So, what have we learned.

I have been writing each month for 19 months now and I have been telling you the story, our story, about unions. Where we came from and how we got to where we are today. And I have repeated the old adage. “Those who do not heed the lessons of history are destined to repeat them.” One of the reasons we do not heed those lessons is because we are not taught the lessons nor do we focus on the cause and affects nor plan for a change for not repeating the negative history. Secondly, there is simply not enough mainstream teaching or exploring cognitive alternative solutions.

I would like to share with you a wonderful metaphor about a recent earthquake tremor in San Diego. Particularly at the San Diego Zoo. Cameras focused on the elephant area showed that a few seconds before the ground shook, the herd began to feel uneasy and as the ground began to shake the elephants began to form a protective circle with the young centered in the middle as they all stayed on lookout for potential danger. They held their position for a few minutes until the danger had passed. You can see the actual footage on YouTube. My point. I believe this intrinsic and instinctive value of protection is in the DNA of every living creature. It is organizing and coming together for the protection of the group. Thus, I believe the name of the earliest guilds and unions were and still is, societal need and necessity for the common good.

In modern times it seems the common individual can do more for themselves and need less help in living their lives than we did in the past and those things we can’t do for ourselves we pay to get done or have the government do. Individuals in this society seem to have walled themselves off from the world but as the elephants teach us, we really do need each other and that organizing for the common good is natural.

The first lesson I teach is about how family bonds were the first support network for society. As societal problems became greater those family bonds grew into artificial bonds. Such as “Frith guilds” which was first used by the Vikings when they sailed in convoys to protect their ships from piracy. Or posses, to chase bank robbers that would leave citizens that had money in the bank penniless.

Since the beginning of time there have been leaders. Leaders, what does that mean? Does that mean the person who has the most strength forces policy on the weaker public? Yes, it could and many times was true throughout history. There has always been someone or some group at the top to call the shots. However, there must be some consensus of the issues concerning societal need and how to solve those issues. It seems as long as those issues are being addressed people will go along with the leadership’s governance. However, when the needs of a society are not addressed dissention sets in. World history gives us empirical evidence of that, and where does that leave us, the workers.

Our protection we have come to know has been initiated by the Unions and incorporated into law and then taken away by the same groups that gave it to us, legislation, regulation and judiciary. You see, Unions are a defensive organization; we react to attack just as the elephants did. We organize into protective groups for the protection of all. We do not initiate the attack. We want to see our businesses do well. Why, because the belief is, if they prosper so will we. This bond between workers and employers worked fairly well from the 1940’s throughout the 1950’s and up until around 1970ish when I began to see the change. While Eisenhower was President, the highest marginal income tax bracket imposed on the mega-rich reached 90%. Yes, I said, 90%, and they were still getting rich (today it is 37%). A time when corporate employers looking for loyalty sold us on the theory that we are all family and took care of each other. However, competition interfered with profit maximization as similar industries competed for the same dollar. Where upon, the bond was broken for the sake of their own survival. This is the time we see the change from. “We are family” to. “Don’t take it personal, it’s just business.” That “don’t take it personal attitude has even encroached into our healthcare system, where coverage denials are practically routine.

My point being, unions didn’t do that, corporations did. Why? Because there are few restrictions on them and the marketplace has been regarded as sacred ground where only the marketplace can find price equilibrium, and nothing should interfere with it. As long as profit maximization continues to be the goal, we will continue this cycle.

An alternative: Post WWII Germany was left destroyed and in order to rebuild the economy the government intervened and convinced both capital and labor to come together and try a new economic method called, “co-determination”. One of the main points of co-determination was that all corporations were compelled to have 50% of the Board of Directors be from the Union ranks. This combination put together a workforce that became the most skilled and productive in the world, along with very generous fringe benefits and a 32-hour work week.

So, let’s play this out for a moment. Imagine that concept here in the U.S. If, union members held 50% of the seats on the Boards of Directors, would we still be a defensive organization? Would CEO’s and corporate executives procure the salaries and benefits they now have? Would our cities have endured the blight from the decision to move manufacturing? Would there be a “rustbelt”? Would Detroit and cities like it be the same? Would healthcare providers routinely deny medical benefits? Would the shift of manufacturing have shifted so severely to other countries? Probably not and if so, not to the crippling degree it has happened.

You see, unions have been merely reacting and trying to recover from these attacks. Workers did not cause these issues, nor did we have a say in them. Today, with artificial intelligence on the horizon manufacturers can’t wait to throw people out of work and pocket their profits. While unions would rather see the sharing of that cash into benefits for workers in better benefits and less hours to be worked to make it better for more people. Under the current system that is not about to happen.

As the quote says. “The spirit of history is in the air”. It is true.

