And the right of working people to unionize is recognized by the Church and under the law…or is that one of those prudential things we can ignore if it runs contrary to one’s secular political ideology?
A needlessly provocative statement, it seems to me.
While the right to organize is not a moral “absolute” in the same sense the right to life is, the Papal endorsements of it are of strong moral suasion which we ignore at the peril of our souls. I’m not sure how many people actually think unions should not exist at all. I doubt it’s very many. But most people are aware that union activities can impinge on the rights of others as well as those of their own members. Can anybody really endorse organized criminal domination of any of them? As a purely economic issue, unions are neither good nor bad in themselves, as corporations are neither good nor bad in themselves. Either can be beneficial in an economy, depending on how they are used. One could argue, reasonably in my judgment, that in the case of the U.S. auto industry, both the unions and the corporations share the blame for the decline of both the companies and the welfare of the workers. Both, it seems, grew complacent during a period in which they had no real competition, with terrible results.
Returning to the topic, no economic stimulus package is going to cause Americans to buy Chevrolet instead of Toyota if they perceive that Toyota makes a better vehicle. Indeed, Toyota manufactures cars here, with American labor, as does BMW and Mercedes. Unfortunately, while the recession will eventually purge the excesses of Wall Street, the banking and real estate worlds, it will do nothing to purge the consequences of decades of poor decisions by both labor and management in Detroit.
In my town is a manufacturer that relocated because it found it impossible to compete with Canadian competitors (not Chinese) in a state whose pro-union posture and consequent union obstinance made it terribly difficult to operate. It wasn’t so much a matter of wages as it was of work rules that padded the labor force and made it almost impossible to fire anyone. So, a lot of good union jobs disappeared in the other state. But, my state gained a lot of good non-union manufacturing jobs, and people are happy to have them. Mine is not a “right to work” state, but it is a “terminate at will” state. If you want to keep your job, you have to do your job. The company keeps track of production segment product, and if the buyer rightly rejects it, responsibility goes right back to the workers who produced it and management members who approved it for shipment. Consequently, the quality level is very high. Despite the threat this potentially poses, and the hard work it requires, union attempts to organize the plant are always soundly defeated by the rank-and-file. And, in addition to shipping product to U.S. buyers, they now ship a lot of stuff into Canada and overseas. It’s excellent stuff, and, while I won’t say what it is, I can tell you that most of us see its product every single day.
So, it could be said perhaps, that unions have benefitted both the company and the labor force in this instance; not by being there, but by posing a threat to both by illustrating how union excesses and management oppression that often gives rise to them, can make both act in a manner more balanced than they might otherwise act.
On the other hand, there is a company of which I am aware, that has a happy relationship with its union. The main function of the union seems to be vetting the legal status of its members. (It does other things, principally in service to workers, but not much else.) Possibly it does so by loose compliance with the overly-restrictive anti-discrimination laws that make it very difficult for employers to effectively investigate the legal status of applicants. You can’t tell from the composition of the workforce that there is actual discrimination involved, and I don’t think there is. So, thanks to the union, the company can be fairly sure it doesn’t have illegals on the factory floor. The workers at the plant are paid modestly more than are workers in similar non-union plants that have to deal with the “Catch-22” of laws against hiring illegals vs anti-discrimination laws that make it tough to avoid doing it. That’s a small and limited example of the symbiotic relationship that can, and ought to, exist between unions and management.
There is a nice little Catholic Goods store for sale near us. But, I would not even consider it till I know that the tax levies will remain as they are or go lower. Some of the small business owners I know also are holding back till they see if the tax rates return to the pre “cut” rates. This is a big factor in the downturn that we are seeing right now IMHO.
That is a powerful statement. (but true in a sad kind of way)
