The following letter is intended for publication to the San Francisco Chronicle in response to this op-ed piece [1] Libertarian Party Initiative's Chair Ron Getty:
Editor:
I am one of the workers that Terry MacRae has deemed "unqualified" (even though I am a high-speed qualified deckhand with eight years maritime work experience). I am also one of the workers that Libertarian Party Initiatives Committee chair, Ron Getty seems to think would benefit if my union, the Inland Boatman's Union of the Pacific, didn't enjoy protective labor legislation. I find his comments both factually inaccurate and deeply insulting.
Mr. Getty claims that, "Economic studies show the economic cost of protective union legislation over the past half-century is $50 trillion." Which statistics might these be, imaginary "facts" from his Ayn Rand fiction collection perhaps? It's hard to be certain, because Mr. Getty doesn't name his source.
He would also have us believe that "Wages are generally lower for everyone because the economy is one-third smaller than if there had been no unions." Poppycock!
The real facts are these:
There is no industrialized nation in the world that doesn't have labor unions;
Industrialized nations with strong labor unions and strong labor union protection have better working conditions, more benefits for workers, and a higher standard of living across the board than industrialized nations with weaker labor unions and weaker labor union protections.
When labor unions and protective labor union legislation were strongest in the United States of America (1937 - 1973), The United States experienced the largest sustained period of economic growth, and the greatest sustained increase in workers' wages relative to inflation.
Of course, during that period, workers wages increased at a greater rate than the income of CEOs and upper level management executives. The ratio of executive compensation to workers wages decreased during that period of time.
After 1973 (the last year where workers wages consistently kept face with the rate of inflation), the US Government began to attack labor union protection. Since then, workers wages have not kept pace with the rising rate of inflation, union membership has declined (as has the standard of living for US wage earners), and the ratio of CEO pay to workers' wages has increased dramatically.
Unlike Mr. Getty, I will name my sources:
- One of the best sources is - http://www.americanrightsatwork.org/resources/ [2]
- However the raw data is taken directly from the US Government's Department of Labor [3].
Of course, economics are mostly theoretical, and how one defines "good" and "bad" is a matter of perspective. To the employing class (and its uncritical apologists in the Libertarian Party), anything that benefits workers and challenges market fundamentalism is "bad" whereas to workers, anything that increases the intensity of class warfare on workers is "bad". The strength of the economy depends upon which side you are on.
Finally, on a personal note, I would like to see Mr. Getty try and perform the work I did (until the National Park Service and Hornblower stole my job) enduring non-union conditions. My bet is he wouldn't last a week, let alone eight years.
Steve Ongerth
Former Alcatraz Ferry Deckhand.
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