Thank you, Ken (Ken Mass – of the Nebraska State AFL-CIO).

I was asked to appear here today to talk about labor unions and social and economic justice.

And I cannot think of a better way to put this all in perspective than this:

I am sure all of you are familiar with Parade Magazine…it comes every week as part of the ads and inserts with the Sunday newspaper.  Recently, the magazine posed this question to its readers:

Does America Still Need Labor Unions?

And that compelled me to think…about a whole series of other questions.

Like: 

How did we ever get to a point where the question of union relevancy is taken seriously and even debated?

And, how, in this era of AIG, Wall Street greed, rampant unemployment and stagnant wages can we question the critical role that unions have played, and continue to play, in this society?  And yet…these are questions that are being seriously debated.

And…incredibly…the labor movement is on the defensive.

Every American…no matter their race, their gender, or their income…should be bothered by the fact that there is a sentiment that exists in our culture that questions the efficacy and relevance of labor unions in this nation.

Even worse, they should be incensed that there is an effort, driven by anti-union conspirators, to use the current debate over the Employee Free Choice Act as a way to demonize labor unions and portray them as the root cause of our current economic troubles.

How have we gotten to this point?

How has an entire generation of Americans completely forgotten the critical contributions that labor has made, and continues to make, towards the security and prosperity of our great nation?

Every generation prior to this one…going back as far as Abraham Lincoln…has recognized the important role and contributions made by labor towards the achievement of our broader national goals.  Goals that are exemplified in the Declaration of Independence as “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

In fact, it was President Lincoln himself who once remarked…and I quote, “All that serves labor serves the nation.  All that harms is treason.  If a man tells you he trusts America, yet fears labor, he is a fool.  There is no America without labor, and to fleece the one is to rob the other.”

How, I ask you, have we digressed from that sentiment to the point where we find ourselves today…where non-union American workers have been conditioned to resent, and even outright hate, their working class union brethren who enjoy family-sustaining wages, and health and pension benefits?

How are we supposed to react when educated members of Congress outrageously claim that the root cause of the decline of the American automobile industry is based on the fact that union autoworkers had the audacity to bargain for middle class wages.

Wages that made it possible to send several generations of children to college?

I sometimes feel we are living in an “Alice in Wonderland” moment. Where we have gone through the looking glass and what we see makes no sense whatsoever.

How can it be that our society has generally lost its understanding of the great and mighty contributions made by American’s labor movement?

How can an entire generation lose sight of the fact that just 50 years ago when the American middle class was on a robust path to expansion and the economy was soaring, that one in three of every U.S. worker belonged to a union?

How is it that Americans cannot understand that greater numbers of union members means greater bargaining power…which means increased wages…which means increased purchasing power…which means economically viable neighborhoods and communities?

According to the Department of Labor, union workers earn 30% more than their non-union counterparts…

Taking home, on average $863 per week…as opposed to $663 for the typical non-union worker.

And it is 59% more likely that union workers and their families have health insurance.

Increased wages and purchasing power…along with health insurance…are societal benefits that would not exist if not for unions.

Maybe that is why Republican President Dwight Eisenhower once said…“Only a fool would try to deprive working men and women of their right to join the union of their choice.”

He knew, as did most 20th century presidents, that every major advance in American society…from Social Security to public education to minimum wage laws to civil rights laws to OSHA to Medicare…right on up to the Family and Medical Leave Act…has come about because of the support and leadership of America’s labor movement.

Labor holds a respected and powerful place in our national life…both yesterday and today.

I would go even further and claim that the role of labor unions in America has never been more critical than it is today.  For the past 25 years, working American families have struggled in the changing economic world and we have been unwilling victims in the grand scheme of the unregulated, free flowing, profit-driven “global economy.”

And what has this experimentation gotten us?

Only one of the worst financial catastrophes of our time and a growing income disparity that has broad ramifications for the health of our economy, our society and our culture.  All of which has resulted in a rapidly shrinking middle class.

But, today labor is working with the first pro-worker, pro-union President in a generation.

A President who is intent on re-building what once was, and what should be, the most resilient and admired economy in the world.  We work with President Obama with unity of purpose and we do it because we are proud of this great nation and want to see it work once again for all Americans; rather than the privileged few.

We must re-build an American economy that rewards and honors work, not wealth.

We wish to see once again a “trickle-up” economy, if you will, that puts the interests of workers first and recognizes the contributions that labor unions make in advancing the common good.

Because, believe it or not, unions have a substantial impact on the wages and quality of life not just for unionized workers but for non-union workers as well. 

According to the Economic Policy Institute, virtually all workplace protections enjoyed by American workers can be attributed to unions.  Laws and regulations that unions helped pass now constitute the majority of labor and industrial relations policies in the United States.

The bottom line is that unionized workers enjoy higher wages and better benefits. And as a result, they help to set higher compensation for non-union workers in industries where unions have a strong presence.

