THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, September 11, 1995 TAG: 9509080011
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines
In the 1930s, certain large corporations took advantage of their employees, and when those employees decided that ``enough is enough'' and wished to organize a union, those corporations made working a living hell hoping that the ``troublemakers'' would quit.
When workers persisted in trying to obtain decent wages and safer worker conditions, the corporation would either close doors or move to a more favorable climate, meaning it would go to where there are no unions or very weak unions; where the corporation enforces its own working policies, with workers having no rights.
After reading Bob Hebert's column concerning Sprint and La Conexion (Perspectives, Aug. 23), I am convinced that some things never change. Only these days, these corporations are moving overseas and to Third World countries where they pay their workers next to nothing. Slavery of children is not unheard of in these countries.
These corporations are making enormous profits, but their savings are not passed on to consumers. The profits are passed on to the CEOs in the form of large salaries and to stockholders as dividends, while the average working person gets paid less and less for his/her labor.
There have been many reports concerning the plight of the common working man and the decline of organized labor. Many of these reports have placed blame on the unions themselves for bemoaning allegedly overinflated wages and benefits. Yet companies that employ union labor made profits every year.
The problem seems to be that the executive officers and management are unhappy with their six-figure salaries and last year's car. They are willing to send work south or overseas in order to make huge profits at the expense of employees.
Corporations scream of increased costs of materials as a reason to send work elsewhere. They seem to think the average worker doesn't have any concept of this. We see these inflated costs every day, in our mortgage payments, car payments, grocery bills, clothing for our children. Yet while corporate profits have been rising each year, the average worker's pay has been stagnant and in some cases even reversing. In 1989, the median income was $39,696; in 1993, it was down to $36,959 - a 6.9 percent decrease! There is something terribly wrong with this picture.
If you ask the average working person what he or she wants, it is an honest day's pay for labor - and job security.
In the early 1900s, American workers fought hard to better worker's lives. It looks as if that fight is far from over.
MICHAEL IACOBELLIS
Norfolk, Sept. 1, 1995 by CNB