Very few political positions held by American conservatives are more paradoxical than their view of American workers. Republicans speak at length about their love for the men and women who break their backs for the economy, but do little by way of actually assisting them in the furtherance of their success. Republicans are notorious for talking-points — “jobs, jobs, jobs” — while vehemently opposing anything that would make the lives of American workers more fulfilling, especially when it comes to pay, benefits, and the most flagrant conservative opposition: labor union law.
Conservatives hate labor unions and are actively working to dismantle them all around the country. For the most part, they have been successful. In 1983, 23.4 percent of American wage and salary workers were unionized. By 2013, that number had dipped to 11.3 percent. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s governorship has been defined by anti-union politics and those politics have contributed heavily to his darling status with the GOP.
Despite the anti-union rhetoric pro-business conservatives try to pass off as gospel, unionization and union labor law are necessary for the welfare of American workers. We don’t have to look that far into America’s past to understand why.
Max Blanck and Issac Harris owned and operated the Triangle Shirtwaist Company’s factory in New York City around the turn of the 20th Century. Both Blanck and Harris were well-known for their anti-worker practices. Most of Triangle’s employees were young immigrant women (some as young as 14) who worked 9-10 hours per day in decrepit, unsafe conditions for a mere $7 per week. As a point of comparison, $7 per week in 1909 is the 2014 equivalent of $181.69 per week, which falls well short of New York City’s standard of living at the time. A fair living wage for a working-class employee in 1909 New York was $14 per week, or the 2014 equivalent $363.39 per week.
Fed up with the conditions in which they worked, shirtwaist workers around New York City assembled and protested their employers for better hours, better pay, and safer conditions. While other shirtwaist factories relented and changed their practices, even allowing their workers to unionize, Blanck and Harris did not. The “Shirtwaist Kings” even went so far as to pay police officers to beat the women and pay off city politicians to look the other way.
After 11 weeks, Blanck and Harris would eventually relent, paying their workers better and making their hours more reasonable. But, the two would not budge on allowing the employees to unionize. The Triangle employees went back to work completely powerless in changing their dangerous working conditions — poor ventilation, a lack of safety protocols, shoddy emergency exists, and perpetually locked doors.
March 25, 1911, 240 workers spent their Saturday on the 9th floor of the Triangle factory, stitching shirtwaists while New Yorkers leisured in the streets below. A fire began on the eighth floor, unknown to the workers above. By the time they were aware of the fire, it was too late. The women panicked and rushed toward the open stairwell, only to be greeted by walls of searing flames.
A few of the workers were able to get into a service elevator and escape, while others fell into the elevator shaft and died amidst the pandemonium. Other workers crammed onto a scanty fire escape, which collapsed under the weight and sent the workers plummeting to their deaths on the concrete below. Others died of smoke inhalation or burned to death. Altogether, 146 employees of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory died in the incident. All but 17 were women and nearly half were teenagers.
While this may be an incident from another time in American history, this is what can happen when employers are given all of the power and employees are rendered impotent. It is unreasonable to expect men and women dictated by the “bottom line” to always be altruistic toward their employees if they are not forced to do so. Labor unions and labor union law forced employers and employees into mutually-beneficial relationships.
The American conservative bloc does not value these mutually-beneficial relationships. They appear to value its antithesis, where employers are given free-reign to operate their businesses as they see fit, even if it means rendering their employees into what is effectively indentured servitude. “Right to Work” is a misnomer that creates an environment where corporate interests are paramount and employees are expendable.
Does this seem like the way we should be conducting business?
Featured image is in the public domain.
