Shame on all of us...but don't blame the unions.

Union-bashing has long been a national pastime, and the fervor and frenzy of the bashing has only accelerated with the current crisis in the American automobile industry. "It's all the union's fault," they scream from the right, the center and even from some on the left. "With all their demands for health care benefits, pensions and salary, they have bankrupted the auto industry." So, though we have to honor the insane bonuses promised to AIG executives in their sacred contracts, the auto industry should not have to honor the contracts with their workers...in fact, no industry, business or department need really honor union contracts. Those greedy, greedy union contracts, always seeking to bleed the executives dry for their greedy, lazy workers.

Yes. Damn the unions! What good do they do us? All they do is make us less competitive in the world, when we're talking about industry and business. Due to their crazy, unreasonable demands, industries are left with no choice but to outsource labor to third-world countries in order to keep a comfy profit margin that will allow the executives to keep their fleet of Lamborghinis and private jets.

At first glance, they might seem to have a point. It appears to be true that health care and pension costs are such a heavy burden on industries that, in order to stay profitable, they fare better by moving labor overseas. And let's be fair; not all of the countries they move labor to are third-world, either. Lots of American cars are made in Canada, for example.

But to concede at that point that the unions are to blame is to fall utterly short of following the argument through to its logical end. So let's follow it through. Let's just assume that the unions are effectively busted. The American people have had it with their greedy demands. Bye-bye unions. OK. Now, with no organization behind them to fight for their salaries, wages inevitably fall. Health care benefits, far too expensive for the industry to maintain, are scrapped. Vacation time? Pensions? Forget about it! Who needs it? None of that is guaranteed by any law; nobody's forcing businesses to provide those luxuries. So, out of their already decreased wages, workers now have to either foot their family's health insurance costs all by themselves, or else risk going bankrupt the first time any sort of emergency, accident or illness strikes. That certainly doesn't leave much left over to put in a retirement fund, so when they're too old to work, all they're left with is social security, which all of us acknowledge does not realistically cover the costs of living independently throughout one's retirement. That creates either an indigent elderly population (of people who worked hard their entire adult lives, mind you) or else a huge financial burden on their families, who have to make up the difference.

Is that type of life consistent with the idea of the "American dream"? The idea that if one works hard, one can achieve a comfortable life for one's family? That is exactly what would happen without the union. If you want a concrete example, just take a look at Wal-Mart. (I highly recommend the documentary film Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price: http://www.walmartmovie.com/.) Wal-Mart aggressively prevents the unionization of its workers. The result? As they drive smaller corporate stores and especially small local businesses under, they offer the lowest wages in the field with almost non-existent benefits for their workers, and even go so far as to encourage their employees to go on welfare. According to Wal-Mart's own reports, 46% of their associates' children are either on Medicaid or are uninsured. This costs taxpayers $456 million nationally each year. Communities also must foot the bill to construct roads and clear land for Wal-Mart centers--often conveniently placed in areas where they do not have to pay local taxes. Reports show that Wal-Mart has actually driven the take-home pay of retail workers down by $4.7 billion dollars annually! Why? Because they are not allowed to unionize. Employees suspected of trying to organize are routinely sniffed out, harassed and fired. Stores can show employees anti-union movies and make them attend anti-union meetings on the clock, but union supporters cannot distribute union materials during work hours. This is what happens when unions are not allowed to exist. Is anyone really so naive as to believe that businesses, particularly large corporations, would voluntarily pay comfortable living wages and offer benefits if there were no pressure on them to do so? Wal-Mart is a dramatic example, and it amply illustrates what would almost certainly happen in the auto industry were the auto workers' union to back down or disappear. Our workers deserve better than that. This country deserves better than that. The largest economic power in the world can afford to offer its workers a fair day's pay for a hard day's work. We have seen in recent years how executives' pay has skyrocketed even as lower-level workers' pay and benefits have steadily diminished. Reagan's "trickle-down economics" don't work. Or rather, correction: they work only for the rich. They work beautifully for those on top. For those closer to the bottom, waiting mouths open wide for the drops to trickle down...they just keep on waiting.

So the union is doing its job. It's fighting hard, against very tough odds, to protect American workers. Who is going to look a worker who has been working long hours every day in a factory for years and tell him he doesn't deserve the wages he takes home, that he doesn't deserve health care, that he doesn't deserve to retire without worrying about being able to eat?

Yet acknowledging that the union is just doing what the workers need it to do does not solve the problem that it has become, from business's perspective, too expensive to keep labor in the U.S. It doesn't solve the problem. In the corporate world, all must bow down to the almighty profit, and let's face it, it is obvious that health care costs in the U.S. are a huge drag on industry's profit. Why should they keep their manufacture here, when they can move it elsewhere and increase their profit margin? Corporations are not altruistic entities, after all, and while I do believe that we should create legal restrictions on businesses outsourcing to countries that do not respect human rights and workers' rights (e.g., China), I cannot say that businesses should not be allowed to manufacture in, say, Canada. So what gives?

Why would they want to outsource to Canada? I cannot imagine that Canadians work for significantly lower wages than Americans. Canada is not a starving third-world country where citizens will take any job they can get under any conditions for any pittance of a wage just to fill their children's bellies. Yet labor is cheaper to corporations in Canada than it is in the U.S. And Japan can offer high-quality cars at lower prices than American car corporations can--but not because the Japanese work at starvation rates (for the uninformed, Japan, unlike China, is a developed nation). A huge part of it comes back to health care, every time. Paying health care benefits to employees and their families is too expensive in the U.S. In Canada, Japan, and every other developed country out there (as in most developing countries as well, to the extent their resources permit), health care coverage is universal. The industry doesn't have to foot the bill, and therefore, even if wages are the same or maybe even higher, the overall cost to the industry is far lower, and therefore, outsourcing to those countries is more profitable.

The solution does not lie in smashing unions and turning our workers into their third-world counterparts (though, to be fair, with less health coverage). The solution does not lie anywhere within the union, or even within the auto industry. The solution is a political one, and the responsibility for it lies within each and every one of us. Public pressure amounts to political will. We as Americans have to quit listening to the garbage anti-socialized-medicine propaganda fed to us on a regular basis by conservative politicians and the insurance industry. As Michael Moore points out in his enlightening documentary film Sicko, we are plenty "socialized" in many fields--education, law enforcement, emergency management, to name a few that we see every day and which no reasonable citizen would claim we should do without, or have privatized. So why this obstinance to institute a system that would provide the same level playing field to all Americans that our education system, for example, is meant to provide? It's all thanks to the right-wing politicians and talking heads, who, naturally, are sticking up for the health care industry, which is making quite a meaty profit on our health. They want us to be scared, and it appears to work. I recently heard a person say, very seriously, "I don't have health insurance right now, but I'll tell you one thing--I sure don't want the government taking it over." Are people really that brainwashed, that they would rather risk bankruptcy because of an accident or illness or even pregnancy, than have universal coverage through the government? A high school student once told me about a minor accident he had while visiting Italy, and commented, "Socialized medicine at 4:00 AM is not much fun." I had to point out that an American emergency room at any time is not much fun either--but at least in Italy, he didn't end up with a bill for thousands upon thousands of dollars for his hours of waiting. Where does this idea come from, that "socialized medicine" (ooooh, scary!!) is the enemy, and a system where corporations make a profit off denying claims and where many people even with health insurance avoid going to a doctor when they should because their deductibles and co-pays are too costly? America has bought into the propaganda for too long, and people have died because of it; many more have gone bankrupt because of it. And for all the right-wing talking heads' warnings of us "turning into France," France happens to have the #1 health care system in the world. I happened to live in France for two years, and never once spoke to a French person who envied the American system. Quite the contrary: I was routinely asked how on earth a rich, developed country like the U.S. could deny basic medical coverage to its citizens? It was beyond their realm of comprehension. Even in more conservative nations like Great Britain, it is considered radical to wish to dismantle the national health system. It's an idea that only the very rich even entertain, and among them, pretty few. It is really not controversial at all in Europe; nor is it in any country that already has it, which is, like I said, every developed country, and many developing ones as well.

So now that people are finally starting to come around to the idea (having been pushed to it by the ever-skyrocketing cost of health care) that it might be nice not to have to worry about losing one's insurance if one loses one's job, they want to scare you with the cost. Too expensive, too expensive, they're going to raise your taxes, they're going to raise your taxes, OH MY GOD WE'RE GOING TO TURN INTO EUROPE!!!!! I could only dream we should be so lucky! With universal health care, the pool is enormous; risk is balanced out because there are so many young, healthy people insured who cost very little to insure. The industry is not seeking to make a profit, so costs are significantly decreased. The amount spent on the totally unnecessary Iraq war would have more than paid to start the system--yet nobody seemed to balk at that. Is securing oil fields really more vital than securing the health of our citizens? A lot of people would have you believe that. Taxes are higher in Europe, but not as much as they would have you believe, and the residents--all the residents--reap the benefits on a daily basis. They don't have to pay premiums or co-pays to go to the doctor. They don't have to worry about getting hit with thousands in hospital bills after getting sick, getting in an accident, or having a baby. Education is free--preschool to college. No selling one's future to student loans, graduating from college owing more than one can reasonably expect to make in the next two years of working. Public transporation is fast, easy, cheap and reliable. Salaried workers are guaranteed five weeks of paid vacation a year--they actually get to enjoy their lives a little bit. Their retirement is secure. America should be so lucky, to turn into Europe!

And in the immediate, it would help stop the constant migration of jobs to countries that do provide their residents with health care, as well as keeping American workers from having to sacrifice those essential benefits--or a living wage--in exchange for keeping their jobs.

I personally have health insurance, and pretty good health insurance at that. But I really do not like the idea that if I were to get laid off tomorrow, I would lose that coverage. I am young, healthy, not pregnant, not expecting anything major to happen anytime soon. But you never know. And my debts are already enormous; I do not need to add that to them. And I can't stand talking to my uninsured friends who refuse to go to the doctor when they are sick because they can't afford it. These are people who work, by the way, not people sitting at home on their asses. They work all day, pay their bills, but cannot afford health care on top of those bills.

Don't blame the unions for jobs disappearing or moving overseas. We don't need starvation-wage jobs, or jobs that offer no health insurance in a country where one hospital stay can throw a family into debt they cannot get out of. If you have to blame someone, blame American voters. Blame the health care industry and the politicians who try to scare you into voting against your own best interest in order to increase corporate profits, at your expense. This is not a union problem. This is a political problem. This is an American problem. And if we want our labor to be competitive among developed nations, if we want to keep well-paid jobs here, we really don't have a choice. We need universal health care, and we need it now. With unemployment growing exponentially by the day, the insured becoming instantly uninsured, small businesses crumbling under the burden of providing their employees with insurance, and corporations moving their operations abroad, we can't wait. We can't dilly-dally and pussyfoot around it anymore. The scare tactics have gone far enough. They want you to be afraid of a system that will do nothing but benefit you. They are against it because it will benefit you--and not corporate profits. Could Americans please, just once, stand up for what is not only fair, but for their own good??!! Why are we so afraid of becoming one of these countries where people
can actually afford to get sick, instead of being afraid of the country we already are??? What the hell are we so afraid of???!!!!!!!

I'm not sure...but it sure as hell shouldn't be the unions.