If You Behaved Nicely, Unions Wouldn’t Exist

Recently, I attended a rally on the steps of Seattle City Hall. It was the one-year anniversary of City Employees not having a raise or a union contract. The major sticking point in this process is Mayor Harrell, who had the audacity to offer us a 1 percent raise in a city where the cost of living has risen 8.7 percent this year. He doesn’t view that as the political suicide that it is, because most of the 6,000 city employees impacted by this insanity can’t afford to live within Seattle city limits, and therefore can’t vote him out. Does he think we don’t have friends in Seattle?

I was shocked when he was elected in the first place, because he’s a Republican in Democratic clothing. Conservatives and Trump supporting millionaires financially propped up his campaign to an extreme degree. I thought voters in such a liberal city would see through this, but apparently not.

And now here we are. Many city employees commute as much as 4 hours a day to get to work from more affordable locations. Many hold second jobs to make ends meet. Some even qualify for city low-income programs, because their wages are so paltry. And employees are leaving in droves for the private sector, which adds pressure to those of us who remain behind. For example, the Seattle Department of Transportation can’t keep electricians on staff because they know they can be paid twice as much in the private sector. I wouldn’t stick around either, under those circumstances. Would you?

We are also concerned about safety. As we serve the city, more and more of us are encountering drug addicts, people in mental crisis, homeless encampments where some people are becoming so desperate that they no longer respect the rule of law. City employees have been assaulted and had their vehicles stolen or vandalized.

It’s safe to say that we have a lot to complain about. But when Mayor Harrell heard that city workers were going to hold a rally, he scoffed. “Rally your asses off,” he said.

The arrogance. The total disregard for the people who keep this city going. The nerve.

1 in every 6 of us attended the rally, which was held by a coalition of 16 city unions. Mayor Harrell has attempted to break up this coalition by offering a fair contract to a few individual unions, if they’ll leave the coalition. But they all refused. That’s the whole point of solidarity. You have to treat all of us fairly or no deal.

Electricians, 911 dispatchers, construction workers, City Light employees, engineers, court employees, teamsters, librarians, lifeguards, sheet metal workers, mechanics, painters, and bridge operators like me all stood side by side in front of city hall. We also blocked a major city intersection during rush hour. We had no permit to do that, but what’s a little civil disobedience among friends?

If we don’t have a contract by January 1^st, there’s a possibility of a citywide strike. Can you imagine? All the drawbridges in a wide-open position. No one answering the 911 calls. Libraries shut down. No electricity.

None of us want this. If treated fairly, it wouldn’t even be a consideration. But when’s the last time any employer voluntarily treated employees decently? The wage gap in this country has become even more obscene over the years. But we have the numbers, if we’ll only stick together.

That’s what frustrates me about people who are anti-union. They have this idealized view of the world. They think everyone will be just fine if we all just shut up and behave. But there are no examples of that being successful anywhere on earth.

Greed is a prime motivator for most humans. There is enough food in this world to prevent everyone from starving, and yet 783 million people still go hungry. Greed. Jeff Bezos could give every Amazon warehouse worker a living wage and decent benefits without even missing the money that would take, and yet he doesn’t. Greed. There are enough vacant skyscrapers in this country to house all the homeless, and yet they are sleeping in tents by the highway. Greed.

I am equally frustrated with people who don’t pay union dues and yet they’ll be the first ones to “union up” if their jobs are threatened. They are trying to benefit without contributing. How are they any different from your average corporate mogul?

If you enjoy a 40 hour work week, thank a union. If your child is not forced to work in a factory or a mine, thank a union. If you’ve needed and been able to obtain unemployment benefits or workers compensation, thank a union. If you’ve taken family or medical leave, thank a union. If you’ve ever gotten overtime pay, paid holidays, paid vacations, or retirement benefits, thank a union. If your employer has had to take safety into account in any way, thank a union. If you have taken a break at work, thank a union. If you have been protected from sexual harassment on the job, thank a union. If you had a public education, thank a union. If you collect Social Security, or expect to in the future, thank a union.

Even if you’ve never been fortunate enough to hold a union job in your entire life, it’s unions that have made all these benefits exist. They certainly weren’t created by the benevolence of the upper class. Every raise, everywhere, believe me, has a union to thank for it, either directly or indirectly, because employers wouldn’t give you an extra dime if they didn’t feel pressure to do so. Greed.

Every employment perk can be traced directly to union activism. We are all better off because unions exist. These are facts. Those who are desperately attempting to keep the wealth to themselves don’t want you to know this.

Never doubt that there is strength in numbers. That is why they try so hard to divide and conquer us. Never doubt that the rich and politically powerful are quaking in their boots because the benefits of unions are so obvious that there is always a fear that common sense will prevail and their bubble of greed will someday burst. They certainly wouldn’t want to be down here slogging away with the rest of us, because they know that some other exploiter will happily try to take the cushy place that they just vacated.

Union strong, baby.

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2 responses to “If You Behaved Nicely, Unions Wouldn’t Exist”

Sara Hammer

Sep 22, 2023 at 7:38 am

Great post, thanks for educating and rallying!

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1. The View from a Drawbridge
  
  Sep 22, 2023 at 3:33 pm
  
  Thank you! Feel free to share it far and wide!
  
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The View from a Drawbridge

The random musings of an autistic bridgetender with entirely too much time on her hands.