Solidarity Sunday: Wage Against the Machine
Let's talk about real wage growth... As an organization built on solidarity of working people, in our case for journeymen tradespeople, to create a better life for our members and their families we certainly support a wage increase! Improving wages, elevating quality of life, and creating a pathway to prosperity is what we've been about for over 100 years, so talk of raising the minimum wage certainly is beneficial.
But that's not the whole story, it's just the cover of the book. As has been the case with past elevations of the minimum wage, $15 is just a number. A number that may salve the wound of a deepening disparity in the wage gap for the time being, but just as quickly becomes irrelevant as the wave of inflation, cost of living, housing, food, etc. inevitably re-adjust.
Sure, there are politicians who are sympathetic to the cause of organized labor, but just as with corporations, those politicians want to give us just enough of what we need so that we don't revolt, and then turn us against each other so that we are distracted from what's really going on.
This isn't a commentary on politicians, they are what they are and we don't begrudge them. From their perspective it's easier and more expedient to give out money than it is to cede power. And as long as the power remains with politicians, that's all we'll get. Political bodies, just as corporations, are there to perpetuate and serve themselves. That's not good or bad or indifferent, it just is what it is. It's how they're built.
Hope for REAL change, real effective wage growth, isn't going to come from elected politicians or corporations. Real change comes when working people, all working people, band together in solidarity. Even with our flaws, organized labor, a body that is beholden to the working people it serves, not a political party or a corporation, is still the highest and best hope for working families of all colors, cultures, and creeds.
In its most perfect form, organized labor is a body built by workers for the betterment of workers. It's why we strive to educate all workers on who we are and what we stand for. It's why as members of a union, we should carry the the torch for all working people everyday we go to the job site.
Our future is bright, but only if we believe in the greater mission of working people everywhere and show those who have not yet joined our mission the best side of ourselves. How we comport ourselves, and how we help our fellow brothers and sisters. How we pay it forward with our apprenticeship model, and how we are constantly improving our skills to be the very best version of ourselves.
We respect our employers, we are grateful for the opportunity to work, and we are committed to giving them a fair days work for a fair days pay. But our ultimate mission is a higher and greater one than $15 or any other mere number. We are here for the betterment and dignity of all working people.
That's Union Up's mission. Our mission is to bring the media experience and storytelling techniques necessary to continue to grow our movement.