The history, laws of labor unions

BY JOSEPH TOMASELLI, Guest columnist

Unfortunately, too many people are not cognizant of labor unions and the history and laws about them labor unions.

Some employees who are in labor unions are ecstatic and some others are compliant, but the matter is that labor unions are so different that you cannot paint them all with the same brush.

In the very beginning, when immigrants came to the United States, they applied for any available job that was offered. Since they did not speak English, the jobs they were offered were mostly manual labor. They took those jobs willingly because they were determined to send their children to schools to attain the American Dream.

In the meantime, the employees worked about 14 hours a day and the pay was menial. Some employers posted signs that said, "If you do not show up for work on Sunday, do not bother to come in on Monday.". It was a terrible existence and some workers literally died from overwork. One of the first unions attempted was called The Knights of Labor.

Organizing was extremely difficult, especially when the employers called in the strike breakers. Those were hired thugs called in to bash the skulls of union organizers and potential union members. Even many of the local police forces joined in to break heads and send many workers to the hospital or the cemetery.

In some cases, when the workers went on strike, their wives and children would participate and, they too, would suffer the consequences, and be beaten into oblivion and the streets ran with blood. Finally, in 1884, Samuel Gompers (1850 – 1924) managed to form the American Federation of Labor (AFL), but there was still too much chicanery from the employers. The hours were still long and children were employed, and received the lowest wages possible and worked incessantly.

It took many years before Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 10988 in 1935, allowing workers to join unions. The Wagner Act was enacted and the National Labor Relations Act was authorized.

Unions were separated into two categories, They were: Closed Shops and Union Shops. The Closed Shops were to train the members until they were extremely proficient. While training, they were apprentices and upon learning their craft, they were journeymen. The Union Shop was attained on a vote by the members and the election was administered by the National Labor Election Board.

However, in 1946, the Taft-Hartley Labor Law removed the Closed Shop and allowed employers to pick whomever they wanted to employ. Some states voted for Right to Work status, on June 23, 1947, wherein employees had the choice between joining a union or not. Of course, union members had the protection of the union, but when raises were negotiated, non-union employees got them too.

Now, both Franklin D. Roosevelt and New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia were extremely adamant that municipal workers (town, city, state, and federal employees) should not be included in unions. The reason? Well, hold onto your seats! In 1962, John F. Kennedy signed an Executive Order that allowed all municipal workers to join the Municipal Union AFSCME. That meant that the Kennedys would be able to retain their Camelot forever with the immensive voting block from unions.

They would have the privilege of passing the presidency from one Kennedy to another, as long as there was a Kennedy available. And municipal workers had so a powerful a grasp on everyday operations that all of their negotiating demands had to be accepted or they would go on strike and render a whole state inoperable.

If it was a transportation contract to which they disagreed, the they could stop all public transportation. If it was any of the other municipal employees' demands which were not accepted — administrative or other conditions — they could cripple a whole city, state or federal operations by going on strike.

Their salaries and benefits were mind boggling for the amount of work they did, and whenever one of the municipal unions got all the demands they presented at the negotiating table, all the other municipal unions demanded parity! Now, cities and states can no longer balance their financial budget.

Why? Well, hang on to something before you fall down. Retirement pensions are calculated on one half of the highest yearly earned wage, including overtime. In New York City, workers worked on roads and bridges to repair those roads and bridges, and many of the workers are receiving as much as a fifty thousand dollar annual pension! Of course, not all employees receive that amount, but what they do receive is immense compared to the small pensions of the non-municipal workers.

Trust me, I know this for a fact since I was a union negotiator for New York/New Jersey television and radio stations. I don't recall ever negotiating for retirement pensions, and the ones that were established for the employees who did receive them were because of good will of the employers.

Right now with the huge Municipal Union retiree pensions, the overspending of the elected representatives, and the outsourcing of jobs, how is this resolved? Well, as Oliver Hardy used to say to Stan Laurel, "Here is another fine mess you got me into."

As a closing statement, now can everyone understand why Obama turned over so much power and money to the automobile workers union?