An Introduction:
A local voice caterwauling Union Ideals in the anti-Union wilderness of Utah.
If the squeaky wheel gets the grease, then I'll be one tough cat to grab.
I start this blog to add a voice supporting Unions. The anti-Union forces are loud, well financed, and have television networks. And one House in Congress. And it would appear several Justices on the Supreme Court. And a large stable of Governors.
Generally speaking, I will be responding to local Op-ed pieces in the paper, or timely discussions in my communities: Labor in general, and Utah. This is also a great forum to announce and support events and causes.
I have always thought the most universally applicable solutions to social, civil and poverty-oriented problems have been through Unions. Unions were promoting racial unity before it was cool. Unions demanded equal pay for women doing equal work in the middle of the 20th Century. In Utah today, the gender-pay gap has women earning $0.76 to a man's dollar. In Union shops, everybody with comparable seniority earns the same wage. Equity is equity, and what used to be a call for racial or gender equity is now a call for civil equity of the LGBTQ community. Unions still offer the best pay, the best health insurance and the best retirement plans (we have pensions.) Unions should appeal to people on all points on the political spectrum: from the most liberal because we take care of those in need of support; to the most conservative because we provide any Union worker the means to provide for him or herself and family without relying on Government assistance. Unions have been doing this kind of work for more than 100 years, and yet it was the Unions the joined the Occupy Movement.
So, I lend my voice (if anybody is listening)
B3
The Chronicle of Higher Ed just released their most recent faculty salary survey and I was surprised to find that female assistant professors at DU make 89% what male assistant professors do. This from an institution that prides itself on "inclusive excellence". Maybe I should be thankful it's not 78% like in the rest of Colorado, but somehow I'm not. :) Good to see you in the blogosphere!
ReplyDeleteI've always been proud out the pay equity in our Teamster contracts. Some fokls might not get paid enough, but at least everybody was not getting paid enough. It makes doing something about it more likely.
ReplyDeleteIt never made much sense to me, especially for the public sector employees, to not offer women the same wages as men. Are women less likely to have a family to support? How many single parents are women? Would equal pay at least help relieve the stress of making ends meets? How about in regards to medical bills, or missing work because of sick kids? At the end of the day, any employee who falls below the income threshold becomes eligible for government programs. Where is your money saving strategy now? Is it cheaper to force people onto government programs instead of just paying them a bit more to keep them off?
A 22% hit to wages is huge, y'all ought to consider rioting, or at least making some noise. Maybe its time to put a Union into the Student Union.
Delighted you're joining us in the blogosphere! I'll cross post you.
ReplyDelete