And at no time in our national history has that been as important as it is today.  The dangerous acceleration of income inequality in the United States and the related decline of the middle class are central to our current economic crisis.  In fact, according to Dr. Paula Roos of Rutgers University, 59% of all the income growth in the United States since 1989 went to the upper 1% of households, and about 36% of this vast sum went to the upper one-tenth of 1% of American households.

This shift of income to the upper one percent amounts to approximately one trillion dollars of wealth.

It is not a mere coincidence that this massive shift in wealth from the middle class to the upper reaches of society occurred during an era of open hostility to labor unions in America.

It all began in 1981 when President Ronald Reagan fired 11,000 of our nation’s air traffic controllers, who were seeking better working conditions, increased pay and a 32 hour workweek.  Reagan’s action sent a signal to corporate America that not only was it OK to resist unions but it was now acceptable, and even admired, for businesses to be brutally aggressive in breaking our unions.

As a result, we now have a multi-billion dollar, union-busting industry that encompasses several thousand management consultants and law firms devoted exclusively to the destruction of American unions.

And they have successfully brainwashed the American public into believing that unions are somehow a detriment to our national economic health.

This notion is completely contrived and misguided.  Because there are several studies that show that unionized companies are no more likely to fail than companies that remain non-union.

The fact is, our economic revival, as well as our future economic stability and growth, are equally dependent upon a thriving middle class having the purchasing power to help sustain our economy.

We cannot, and we must not, try to resurrect another “bubble economy” that is based upon financial speculation, debt-financed consumption and Wall Street wizardry.  No…our cause is to build an investment-oriented economy that steers us toward a more sustainable growth path. 

Our future economic growth must be driven more by investments that lead to the creation of good jobs and rising wages.  Greater rates of unionization in America can contribute to this sustained economic growth because wages and benefits will rise and income inequality will be reduced.

A rising tide does lift all boats.

The bottom line is that unions are the foundation for a broad and healthy middle class that is essential to our long-term economic strength. 

I previously read a quote from President Dwight Eisenhower where he spoke of the foolish notion of trying to prevent workers from forming a union.  It is no accident that the prosperity and consumer boom of the 1950s, when Eisenhower was president, was also defined by a period of unprecedented middle-class expansion, broad business growth, increased home ownership, rising consumer spending, and the shared expectation that a college education was within the reach of everyone’s children.

And all of this occurred following the greatest sustained expansion of unionization in American history?

Was this coincidence?  I think not!

Now, the same merchants of doom that seek the destruction of the American labor movement…will respond to that by saying “That was then.  Those lessons do not apply in today’s expanding global economy. Our economic competitiveness will be hurt by an increase in union representation.”

A sober analysis of the facts reveals there is little to fear in this regard.  First, most of the high-end economies with which we compete have higher unionization rates than ours.  Out of the 20 highest performing economies in the world the United States ranks 17th in terms of unionization rates.

Here’s another interesting and sad fact:  Out of over 100 democratic nations in the free world there is only one that does not have card check, or a form thereof for employees to decide whether or not they want a union.  There is only one where the government allows the Employer to decide whether or not there is an election.

You guessed it – that one country is the United States of America.

Second, low labor costs should never, ever, be the basis for U.S. competitiveness in a global economy.  The only reason they have been is because past Administrations have appointed corporate representatives to oversee and negotiate our recent multi-lateral trade agreements.  And those agreements were crafted and designed to further enhance the low-wage business model of the global corporate community…which has absolutely devastated the American heartland that was also our manufacturing base.

Labor standards and human rights were ignored at the expense of American workers.

The United States can, and should, compete on the basis of innovation, high-value added, high quality and high productivity.  And numerous studies have shown that unionization tends to promote the shift to these foundations of competition.

Now, the pessimists and doomsayers will also tell you that unionization will kill American small business…which they repeatedly, and rightfully claim is the engine of job growth for our country.

Again, this is a fallacy designed to hide their hidden agenda…which is the elimination of unions from American society so that wealth and political power can become even more concentrated in the hands of a privileged few.

But in reality, small businesses can accrue substantial benefits from unionization.

Let’s me offer up an example that I am most familiar with….the construction industry. In the construction industry, like many industries, there are many small to medium sized contractors.  In a given metropolitan area there can be a sizable number of general and specialty contractors.  When a union achieves substantial area-wide unionization those contractors enjoy standardized compensation and a more stable industry.  Additionally, they gain access to a pool of highly-skilled and highly productive craft workers from our unrivaled apprenticeship and training programs.  But, most importantly, these contractors gain a partner that is focused on preserving and enhancing the competiveness of its unionized employers.

Ladies and gentlemen, I sincerely hope that I have convinced you that the restoration of the American middle class is vitally essential for the recovery and long-term health of the American economy.

And I hope that I have been as equally convincing with my claim that a healthy and growing unionization rate is essential for re-building that middle class.

And the next time someone, or some magazine, asks the question: Does America Still Need Labor Unions?”

I hope you will respond with a resounding and emphatic: “YES! – unless we desire to become a third world country comprised of two classes...where the masses have little and the few have much.

Thank you.