I disagree with Mr. Jon Paulsen’s recent letter praising Gov. Rauner and criticizing state Sen. Harmon, who is right when he asserts Gov. Rauner’s anti-union, “right-to work” policies are extremely harmful to the middle class.
Without unions there would have been no middle class. Let’s look at the history. Before labor unions won the right to collective bargaining, American workers were essentially wage slaves. Children worked 10 hour days alongside parents in factories, pooling all their earnings to barely eke out an existence. None of the conditions, wages, or child labor abuse was rectified out of the kindness of corporations’ or factory owners’ hearts. People organized into unions and bargained for the improvements many take for granted today.
It is all about wages, not jobs. Slaves had jobs or, as Rauner likes to call it, the “right to work.” But of course they did not get paid. Let’s dispense with the Republican worship of job creators — plantation owners were job creators.
I do not respect anyone who employs another unless they pay them, at the very minimum, a living wage. And a living wage is what most Republicans are against. Thankfully, the exceedingly rich, multimillionaire Rauner had to back off from his initial plan of lowering the minimum wage in Illinois, but his support of “right to work” laws and his attempt to repeal unions’ legally acquired right to collect dues does not bode well for Illinoisans.
States that have “right-to-work” laws have greater poverty overall and non-union workers consistently make much lower wages than union workers. Strong union states benefit all workers in that state as employers must compete for employees.
Paulsen sings the praises of Scott Walker’s Wisconsin as being more fiscally responsible and creating better business climate by taking “steps to offset the impact of unions.” But Walker’s Wisconsin has added private sector jobs at a lower rate than the national average. Furthermore Walker’s public-private Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation not only fell 100,000 jobs short of what was promised, but it also gave out no-bid contracts to Walker’s donors. Walker didn’t care about balancing budgets — he cut workers and their pay so he could give tax breaks to the 1%. Fewer jobs and lower pay do not help the middle class.
Contrast that with Minnesota, where Gov. Mark Dayton, Democrat, raised taxes on the top 2%, increased the minimum wage, expanded Medicaid, added many more jobs than Wisconsin and delivered an overall median income $8,000 higher than the national average.
I’ll take the pro-worker Democratic solution to growth any day over race-to-the-bottom in wages and union rights being posited by Republicans such as Walker and Rauner.
Fran Sampson
Oak Park