Recently Fox News was at it again talking about how unions create problems for American businesses and, in particular, how unions are destroying the American economy.
Now let’s contrast this with some reality…
One of our writers here at LA Labor 411 spent a summer working in an elastomeric roof coating factory in Twinsburg, Ohio. Though he was hired as a temporary worker, it was a union factory. His job, like for many people in the factory, was to pick up a 45 pound container off the line and stack it on a palette six feet away every four seconds… for eight hours a day… in a factory that was over 100 degrees Fahrenheit with 85% humidity and filled with chemical vapors… each day… every day.
I’ve been deeply involved with supporting the union movement in Southern California and around the country for over 15 years now. It’s what I do and a cause I firmly believe in.
Starting in 2008 my company began partnering with the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor in what I felt was a very important endeavor – publishing a yellow pages for the union movement so it would be easy for members and other activists on the front line to find good quality union-made products. LA Labor 411 was born – the first directory for union goods and services.
Our society has been thoughtlessly consumed by blind materialism for the last several decades. We need to open our eyes to how we spend our money.
Recently we were having dinner with a union member and he talked about visiting family members in North Carolina. When he was younger so many of his family members worked in textile plants. He recalled visiting back east when the big box stores opened up and flooded the market with cheap, poor quality imports and how these same family members would pile into their cars and excitedly go to Wal-Mart to buy cheap clothing. He was filled with the thought of “What are you people thinking?” as he watched them with glee purchase stuff made overseas that were in direct competition with what they made with their own hands.