Look for the union label

I've always been a union man.  So when I became a teacher, I naturally joined the union.  In fact, if I remember correctly, I sought out the union rep, he didn't seek me.  It wasn't long before I became a union rep and then I started writing columns for the union newspaper.  I joined committees.  I helped man phone banks.  I drove my VW van, the perfect union car, to a big rally at the ad building and brought admiring looks from all of my friends who still wished we could be back in the sixties protesting outside Sproul Hall at Berkeley, our tie died micro buses waiting out in the parking lot to take us to our next venue.

Having said that, I have always been a little skeptical of unions.  The only union I really know is NEA-CEA-JCEA, so I'll focus on that for a second.  For instance, I am idealistic enough to think that the first priority of a teachers' union should be to insure that kids get a good education, to actively promote ideas and new programs that would achieve that end.  It was and continues to be disillusioning to realize the naiveté of such a belief.  A teachers's union first goal has to be the rights and salaries and benefits of its membership and frequently that preempts efforts to help kids.  Not only is that the way it is, that's the way it has to be because there are some things about unions that I know.

+I know JCEA, CEA, NEA, the AFT, and any other acronyms I'm missing, have done more to help kids and CREATE JOBS than all their detractors put together
+I know without a strong teacher union, school boards and school administrations would fuck over the teaching rank and file without giving it a second thought.  The idea that we are all in this together, that we R-1, is absurd.
+I know I would not have the comfortable life I lead now without all those acronyms listed above.
+I know when a state official calls undermining the power of union a Right To Work initiative that it is a bald faced lie the official gets away with because he knows the electorate is too selfish, stupid, and lazy to discover the truth
+I know Right To Work states create fewer new jobs than other states, that Right To Work states have lower salaries, lower benefits, and a rapidly disappearing middle class
+I know the idea that a low paying job is better than no job is a chimera which will only plunge us further into recession and lower our entire GDP
+I know that those who are pushing Right To Work laws in other states know all this.  Their real motivation is to take even more money away from workers and redistribute it to the JOB CREATORS, the wealthy, the people who make up the definitions.
+I know a strong middle class is the best JOB CREATOR and I further know that more than any other social phenomenon in my lifetime, unions create a strong middle class.

My final thought here is I wonder how serious all this brouhaha in Michigan is.  I know that only 17% of the work force in Michigan is union, but that is pretty typical.  The real question is what is the percentage of autoworkers who are union?  My experience in JCEA might be instructive.  Non-union members were not required to pay dues or even a representation fee, but our percentage of membership was high enough that we didn't need the non-members' contributions.  I suspect it is probably the same in auto manufacturing.

That's another thing--the deciding factor actually--that made joining the union a no-brainer for me.  I looked around the Green Mountain faculty at the people who weren't members--disgruntled white males with ill-fitting baseball caps--and decided that any organization those losers didn't want to belong to was made to order for me.  I immediately went up to Dale Bartkus, our union rep at the time, and said, "Sign me up."