In 1981, President Ronald Reagan made a choice that set the tone for decades of American labor attitudes.
When 12,000 members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization marched off the job that August after negotiations broke down with the Federal Aviation Administration over their work contract, Reagan ordered them to return to work or be fired. As government union employees, their strike was illegal. Forty-eight hours later, Reagan made true on that threat and fired over 11,000 workers, permanently barring them from federal government work.
Such a harsh move would be difficult for other presidents to come back from, but Reagan was incredibly popular.
“His policies may have been divisive, but his style wasn’t divisive,” said political historian and LSU professor Bob Mann. “If you polled people on his policies, they may not be that popular… If you asked if they liked him, they’d say yes.”
Reagan’s popularity was the Trojan horse that allowed an army of anti-working class legislation through the gates.
The firing of thousands of workers was a boon for the elite and set the tone for their encroachments that have continued to this day. Critics of this argument attempt to diminish the importance of the PATCO firings by distinguishing between unions bargaining with the government versus with private companies.
But this ignores the clear, intended message sent by Reagan’s actions. He let every employer in America know his administration’s view of labor rights. The firing of the air traffic controllers was the symbolic lynchpin and a harbinger of the coming gains for the prince at the expense of the pauper.
An ideal government protects its people from the predation of big business. This country’s current reality is a demonstration of the effects of the government and business joining forces against labor.
Productivity has increased in the past few decades, but that isn’t evident looking at wages. According to the Economic Policy Institute, productivity has outpaced pay by a factor of 3.5, from 1979 to 2020.
From 1983 to 2021, the percentage of workers that are part of a union has fallen from 20% to 10%, according to the Pew Research center. This trend is no random occurrence, but rather the result of deliberate suppression of labor by the ruling class.
Professional consulting firms are a great resource for companies to crush union activity. Amazon, for one, contracted the Burke Group, a labor relations consulting firm, to help the company squash the union vote at a facility in Bessemer, Alabama.
The campaign involved sending texts and mail to employees warning them about the supposed dangers of joining a union. Amazon even offered bonuses to employees who quit before the election according to local reporting by AL.com.
Employers fear unions — they shudder to think of a dark future where their employees make a living wage and get paid time off. With elected officials often in the pockets of corporations, unions are the only avenue for workers to have a seat at the table.
Unionized workers earn 11% more in wages than their non-unionized counterparts, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Even non-unionized workers benefit from high union density in their state. States with higher union density have higher wages even for non-unionized workers. When forced to compete with union jobs, employers must offer more to their workers.
Unionized workers are 18% more likely to receive health insurance from their employer, according to a Congressional committee report. Employers also pay 77% more per hour worked toward the cost of health insurance for unionized workers compared with non-unionized workers, the report found.
When workers stand together, they hold unique strength to advocate for themselves and their working conditions.
“As individuals, we have very little recourse against those who would take advantage of our labor,” said Jack Griswold, a student senator from the LSU College of Humanities and Social Sciences and the chairperson of the Senate committee on Student Auxiliary Services. “The union, as an entity, unites our minds and resources against such an abuser, or better, serves as a deterrent against such a threat. Without such organizations, the fair and productive workplace would be rare.”
Labor unions have also helped decrease racial and gender pay gaps. This effect of unions is the material manifestation of the tendency unions have to bring people together.
“The bosses want you divided among race, gender and politics,” said Adam Dohrenwend, a geography and anthropology grad student who heads the Grad Gold Student Government ticket and is a member of the United Campus Workers of Louisiana. “We’re more similar than we are different. Unions are a fundamental way of society to realize that.”
The idea of division is central to the corporate goal of preventing collective bargaining. People in power purposely sow discord among the working class through the media, a kind of cultural union busting that aims to prevent class consciousness and worker solidarity.
The media will pay lip service to stories about the illegal labor-crushing actions of corporations or rising pro-union sentiment. However, most of their news is an ongoing debate centered around whatever Fox News or CNN decided to get upset about in a given week. These news stories ensure that people are directing their ire at their neighbor and not their boss.
The assault on labor has been deliberate and corrosive to the lives of everyday Americans. In the same country where people are starving, billionaires are spending their money trying to get to space for no discernible reason.
The American worker is suffering, and the problem, unfortunately, can’t be fixed by asking nicely. The only viable means of taking back what’s been lost is through the powerful unionization of the labor force.
Frank Kidd is a 21-year-old mass communication junior from Springfield, Virginia.
