I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Labor Unions and My Home Town


I grew up in the town of Walter Reuther and Jimmy Hoffa, the town of the UAW, the AFLCIO, and a host of lesser-known organizations, all dedicated to the task of uniting labor in one of the most prominent of American industries. You would think that would make me a strong supporter of labor unions.

It did not. When I was growing up in Detroit, Michigan, in the 1950s, labor unions dominated the city, which, of course, was the home of the Big Three auto manufacturers, Ford, GM and Chrysler. Most of the parents of my friends at school were laborers, and members of one of the various unions associated with the auto industry. It seemed unions were an all-pervasive presence in the town that built the cars.

My family, however, was not a union family. My father, W. L. Parsons, was a salesman in an exclusive, downtown shoe store for women. There was no union for employees in the store. Nor did Dad want there to be a union.

Unions had a bad name in my family, because any time they called a strike, usually, it seemed, for a wage increase, it cut into sales at my dad's store. Since he worked on commission, that meant money out of his pocket, and that threatened the security of his wife and children. Unions on strike also meant that there were interruptions in major services on which the rest of us were dependent. And, ultimately, successful strikes meant the cost of living would go up for everyone as manufacturers raised their prices to cover their increased labor costs.

We were not a militant anti-union family, and my father usually voted for candidates from the Democratic party. However, a union on strike did bring out some negative comments from my parents.

Now that I am retired, and my parents are in Heaven, I do recognize the role unions have played and continue to play in our society. However, as a former resident of metropolitan Detroit, I also recognize the great abuses that have characterized unions in cities like Detroit. It is true that every dime paid to union members in salaries, health care, and retirement benefits does add to the cost of living for union members and non-members alike. Every union demand that is met means greater costs of the products the union members help produce.

I strongly believe that there needs to be a counter balance to labor unions, an opposing force that keeps unions in check. Usually that force has been government and laws designed to limit what a union can and cannot do. This is essential.

A balance between labor and management is the best way to meet the needs of both sides. Adequate pay and worker safety is necessary for the success of any company. On the other side, management's ability to manage the company for its continued health and progress is of equal importance to the workers' needs.

My home town today is a broken city. There were many elements that worked together to bring down one of America's great cities. American auto manufacturers did not respond wisely to the success of foreign-built cars. The American car was designed to last only a short time, and then to be replaced. Foreign cars were designed to last longer, and be more fuel efficient. The Big Three lagged behind foreign manufacturers in vision and response to the needs of American car owners, opting for large, gas-guzzling autos instead of the types of cars being built in places such as Japan.

The government of the city of Detroit itself became more and more corrupt and unresponsive to the need for well-maintained infrastructure and other services to its citizens. The city declined. People of means fled. Drugs, gangs, violence and the social ills these things bring took over the once beautiful and well-functioning city.

But there was another element that led to the downfall of the city. That element was the labor unions. Unwilling or unable to read the handwriting on the wall, unions continued to make demands for salaries and benefits for their members, even as the manufacturers and the businesses all the citizens depended on rapidly declined. Rather than allowing management to make tough but necessary decisions about wages, benefits, layoffs, and so forth, the unions kept up their demands for larger and larger slices of the pie. Unions share blame with management, and with the city government for the fall of Detroit. Unions are not innocent victims.

Fifty years of my life has not changed my mind about the place unions have in our society. They are necessary, certainly. But they also need to be restrained by laws so as not to overstep their place. Now that the Big Three seem to be in a better position to grab a growing share of the market, and the city of Detroit is seeking to reinvent itself with a new leadership, it will be interesting to see whether the unions will help rebuild the city and its industries, or seek to play its game by the same old, tired policies that helped to ruin the city.