August 31, 2009 05:40 PM UTC

Are unions relevant today? (How are humans valued?)

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• by: richardmyers

I started a thread within the “Romanoff To Challenge Bennet?” comments, which i’d like to extract and revive. The original discussion is here: http://www.coloradopols.com/sh…

David writes,

Reduced union membership is due to a changing world where the unions did not keep up. I work in the high-tech world and I have never heard anyone there wish we had a union.

I think the main reason why is that in manufacturing, construction, etc. your most productive employee is about twice as efficient as your least. So everyone treated and paid the same works. But in a lot of businesses today (software, engineering, etc) your most productive employee is 10 – 100 times more productive.

Now in Hollywood the unions figured that out. They represent Stephen Spielberg as well as someone directing their first TV episode. But they set it up in a way that handled that 100X difference in value of each person.

In my view, the flaw in this thinking is equating productivity with value. It is a perceptual thing; one can accept that workers have a certain monetary value to the corporation, based upon what they contribute to the bottom line.

But i contend that a society that views workers in this way is dystopian and has lost its soul; why should we not prefer, as the more humane measure of our worth, the value that individuals place upon their own lives?

In my role as a deputy secretary for a grocery workers’ union, i have met an individual (let us call him George) who is fully capable (after a lifetime of good work ethic) of performing on the job. His only crime is one that all of us may wish to endure (considering the alternative): he has reached the age of sixty or so, and he no longer drives. He was transferred by the company to a store far away from where he lives. It happens that there is no bus after 10 PM, and the current store is demanding that he work a shift that lasts until 11 PM. Because he is not able to comply, he faces yet another transfer, one that will force him into a different, lower-skilled job, and that will significantly cut his pay.  

George could be very productive, if the store where he works was just a little more flexible. The likely truth is, they’re trying to get rid of George.

And what are the possible consequences? George may lose his apartment, and (absent any caring family) may find himself unable to work at all, and living on the street.

Is George worth so much less than someone younger? Does George need a union?

We as a society have given rights to corporations that we do not give to fellow humans. We empower corporations to control all aspects of our lives, including who may become viable candidates to rule over us, the political (and corporate) executives, the legislators. Corporations have the power to make George’s life miserable, through no fault of his own. Is society comprised of humans, or of corporations?

I think when we, the working people (high tech, manual, service worker or whatever) begin to adopt the corporate point of view about how we should be valued, we’ve lost something essential to our dignity. Unions are even more important in such an environment. The union may be able to re-assert that George has needs to, and that profits are not the sole criteria by which we should make decisions about human lives.