Unions fight for American dream

To the Editor,

For nearly two centuries, government employees have organized into labor unions to fight for dignity, respect, and improved standards of living for working families. The White House, Congress, Office of Personnel Management, and other government agencies have never "given" government employees improved or respectful working conditions without a fight and as government employees, we had to fight for every single benefit.

From 1830 to 1862, Navy shipyard workers and government printers mobilized and waged strikes against their employers to shorten the work day for unionized federal workers from 12-14 hours to 10 hours and finally 8 hours. These early federal workers fought for comparable pay and for the establishment of the U.S. Civil Service Commission.

In 1912, Congress enacted a law which officially recognized the right of federal workers to organize but banned federal worker strikes. In 1917, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) granted a charter to a newly formed government employees union, the forerunner to the American Federation Government Employees (AFGE). Between 1918 and 1931, government employee unions won gains in collective bargaining rights for unionized government printers, limits on Sunday work hours and the passage of the first federal retirement law. In 1932, government workers reorganized themselves in the AFGE.

For the past 70 years, AFGE has been in the forefront of government employee's struggles for fair wages, health care and retirement, fair treatment, child care, education subsidies, flexible work schedules, the right to bargain and political freedoms.

For nearly three years, politicians have maligned and mischaracterized labor organizations as evil and worthless, and recently blamed labor organizations for creating the country's financial deficit. Labor organizations have never been the cause of any depression, recession or financial collapses in the United States.

Labor organizations have been the driving force behind equality in the workplace and equality in the labor market. Through some tough but fair negotiations and compromises, labor unions have encouraged and secured fair wages for their members, the accumulation of vacation and sick leave, reducing the workday from 12-14 hours per day to 8 hours per day, secured weekends off to have family time, the opportunity to purchase health care, the opportunity to have a pension, and most of all, the opportunity to have and fulfill dreams.

Without labor organizations, our country would be no different than countries like China, Russia, Cuba, Iraq, and Afghanistan just to mention a few. If you have every traveled abroad, you have a better understanding for what labor organizations have achieved in this country. Working conditions outside of this country can be horrific and the many U.S. citizens whom have lived abroad can attest to this.

Imagine going to work for an employer, that at any given moment can decide to lay you off or terminate you, cancel your health insurance (if your company offers it), not offer a pension, and continue to pay you minimum wage while working you long hours. Now appreciate this is reality for much of the American workforce. Unions fought to achieve better protections for employees and their families. As federal employees, we don't receive free health care, we pay monthly premiums like everyone else and we pay extra for dental plans. We are not given free pensions plans, we pay into our pension plans. These benefits are not free to government employees but generations upon generations fought to have them because it's the American way. Remember, where there is no vision, people parish.

With newly elected officers, AFGE Local # 2338 is mobilizing its membership and coworkers to stand up and lock elbows, form a line in the sand, and say to Congress, "Stop the assault on the middle class workers in America, which includes government employees." The AFGE provides services to seniors, Veterans, and their families, education of our children, defense of our country and its citizens and so much more. At our local VA medical center, we have nearly 500 bargaining unit members including staff at our parent facility and five Community Bases Outpatient Clinics (CBOC) which provides services to Veterans and their families all over Southeast Missouri and Northeast Arkansas. Many of our professional staff earns less than our private sector counterparts. When politicians talk about cutting the federal government, they are discussing cutting the benefits and treatment we provide to seniors and Veterans. As one of the community's largest employers, our region would suffer greatly in loss of revenue with the loss of these services and our these workers would suffer in our normal day to day lives such as taking food off tables, causing homes to go into foreclosure, causing cars to repossessed, causing kids to drop out of college and families would lose their health insurance coverage. Not to mention loss of access to high quality health care close to home for the Veteran's we serve. Someone needs to remind Washington D.C. that 85% of federal employees live outside of Washington D.C., many of those in rural America.

When politicians mischaracterize union workers as over paid fat cats, they misrepresent government workers. We are hard working, dedicated people trying to take care of our families and achieve our dreams just like everyone else. What makes us different is we have a union that fought for fair working conditions, pay and benefits for us, the same thing that workers everywhere strive for. It has not been an easy battle, but it was one worth fighting and one AFGE continues to fight for federal workers everywhere to ensure that we too can reach toward the American dream.

Kevin Ellis

president

AFGE Local 2338

Poplar Bluff, Mo.