Op-Ed sent to Norwalk Reflector, Sandusky Register and The BG News
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“An Injury to One is an Injury to All,” this is a famous saying from our Labor History in this country, you know, the history that is not taught in our schools or at the university level in our state. The thought behind it, means that when one person is suffering from injustice, we all are suffering from injustice. Actually, this has basis in the precepts of most of the life philosophies of the world, including Christianity. Pope John Paul II said in his 1981 encyclical, “Novarum Rerum,” that as long as there is one person suffering from injustice in the world, it was the collective responsibility of the rest of the world to have that redressed. John Paul II also went on to say that it is the right of all workers to organize to bargain for better pay and benefits in the workplace.
It is 2011, and there is a new order in Columbus and other state capitols, as well as on the hill in Washington, D.C. The elections of 2010 tilted the pendulum to the extreme right of the spectrum. We are now seeing the fruit of that swing in legislation being advanced in the Congress and in State Legislatures across the country. One of the prime targets of this legislation seems to the working class, particularly those workers in the public sector who are organized. State after State that was been taken over by the GOP are now demonizing the folks who plow our roads and streets, make our water clean, protect the environment from pollution, teach our children from Kindergarten to University level and protect our homes from fire and crime as the cause of the fiscal problems we are currently facing in Ohio and other states. In Ohio, Governor John Kasich is asking the legislature to castrate the collective bargaining system by passing Senate bill 5 and which will give government dictatorial power to set aside contracts negotiated in good faith, to reduce pay and benefits.
This is nothing new for it has been an ongoing process since 1981, when the Air Traffic Controllers were arbitrarily fired for striking by the President, Ronald Reagan, and were replaced with scabs. The labor community witnessed this action by the executive branch and did nothing. Since that time, working people have been under attack, by outsourcing their jobs to other countries under the guise of cheaper wages for sure but also to diminish the numbers of UAW members, USWA members, IAM members and all of the other industrial labor unions. The industrial unions tried their best to contribute to the “solution” by givebacks, rules concessions, and job consolidations in the shops. Workers were coming up with better ways to operate and produce their products, the result being the dramatic increase of productivity to record levels today. An increase that the workers did not share in with increased wages and benefits. Worker wages and benefits since 1973 have been nearly straight-line with little or no increase. Health benefits have been on the chopping block at each contract talk, and have been whittled down or eliminated entirely, resulting in a net loss of wages to workers who have to pay for them out of pocket now.
When I graduated from high school in 1966, there were many opportunities, going to college was an option but not critical, as there were many good paying jobs available that could support a family, now that is not the case. An example is in the railroad industry, as recent as 1982, over 510,000 people were working in it, and now in 2011 there are about 110,000 working in it, moving more or the same number of freight tons per mile with 400,000 fewer workers. We see every day those kinds of jobs being under attack, the current attack locally being the workers under siege at Tsubaki in Sandusky, Ohio. The same story can be found in all of the industrial unions which have had a spin off in fewer opportunities for our children to find a good job.
We are now told that the key is in education, and we have record numbers of people going to school or returning to school. The issues here in higher education are the cost, the loan debt being assumed by the students and the $64,000 question, are there going to be jobs for these folks after they finish school? The $8 Billion budget hole in Ohio will again cause tuition and fees at state schools to increase even more, pricing more and more people out of an education. When I was teaching at a local college, faculty received emails discussing the numbers of new and transfer students on a continual basis. This was to remind us of that higher education was now a “business” that needed higher and higher numbers of students to run it. As the state government cut taxes for the rich, the SSI or State Share of Instruction, fell from over 70% in the 70’s to less than 30% in the 21st century, parents and students have now become cash cows for Higher Education Administration.
Senate Bill 5 is a bad idea that impacts on working Ohioans and will not really address the issues of the funding gaps in a tax system that has shoved most of the burden on the middle class and poorer classes while creating billions of dollars in welfare handouts for corporations. We need equity in Ohio, not Tyranny; truly an injury to one is an injury to all.
