Op-Ed: Why unions are striking — and winning more public support than in 50 years (via latimesopinion)
If today’s strikes have a specific cause, it’s management’s demand for two-tier pay systems that will mean lower wages and reduced benefits — indeed worse living standards — for future workers. To many corporations, demanding two pay tiers makes sense: It placates current employees by maintaining their pay and benefits, while reducing overall labor costs by paying future workers less.
Of course, the reason corporate leaders love two-tier pay systems is that they undermine unions and divide workers. Two tiers foment tensions and make new employees angry at their unions for having agreed to management’s demands to pay new people less. And once established, two-tier systems are extremely hard to undo.
For unions, it may be tempting to trade away wages and benefits for future workers, who aren’t there to complain — yet. But there’s also rising resistance to corporate efforts to push down pay and living standards for the next generation. “These are our kids and grandkids. We don’t want a worse future for them,” said Laursen, the Deere striker.
In taking firm stances on this issue and others, unions are setting an economic justice agenda. By doing that, along with a spate of high-profile strikes, unions have wonSteven Greenhouse is the author of “Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present, and Future of American Labor.”
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