, based on price, then havin highly skilled (an more expensive) union folk doin the job don’t make much sense.  That’s why jus bout ever common “nut an bolt” dun come frum places like China or Vietnam or sum other “cheap labor” country where they’s wurkers’re only gittin paid dollars per day, not per hour.  It’s durned hard fur a union wurker to compete against that.

Unions Sumtimes Shoot Themselfs in They’s Foot

Gud as unions can be, they’s still shoot themselfs in they’s foot.  Y’all can see this all the time an the pro-business folk (ah ain’t “anti-business”, I jus feel a lotta businesses don’t treat they’s wurkers fair-like) jus love to use a few bad thangs to make it seem like the whole idea of unions is bad.

Foot Shootin, Example 1

A long time ago (late 1980s) ah wurked (in a non-union job) unloadin cars frum trains so as the cars cud be trucked to local dealerships.  We’all’d unload the cars an park them so the (union) truckers next door cud load the cars up on the trucks an drive them to dealerships.  Mosta them truckers were hard wurkin folk, as y’all’d imagine.  But like wit all thangs they’s were a couple bad apples in that bunch.

One trucker had a full load of Lincoln Towncars (expensive luxury cars at the time) on his truck an decided he’d try to beat a train to the crossin (no crossing gates).  So he stomped on the “gas pedal” (them trucks use diesel) an wuz off to the races.  The crossin lights were a flashin an the train wuz approachin the crossin an…

Well ah guess y’all can figure out whut happened.  The “tractor” (the part wit the engine) jus got cross the tracks when the train hit the trailer followin behind.  The $150K+ trailer wuz totalled as wuz the 6 Lincoln Towncars (~$35K each, 1980s dollars), fur a total of bout $350K lost… but at least the driver wuzn’t injured!

To be clear, that driver admitted to all of the above.  An needless to say, the trucking company “terminal manager” fired that driver on the spot.  However, agin, needless to say, the union threatened a strike to git that driver’s job back.  An he kept that job until after ah moved on to another job.

This is whut ah mean by unions shootin themselfs in they’s foot.  By rights, that driver shud have bin fired an the right thang wud have bin fur the union shud’ve let him be fired cuz he wuz negligent an endangered a lot of folk!  But they fought to keep his job.  Even tho he didn’t deserve the union’s protection.  (Yeah, ah know there’re sum of y’all who’re in unions sayin they shud have fought fur his job, but ah disagree.)

Foot Shootin, Example 2

These day’s they’s barely a week that goes by where we don’t see a news report bout a police officer shootin sumone who wuz (obviously) unarmed or in sum other (obviously) unjustified way.  An shure as the sun rises in the East, the police union is right there defendin the police officer an tryin for all they’s wurth to keep him frum losin his job.

Shure they’s accidents.  An they’s times where the situation wuz questionable.  But ah ain’t talkin bout those.  Ah’m talkin bout those obvious cases.  Shure everone deserves a defense (it’s in the Constitution).  But ah’m talkin bout the repeat offenders.  Them officers who’ve bin in this kind of trouble befur.  Those who have a history of complaints.

An they’s unions’re sittin there tryin to git them off… again.  After a certain point the unions’re doin more harm fur police officers than helpin.  They’s no longer representin they’s members, but jus representin a few.  The “rotten apples”…

Ah can already hear whut y’all might be thunkin, “Whut?!?  Ranty, y’all dun lost yur mind?  Ah thunk y’all were gonna talk bout how unions were gud!”

While y’all are probly thunkin that all y’all hear is bout how unions are so bad, y’all’re probly wunderin why ah thunk they’s gud!  Well, ah can say that unions mighta hurt sum companies’ ability to compete, but still’re, overall, a gud thang.  So, let’s talk bout that.

Unions Are Gud Fur Jobs That Require “Skilled Wurkers”

However, back when unions had a lot of power an jus bout 1/3 of jobs were union jobs, them jobs were considered to be skilled wurker jobs.  You couldn’t jus hire sumone off’n the street an have them start doin the job.  Often, it took years to git the skills necessary to do the job well nuff so thangs didn’t git messed up.  An many union jobs required that y’all had to wurk in an “apprenticeship” (whut means “a program or position in which someone learns a trade by working under a certified expert” — dictionary.com) so as y’all cud become a “journeyman” in yur job (meanin y’all had learned the skills y’all were sposedta have an y’all learned by doin so y’all wuz “experienced”).

Har’s sum food fur thought.  When over 25% of jobs in Merica were union jobs (1950-1970s), Merica’s “middle class” was at its largest an most powerful.  Today union wurkers’re less than 10% of the Merican wurkforce an the middle class is the smallest its bin in over 60 years.

