By BERRY CRAIG
AFT Local 1360
Spring training—wrapping up now--is where big league baseball players, having spent most of the winter away from ballparks, get back to the basics--mainly pitching, hitting and fielding—before opening day. (This year April 1.)
But any time is a good time for unions to encourage their members to focus on the fundamentals of what unions have done—and are still doing—not just for them but for all working people.
DC-based AFSCME District Council 20 has on its website “36 Reasons Why You Should Thank a Union.”
The posting explains: “Employers and Corporations did not feel generous and decide to give you two days off every week to have a social/personal life. (We now call them weekends). Corporations did not just feel like being nice one day and give their employees paid vacations. CEOs didn’t get together in a boardroom and say ‘Let’s give our employees more rights at work’ or ‘Maybe there should be laws to limit our power over an employee’.
“Virtually all these benefits you have at work, whether you work in public or private sector, all of the benefits and rights you enjoy every day are there because unions fought hard and long for them against big business who did everything they could to prevent giving you your rights. Many union leaders and members even lost their lives for things we take for granted today.
“If the right-wing attack on unions is nothing more than ignorance, lack of education, and propaganda. If anyone would rather support corporations instead of organized groups of workers to secure a fair work environment A.K.A ‘a union, I asked them to walk the walk as well. Give up every benefit and right that you use that unions are responsible for.”
Here are the three dozen reasons:
1. Weekends
2. All Breaks at Work (Lunch)
3. Paid vacations
4. FMLA
5. Sick Leave
6. Social Security
7. Minimum Wage
8. Civil Rights Act/ Title VII (Prohibits Discrimination)
9. 8- Hour work day
10. Overtime Pay
11. Child labor laws
12. Occupational Safety & health Act (OSHA)
13. 40-hour work Week
14. Worker’s compensation (Worker’s Comp)
15. Unemployment Insurance
16. Pensions
17. Workplace Safety standards and Regulations
18. Employer Health Care Insurance
19. Collective Bargaining Rights for Employees
20. Wrongful Termination Laws
21. Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967
22. Whistleblower Protection Laws
23. Employee Polygraph Protect Act
24. Veteran’s Employment and Training Services (VETS)
25. Compensation increases and Evaluations (Raises)
26. Sexual Harassment Laws
27. Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA)
28. Holiday Pay
29. Employer Dental, Life, and Vision insurance
30. Privacy Rights
31. Pregnancy and Parental Leave
32. Military Leave
33. The Right to Strike
34. Public Education for Children
35. Equal Pay Acts of 1963 & 2011
36. Laws Ending Sweatshops in the United States
The posting concludes: “So, if you don’t have faith in unions would you give up all 36 of these union fought rights?”
Why indeed.