There are good unions and there are bad unions. There are
industries that need to have a unionized force to protect the
workers and the public. And there are unions that serve no other
purpose than to extort higher wages for their overpaid
membership, even if that results in costs being passed on to the
consumer. Can someone please explain why millionaire athletes in
baseball, basketball, or other sports need unions?
Wal-Mart was planning to open a store in Queens, but pressure by
union leaders and local politicians wrecked that deal. Now the
giant retailer is looking into a friendlier outer borough: Staten
Island, home of two Home Depots, a Lowes, a Kohl's, and a Costco,
with room for several more. Staten Island's my home, too, and I
say, enthusiastically: "Bring it on."
The Web site of Teamsters Local 237 published comments by two
union leaders on this issue. The New York City Central Labor
Council's president, Brian McLaughlin, said: "Wal-Mart's low
prices come with a very high price tag," and the presence of
the mega-store in Queens "will prove to be an economic
disaster for our entire city." Local 237's own president,
Carl Haynes, said: "Wal-Mart has a long-standing history of
undermining the quality of life for working families in America
by underpaying and denying benefits for its workers. We cannot
allow this company to continue doing that."
Give me a break. Not all New York workers are unionized and
working for high wages and great benefits. It wasn't that many
years ago that I had to work at a job that paid $5 an hour
without any benefits at all. I took what I could get until
something better came along. A retailer like Wal-Mart offers
employment for people my age, for young people needing
entry-level positions, for unskilled laborers, and second jobs
for workers who already have benefits and, of course, for
immigrants.
Why is it that immigrants can come to this country, legally and
illegally, and prosper, yet lower-income Americans who've been
nursing at the government teat for generations never seem to
break the bonds of what Star Parker, in her autobiography, calls
"Uncle Sam's Plantations"? There's no secret to their
success. They take any job they can, and pool their resources
with family members. They do not seek to buy luxuries they won't
be able to afford until they have improved their living
conditions.
Over the years I've watched my Albanian neighbors, who once
barely spoke English, come home from their cleaning jobs at all
hours of the night. The women take jobs that have no medical
benefits, but the families are large and help one another out.
Now they own farms in New Jersey and own and operate two pizza
parlors and a roofing contracting business. They have achieved
the American dream through hard work and a willingness to accept
any menial job offered.
Retailers such as Wal-Mart offer jobs where teenagers can be
trained in many positions, where they can develop the skills to
get better jobs elsewhere. Right now, my daughter travels to
Wal-Mart in New Jersey to take advantage of the bargains offered.
If Wal-Mart settles here in Staten Island, her money and that of
thousands of other New Yorkers will remain here to build a larger
tax base.
When Home Depot opened its store at the Clifton area of Staten
Island, it was predicted that the local hardware store would
close, and it did. That store closed because the area's property
value rose and the owner took an offer he couldn't refuse.
But small businesses can survive when a huge retailer moves in
nearby, if they are well operated and offer a personal service
not found in huge conglomerates. A good, thriving economy with
low unemployment will benefit everybody.
It's time to start evaluating which industries still need to be
organized. Not every job is eternal - otherwise we'd probably
still have a buggy-whip makers union.
A worthwhile union is one that represents employees who toil in
nursing homes tending to our elderly, because those immigrant
workers are frequently underpaid and exploited. Having been a
caregiver, I'm of the opinion that you can't pay these workers
enough to do this heartbreaking job.
The teachers union, on the other hand, continually manages to
extort higher wages and benefits from the city while failing to
produce any noticeable gains in educating our children. It has
also blocked school vouchers and tax credits for private schools
by donating union funds to Democratic politicians who oppose
those options that many minority communities endorse.
New York may be a union town, but it's time to ask ourselves
which unions do more harm than good for the city.