APP Featured Letter: "Labor movement created America's middle class"

There was a wonderful letter in yesterday's Asbury Park Press (8/19), it was the featured letter and I thought it would be great to share with folks.:

Thank you for the informative article, “New ideas for labor” in the Aug. 10 Press. It points out several ways dedicated new workers’ rights groups and traditional union organizers are cooperating to “create new models and new ways to represent workers.”

I applaud their efforts!

Are unions perfect? Far from. Have there been egregious union abuses? Certainly.

But the American labor movement created the American middle class. It is not surprising that the declining living standards of the middle class coincided with the political efforts to emasculate American unions.

Do you like a living wage? Do you like an eight-hour workday? Do you like safe working conditions? Do you like weekends? Do you like vacations, personal days, sick time and health insurance? If so, thank a union.

American workers enjoy these only because dedicated labor leaders and members fought, sacrificed and sometimes died for the right to collective bargaining.

Collective bargaining is the fundamental concept governing workers’ rights. Without that right — exercised without fear of retaliation — we create a workplace environment of every-man-for-himself. And no individual worker is any match for the company.

Logically enough, corporate America will always defend its business-minded agenda of more and greater profits for the owners, sacrificing their workers’ well-being to that cause. With collective action, working Americans can protect their vital interests. With solidarity, America’s workers can attain status as middle-class Americans.

Flora T. Higgins

COLTS NECK