My letter posted at the Wisconsin State Journal Please share (can tweet,facebook from journal site)
since then I have learned about a Harvard study (Bruce Western & Jake Rosenfeld) saying that the loss of unions between 1973 and 2007 accounts for between 20 % and half of the 40 per cent rise in private sector wage inequality in those years.
Peggy Wireman: Strong unions give workers a real voice
| Posted: Sunday, July 31, 2011 4:00 am
Without a strong union movement, all workers probably will lose pay and benefits.
Strong public sector unions set an alternative market for workers who have lost pay and benefits since they lost their unions over the last decades.
The fight against Gov. Scott Walker's union busting was never about paying higher health benefit costs. It was always about having a voice not only about pay and benefits, but also as an advocate in both the workplace and in society.
Unions protect you from being cared for by an exhausted nurse forced to work overtime. Without a union, an individual social worker fired for advocating too forcefully for a client or for sexual harassment by a boss, has no alternative but to personally hire a lawyer.
Without unions, there is no organized group strong enough to protest letting chambers of commerce write the laws governing safety in our workplaces, funds for our schools, protection of our air and water and whether tax laws benefit workers or the wealthy.
The recall elections are not about benefits for public servants. They are about protecting us all.
Peggy Wireman, Monona
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