THE UNDCLARED WAR CONTINUES!

(Minimum-wage.org, S. Webb & B. Webb Industrial Democracy, Holly Sklar Raise the Floor)

(Harvard Living Wage Fact Sheet, www.theresemurray.com, Frazer Chronicle)

 

America has been the melting pot for the world almost since its inception; it’s why many of our ancestors came here. Reasons were somewhat varied, yet each immigrant had one thing in common, they wanted to start a new life…..opportunity can be the mother of adventure, any adventure, and sailing across the ocean with family, truly was a huge undertaking.

 

There were many reasons for such an arduous move during the 1700’s religious persecution, horrible living conditions, low wages, no work, as mentioned, opportunity, land ownership, (which meant that a freeholder had certain rights and could vote), and of course the usual suspects…..adventurers and the allure of some easy money.

 

The history of the United States didn’t start with Christopher Columbus’s discovery of the new lands in 1492, although it probably would have been more romantic and simple for historians. The history of the new world also isn’t complicated, a few Indians lived in the Americas as well is the occasional French trapper or English trading post proprietor.

 

Indigenous population lived in what is now the United States, and after 1600 european colonists began to arrive mostly from England. Of course we all know that by the middle 17^th century there were 13 colonies and the oppression and taxation without proper representation that Mother England imposed lead to the Revolutionary war being waged with England.

 

Throughout it’s early history, the new country forged an uneasy truce between labor and movement with the use of slaves, and indentured passengers that paid off their steerage by working for free for 2 or 3 years in English owned business in the new world.

 

Directly after the Revolutionary war, and for about twenty years, the number of slaves in the new country changed dramatically, from less than 1% to more than 10% by 1810. However with the development of the Deep South and the cotton industry, the demand for slavery increased and manumissions declined sharply, and slave trading once again became a lucrative source of wealth.

 

During the formative era of the country, during discovery and utilization of natural resources, and the establishment of the tobacco and cotton industries in the south, manufacturing along the eastern seaboard, and the trapping of the upper mid-west immigration was encouraged from European, even going as far as to pay passage, and arrange for housing in America.

 

These early recruiters established a kind of mentality that lasts to this day and the spirit and attitude permeates the industry…..the NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL being four examples. These recruiters would travel from the Americas, and scour the inner cities in search of strong young men that were looking for any kind of work that could either support them, or their families.

 

Free transportation, the promise of a top wage, and the ability to bring their families to American were all offered to these mostly uneducated, dirt poor and oppressed people. With the exception of brutally hard work and atrocious working conditions, little else was true. Top wages turned out to be a farce, and the promise of reclaiming and reuniting with their families was usually a dream that remained just that…..a dream!

 

 

THIS IS THE LEGACY

How does that song go, “We built this city on rock and roll,” well America wasn’t built on rock and roll, but it sure as hell was built on the backs of the African blacks, Chinese, Finlanders, Poles, Germans, and the Swedes. Present day United States owes its history and development to the many immigrants, some that we recruited, and others who made the journey on their own.

 

To say that work conditions were harsh would be…..an understatement, especially when you consider that there was first and foremost a language barrier, to say nothing of the cultural shock that these new workers felt.

 

Workers being taken advantage of began with the initial indoctrination of 12 hour 6 day work week, and then in many situations workers having to pay for their work tools, and thirdly, having to use the company store for all of their needs.

 

And probably the hardest and cruelest of facts that an immigrant worker had to deal with was the fact that it would be next to impossible to reunite with his family. In later years, these recruited workers received help from the company to bring their families to American. It simply was discovered by management that reuniting families was a good business move.

 

Work-place environment has been a sticking-point in American industry since the beginning of worker-management relations. How else could you define a relationship where business owners refer to their employees as debits! The last time that I was referred to as a debit was 2008…..and I resent that reference more today than I did in 2008.

 

U.S. industry has always looked for dirt cheap labor, and vehemently opposed any kind of federal intervention or for that matter any intervention, when it came to the wages and benefits that were paid their employees.

 

The attitude today is, I took all the risks, worked hard to establish my idea and myself into this business, I’ll pay whatever I want. Well howdy-doody, guess what, without workers, almost every idea and effort by an individual or a small group of investors would not have happened, a hundred years ago…..or today.

 

Habitually management pays a wage that they can get away with, it’s the attitude, and it’s been honed and practiced for hundreds of years in every country in the world. As I’ve mentioned before, I understand the attitude, but in practice it makes next to no sense what-so-ever.

