In a column “When coal and unions were king”, Associate Editor Gil Smart describes a family trip to “coal country last week – Ashland, right over the hill from smoldering Centralia….
“The story of Pennsylvania’s coal country is fascinating for those interested in the economic history of our country and in the history of organized labor. Here was an epicenter of the labor movement. We visited an old coal mine; it’s easy to see why.
“Our national view on unions seems to be that they once played a necessary role but have now outlived their usefulness. Indeed, in the popular, right-leaning narrative, unions are a scourge, driving up costs, impeding efficiency, protecting slackers…”.
WATCHDOG: Last week we sat down for the initial bargaining session with a successor union for one of our hotels. Our relationship with their predecessors had been excellent over two decades. Because we are dealing for the first time, both sides came to the table with trepidations.
The union only represents workers at about a third of the hotels in the region. Furthermore, if the workers were to go out on strike, we could quickly bring in replacements from an agency for the lesser skilled positions at equal or less costs. The other positions can be staffed by supervisors or borrowed personnel from other company entities. We would be able to operate adequately within three hours and normally within two to three days.
It is a hard hand for the union to play and indicative how the balance of power between management and labor has shifted over the past half century. Is this a good thing? We believe not. Most of our workers are paid around $10 to $11 an hour, at or near the poverty level for a single head of family, something we can not take pride in. Yet we could replace many with an agency at equal or less cost of us (minimum wage of $7.25 to the largely immigrant workers, and the employer pockets the savings of no health care benefits.)
Are we so naive that we do not recognize that some unions take advantage of their members? Are we so naïve that we don’t recognize that some management of corporations take advantage of their stock holders? The solution is enforcement of existing or appropriate new laws in both circumstances
Will we negotiate a contract without a work stoppage? We believe so. Will the wages be competitive for the better paid workers in the region? Yes. How else are we to attract good workers?
Can we afford to pay more? No because it is a labor intensive and cut throat business and hardly profitable. What we would like is for the union to organize the balance of the hotels in the region. Then room prices would follow. But this isn’t likely to happen due to the non-union stance of certain powerful chains. The former bargaining power of unions may never be restored.
Today we have the worse of two worlds: A week labor movement and the lowest taxes on the wealthy in almost a century. (Cause and effect?) Is the United States of America to be a nation that cares about all of its people? Has democracy been replaced by plutocracy, a nation where there is 2% who do extremely well while the real wages of the rest never grow and the middle class continues to shrink? Your choice!
