Mr. Bageant,
I very much appreciated your new article on unions, and agree whole-heartedly about how the rotten "system" has wrecked our country and it's working families. I'm a union man all the way, in fact, a shop steward for the National Letter Carriers Union (an honest, democratic union, one of the few). So, I know all about the evils of management, working for the biggest bastard of all, our own government. But I would like to add to the argument if I may, and submit that it isn't only the system that has ruined labor unions, the workers themselves, especially union members, are also to blame for our downfall.
As a union officer, I'm duty-bound to represent the members of my union, within the local branch, and it's like pushing a boulder uphill. These people (some are very good hard-working folks ) don't know or care what happens to their jobs and lives. If they pay dues, they feel like that's all they need to do to get everything they want, and they think it gives them the right to bitch about everything without ever doing anything outside of their jobs. They don't believe that unionizing is part of their job, in fact they don't believe (or know) that the union is the reason they have decent jobs.
I drive 140 miles round-trip to union meetings and training at least once each month, maybe twice, and only the local officers show up, never a regular union member. Why is that? These can be crucial meetings, having to do with our livelihoods. Why no participation? I think the reason is complacency.
Letter Carriers have kept pace with the economy, and then some, since 1970 when it won the right for collective bargaining. Our union has won plenty of rights and benefits along with the wages for its members over the course of many contracts, and the members now expect it, like they expect the sun to come up every morning. That's all about to change. The Postal Service is in deep deep trouble. But it need not have come to this, either with our union or any union, or for the middle class. All it would have taken is a little participation in the process and some awareness of what is true.
When a co-worker complains to me about how the union causes tension in our office, or suggests that the contract doesn't always have to be honored, I ask to see their check stubs. I point to their wage rate, annual leave benefit, health plan benefit, sick leave benefit, retirement allotment, thrift savings plan, etc. and I say, "You see that right there? Those categories would all say '0' if not for the union, and the postmaster could fire your ass if he didn't like the color of your shirt."
The point I'm making here, Mr. Bageant, is that some of the reason the middle class worker is going downhill is due to bad memory and laziness. Yes, laziness. They just want to go home after work and sit in front of the TV. The idea of supporting their local union, ONE NIGHT A MONTH, is unthinkable. If you asked them what "solidarity" is, they would answer: " ... a new reality-television show?" Well, they're going to find out soon, what millions are finding out now, being out of a job is the new reality, and they won't be able to watch it on their TV because they won't have a TV, or a house, or a car. And I'll bet you that they blame the unions for it.
And Obama? You're right, he won't stand up. Bush was a terrible president, he had the courage of his convictions but his convictions were all wrong. Obama has good convictions but no courage. Why can't we get a president with guts and vision?
Yours brotherly,
Jim
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Dear Jim,
I find what you say to be absolutely true. And as much as I believe that Americans have been "dumbed down" by cheap media spectacle and the deluge of cheap distractive goods, that's not the whole reason. I believe we are far more creatures of conditioning and environment than we are of free will. And most Americans are conditioned by work and consumption and little else. Which makes the capitalists very happy, of course.
Ya know, postal workers suffer from the same delusion so many other working Americans suffer. They believe their jobs are important in the greater scheme of things. But most work and most goods we produce now are just more unnecessary stuff. Or vestigial remnants. For instance, personally, if the postal carriers vanished from the streets tomorrow, it would not affect me much, if at all. I've mailed maybe a couple of letters this year, both to the government. And I've returned a couple of signed contracts by FedEx. Nor would it affect millions of other Americans. It's the same as if all the McDonald's closed. Or any of the other countless thousands of fixtures of America, especially commercial ones, disappeared. This is not to denigrate mail carriers or any other working or creative person. It's just one fact among many. For instance, if I never published another book, big deal. There would be a few more trees to produce oxygen.
The sad thing is that when such people as you describe are hit in the face with what's coming, i.e. peak everything, and they (actually the next generation) find themselves forced to live a second world lifestyle at best, they will be far more powerless over their personal circumstances, because they are not unified in any sort of solidarity. And rebellion in the old sense will be useless when there is no material benefit to be gained because of the world scarcity of materials, therefore economic devastation for most. Whether you are a postal carrier or a writer, in the big picture you are either competing against or cooperating with seven billion other human beings. I'd rather cooperate.
To me, unity and solidarity represent not the preservation of the current American lifestyle -- which your union other's members are assuming is the natural order of the universe -- but an opportunity for working people to start dealing with what's coming. Because if we don't, we know who will hold by force what little is left available -- the same people who own most of what exists now and exert power.
I know this sounds gloomy, but it's not meant to be. And I know that much of what I write sounds anti-authority. It's meant to be. But I also know that we can choose to be our brother's keeper or we can choose not to be. That is one of the few human acts that can be called of free will. If we are not, then there is no unity, therefore no strength for the masses. Right now there is the possibility of unity. We can still have an effect through solidarity. We'd better take advantage of the collective strength available to us now.
I get email that says that old style worker strength is not possible today. Oh yea? I'd like to see the halls of Congress operate if we turned off the water, heat and lights.
In art and labor,
Joe