 

THE WORK WORLD TODAY

I’m retired…..I’ve boasted as much in the past…..in many of my blogs, and yes…..I’m rubbing it in, and yes, I’m thankful that I don’t have to deal with the jerks out there today. The war that continues today is fought on every front, in every work-place, regardless of where you work, or what your job is. The simple fact is that…..the person that has authority over you has the ability to harm you, to restrict you, and to blunt your creativity. In addition he also has the ability to challenge your freedom of speech, how, what and when you eat, and in many cases, when you can go to the bathroom.

 

Whenever conditions in the workplace tighten up, whenever the flow of almost disposable cash dries up, the worker suffers. Of course you can always move to a foreign land, like Algeria, or Albania where the minimum wage is $4 an hour, or Botswana, $2 an hour or Fiji, $2, or Germany where there isn’t a minimum wage.

Of course than there’s Eritrea, $526 a year, or Guinea-Bissau, $993, or Afghanistan, $907 a year, yes the United States is much better of then the aforementioned world states, however most of those people don’t drive cars, don’t have televisions, health, or life insurance, and don’t worry about a proper burial, mostly their bodies are either taken care of by the wild animals, or put in hollow graves.

 

The minimum wage in the United States varies from $0 in 5 states, to $8.60 in Vermont, while the Federal minimum wage is set at $7.23 an hour. How anybody can make a living wage from any living wage is beyond me.

 

I’m originally from northern Lower Michigan, in an area where tart cherries are a major industry, and an industry that habitually doesn’t pay what could be considered a living wage. Mexican migrant workers used to be brought in from Texas, Arizona and probably Mexico to harvest the cherries.

 

Entire families would be brought in to work the pack for 4 to 6 weeks, and yes it was because the locals didn’t want to do the work. These migrant workers were provided housing, little more than shacks, dealt with outside old fashioned facilities, (outhouses). No running water, just the bare necessities. These people would come for years, the same families to the same farms with their wives and kids who would of course grow older with each passing year.

 

The Mexican migrant workers were, for years, the mainstay of the cherry processing business in northern Michigan. Now cherry shakers a brought in to actually shake the cherries off the tree into conveyor that empty into big tanks filled with water. Mexicans still pick twigs and bad cherries off the conveyor belts, but their numbers have been drastically reduced.

 

Migrant workers in Arizona, California, Texas, Florida and many southern states take advantage of illegal migrant labor in the vegetable and fruit industries. There is a problem with illegal workers right here in Wisconsin, working in all phases of labor intensive areas. Farms and industry take advantage of the cheap labor that I’m sure some of their forbearers did…..possibly some of the same lineage, who knows.

 

A living wage in the United States, how the hell can anybody even guess, our workforce is so diverse, it’s next to impossible to figure that out. Immigrants, migrants, students, part-timers, work-placement companies, and people working under the radar all help to make the question of a living wage a really hard issue to nail down.

 

I do know this, a living wage varies from state to state, from region to region and from city to city, there is no rule of thumb that can be used to figure out a prevailing living wage across the country. I suppose states should take up the issue, but how would that work say, from Wisconsin to Kentucky, what would the difference be…..and rest assured there definitely would be differences.

 

HISTORY WILL BARE ME OUT

Every time, without exception, when there is a new era, like the railroads, or the industrial revolution, or extracting metal and non-metal minerals, or whatever revolution business either invents or discovers, initially cheap or free labor seems to be required.

 

We are traveling at an ever increasing speed towards some sort of cataclysmic event that as yet isn’t discernible, but rest assured, traveling in that direction we are. When people can’t eat, when people can’t care for themselves health wise, and when people have little hope of ever seeing that light at the end of the tunnel for their labor, a man is capable of some very strange decisions.

 

Do I think the powers that dictate wages, and behind the scenes wage this ongoing war with the workers is going to change…..almost without a doubt…..absolutely not…..no way! Their modus-operandi has been established over decades of practice; they have the authorities in their back pockets, and dictate almost every outcome of every decision that is made regarding labor, safety, and wages.

 

Whenever union organizations take a hit either in the marketplace, city, state, or at the federal level, it can only spell bad things for labor on a nation-wide level. Even if you’re not a union member, their existence insures that all workers have a chance at a better situation from their employer.

 

Workers of the World unite, it’s been said before, and undoubtedly it will be said again, as I mentioned at the beginning of this…..”I’m happy to be retired, and ya, I’m rubbing it in.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!