Unions, good for workers and business
Akron Beacon Journal - Editorial
By Larry Thompson
Published on Tuesday, Mar 10, 2009
Founded over 30 years ago, Thompson Electric is today one of the largest electrical contractors in Ohio. Our success derives from an outstanding, loyal customer base, a strong commitment to provide residents of Northeast Ohio with quality service and a dedicated union work force. In fact, it's our relationship between management and our employees' union that has built a foundation of mutual respect, collaboration and shared prosperity with our employees.
Every day, responsible companies across the United States find it hard to compete against those who refuse to allow their employees to join unions, who pay substandard wages with little or no benefits, and who don't value the contributions their workers provide to the success of the business.
Thompson Electric is proof that unions are good for workers and good for business. Our positive, long-term partnership with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers is one of the main reasons that I, as an entrepreneur and business owner, support passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. More workers across the United States should be given a free and fair chance to form a union, just like our employees.
Our union workers receive the most cutting-edge job training available, and it pays off through lower injury rates, increased productivity and a strengthened ability to serve the people of Ohio. The union difference is not only impressive, but a valuable commodity in our line of work.
The Employee Free Choice Act will allow more workers the ability to bargain for better wages, benefits and retirement security, and when that happens, our communities will be strengthened. Local residents will have more money in their pockets to purchase homes, automobiles and needed goods and services, which in turn will help our ailing economy.
Increased incomes that result from union membership will expand our local tax base, helping adequately fund our schools, law enforcement, roads and bridges, and also helping the federal government pay down the deficit - key components to improving everyone's quality of life and maintaining future benefits for our children.
Current labor statistics will show that compared to the average worker of 20 years ago, the average worker today has less purchasing power. Many of today's families depend on two incomes to make ends meet, often with neither being offered adequate health-care coverage or retirement benefits. What will become of these young workers at retirement age or if a serious medical condition strikes a family member?
Unfortunately, communities won't get to see such benefits unless the law is reformed. Currently, too few workers get a chance at having a union. Employers often use illegal tactics to prevent their employees from organizing - nearly 30 percent of employers faced with an organizing effort fire workers for their support of a union. That's why our lawmakers from Ohio must join President Obama, a broad majority of supporters in Congress and an overwhelming majority of the American people in supporting the Employee Free Choice Act.
Not only will it allow more workers the ability to improve their standard of living, but it will also toughen penalties against companies that violate the law through illegal union-busting tactics.
In this time of economic strife and uncertainty, it's time to level the playing field and give every worker in this country a fair shot at achieving the American Dream. For decades, unions gave working men and women that opportunity, and our nation was better off. Now is the time for us to once again make common sense and long overdue changes in the way we treat our workers, and we can start by making the Employee Free Choice Act the law of the land.
________________________________________
Thompson is president of Thompson Electric in Munroe Falls.