Thunk bout that fur a moment or two…

Unions Are Gud Fur Wurkers Who Have No Power

While unions fur skilled wurkers git mosta the praise, unions fur wurkers at the bottom’re also a gud thang.  Fur jus bout the entire history of humanity, folks at the bottom bin gittin the short end of the stick.  An the reason why’s cuz they’s got no power.  An everone above seems to love “kickin down” on them folk who ain’t got much.  Much as ah hate to say it, even folk who claim to be “gud Christians” will sumtimes kick down on those in need, rather than help them.

Bootstraps

Now a lot of folk’ll say that them folk who ain’t got no power “shud pull themselves up by they’s bootstraps”.  (Note: Y’all keep an eye out fur my new merch design bout this.)  Well, that’s whut unions fur them powerless folk do… help them pull themselves up by they’s bootstraps.

Y’see, not all bootstraps’re the same.  An the way y’all pull them up ain’t gonna be the same.  Fur folk witout much power, “collective bargaining” (in other wurds, a “union”) is the only way they can git enuf power to be able to negotiate fur fair wages.  Y’all know whut ah mean, “pullin theyselfs up (better pay, benefits, wurkin conditions) by they’s bootstraps (collective bargainin)”.

Unions’re Gud fur Stoppin Employer Abuses

Now abuses can come in a few flavors.  But ah’m jus gonna focus on three: low pay an overwurk an wurker safety.

Low Pay

Back in the late 1800s an early 1900s, them Robber Barons (ah’ll talk more bout them below) wud really stick it to they’s wurkers.  An it weren’t jus that they’d fire them fur almost no reason.  They’d hire whut wuz called “bully boys” to come beat them up if’n they complained too much.  It wuz a differnt wurld back then an rich folk cud git away wit almost anything.

Also, a lotta them Robber Barons wud also make they’s wurkers live in “company towns”.  Now y’all might thunk that them towns wuz called that cuz one company wuz the main employer… an y’all’d be kinda right.  But the real reason why they wuz called company towns wuz cuz the company owned the whole durned town!

So if’n y’all wurked in a company town, y’all’d pay the company rent fur yur place.  Y’all’d be shoppin at the company stores.  Y’all’d pay the company fur water an lectricity (whut there wuz) an/or oil (lamps, heating, cooking, etc.).  Basically everthing y’all cud buy wuz bought frum the company.

Cuz the company owned everthing, y’all were stuck payin whut the company charged.  An the company charged so much that y’all’d have whut y’all’d call “subsistence livin”.  In other wurds, the company’d make shure y’all cudn’t save any money an wud git further in debt to the company ever year.

So if’n y’all’re thunkin that wuz “employer abuse”, y’all’d be right.  An that’s one of the reasons wurkers formed unions.

Overwurk

Back then, they wuzn’t any such thang as a “40 hour wurk week”.  It wuz more like 12++ hours per day, 7 days a week.  An if’n y’all got tired an/or sick, then y’all didn’t git paid an often’d be fired.  So y’all wurked, sick or not, an often died on the job.

To make matters wurse, folk’d be gittin paid per day!  So them Robber Barons’d make more money the more hours a day they cud git y’all to wurk.  Hmm, kinda sounds like a lotta jobs today!

Yet another reason to have a union, so as the wurkers wudn’t be wurked to death, literally.

A modern day example’d be Amazon.com.  They’s wurkers’re pushed so hard, them wurkers can’t take bathroom breaks an have to go in bottles an buckets.  Can y’all imagine that happenin in your job?!?

Wurker Safety

Back in “the old days” (late 1850s-1930s), they wuzn’t any such thang as laws/regulations protectin “wurker safety”.  It wuz purty much a free-for-all.  If’n y’all wurked on the edge of a cliff, y’all had to watch yur step cuz they weren’t no safety ropes or guard rails or nothin.  No medical kits close by in case y’all got cut or sumthin.  No rules aginst breathin toxic fumes an such.  Not even safety guards protectin valuable (fur the wurkers) fingers an toes or even hands an feet!

Dang, them Robber Barons thunked more bout they’s machines than they did thems wurkers.  Machines cost money to repair, but more wurkers cud be hired if’n one got hurt on the job!

So wurkers formed unions so as they’all cud wurk witout gittin hurt or even killed.

On to Part B…

Well, that gonna be it fur now.  Ah’ll move on to Part B an finish up this har Back to Basics talk bout unions.

Ranty McRantyson signin off fur now!

Har’s somethin else bout unions that y’all might find interestin: