Let me say at the outset that my father belonged to 2 unions over the course of his working life – The United Steelworkers and AFSCME, while he worked at the local high school. In fact he even helped get the union in there. I myself belong to the electrical workers while I worked in my adopted hometown in a factory that made automotive and aircraft parts. My former brother in law belonged to the Operating Engineers for 40 years also.
I believe that the trade union movement, along with the right to strike, especially in the early days, really did do something good for the working man, in real wages and working conditions. However today with the uncertain economy and inflation, striking for wages makes no sense.
Some simple math will bear this out. I do not claim credit for the basic idea. That goes to my friend Phil and his father, minister at Methodist church across the street from my junior high. But here I am trying to bring the idea into the current times.
Let me start out with a few assumptions. You can alter the details but the basic tenets will remain the same.
1) Before strike wage of $10 hourly
2) After strike wage of $11 (10% raise)
3) Strike lasted one month – 160 working hours
4) We are just dealing with gross wages, not net.
Simple math will show that for the lost wages of $1600, it would take 1600 hours of work to recoup just what was lost due to the work stoppage, before the raise would really kick in. In other words, it would take 10 months of work at the new rate. This says nothing about the economic destitution being experienced by the striking workers, as well as the people they owe money to and need to pay, like the food store, utilities, car and mortgage payments. Still want to strike for wages?
agaisnt = against
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