We, like elephants, are sensing something is wrong. In our society our leaders are not addressing the important issues facing average Americans. Rather, focusing on protecting a capitalist system that has not worked for workers. In that, we were never part of the planning and direction of those in control. We are now finally coming to the end of this process, and the money people are holding on to protect this system at all costs. The spirit of history is in the air, and we need to begin to think about what a new economic system will look like. I think our former Cardinal; Sean O’Malley suggests a good beginning point to consider: “No to an economy of exclusion. No to the idolatry of money. No to a financial system which rules rather than serves. No to the inequity that causes violence.”

How about a change in our tax policy: Since the 1980’s, tax policy has been shifting more tax benefits and tax breaks to the rich. With less money coming into the treasury, because of that, means less money trickling down to the municipalities all over this nation. Every city and town in this country is trying to find creative ways to raise revenues without again raising property taxes, because of federal cutbacks. It seems the only things trickling down are poverty, skepticism, prejudice and hostility.

What about a fee on equity trades like Scottrade or Ameritrade? FDR tried to accomplish something like this when he was President, but it went nowhere. Think about it, I magine a small service fee like the above-mentioned across the stock market would generate huge amounts of revenue on the millions of trades made each day. The tax policy would quickly shift from the richest to the workers. Maybe that is the real reason it never came to fruition. And, who does this hurt. Not the investor who can afford to invest and add a small fee. Certainly, not the rich. They can easily absorb a small fee. Most of all, it does not harm the poor. If they can’t invest, they pay nothing but will benefit from the services that new revenue can provide for them.

Now something else to consider: “Industrial Cooperatives”. Father Jose Maria Arizmendiarrieta (1915-1976). It was during the Spanish Civil War of 1936 -1939, in the Basque region of Spain where the Jesuit priest, Father Jose Maria Arizmendiarrieta was arrested for resisting the Fascist leader, Francisco Franco. The accounts say he was lucky not to be executed and was transferred to a small parish in Mondragon. He was focused on controlling the means of production as a way of organizing people. Helping them to recognize the broader view of wealth distribution. In 1943 he created a polytechnical school that taught manufacturing skills. In 1956 they bought a gas stove company and with 30 workers developed a worker owner concept. By 1975 they owned 45 companies, employing 17,000 people, including banks, housing cooperatives, and vocational schools.

In 2007 the Mondragon Cooperative Corporation had 85 companies employing 130,000 globally, as well as Eroski, a big box retailer that has successfully kept out Walmart.

The concept of an industrial cooperative was that the highest paid worker can only earn three times more than the lowest paid worker. The only people who can own the company shares are the people who work there. The board of directors are all employees. A specified percentage of profit goes back into the business for investment. A specified percentage goes into the community and when you leave, your shares are sold and paid out to you. When you retire, you also leave with a retirement benefit. They have also developed their own health insurance plans as well as their own social security system. For those who are interested, there is a wonderful but rather grainy 1980 documentary video of Mondragon on You Tube. Look it up.

Well, if you have been reading my writings consistently, you now know our story of where we came from, how we developed and why we are like we are today. I hope I have given you enough evidence to show you the lesson we should have learned, along with some ideas to think about what to do about it. I keep saying there is nothing wrong with capitalism that a strong dose of regulation can’t cure. However, in the current political system that does not seem likely. Not only here but abroad as well, as we see a rise in autocratic leaders emerge. It seems that the entrepreneurial core is consolidating for more control of the people and wealth and shifting more of the economic pie to the wealthiest, not only here but worldwide.

It may be time to re-think our economic model. The average American’s are not getting what they need from this system. There are too many poor and homeless people. For those who remember, under President Reagan they closed all the State mental institutions across the country and all those who had trouble caring for themselves were left in the street. Think about it. We are the only country in the world that allows for-profit medical insurance as well as Hospice providers. We actually allow corporations to make money on the sick and dying. And today, wages just can’t keep up with prices. We need to begin thinking about a high-bred model that includes more worker participation. There are a whole lot of models out there to explore and sculpt for our needs. It’s time to pay attention to them.

In closing, I want to share with you something I wrote in the mid 1990’s. By then I was President of Local 318 and were in negotiations with the Company, and back then with the emergence of co-pays for workers coming a few years later were looking for affordable healthcare options. With the beginning of HMO’s and other cost-shifting alternatives and the lifting of regulations to allow for-profit healthcare providers it looked pretty messy. However, with the recent election of President Bill Clinton, the politics of the day became centered around National Healthcare. The President’s wife, Hillary, took the lead in this fight and got pretty beat up in the process. The feeling of our negotiating committee was not if we would be seeing National Healthcare but when. However, the new for-profit insurance companies’ public relations firms put together a campaign that would prove who would be directing the future of healthcare in this country. I was left thinking about this for quite some time about the power and the direction in which corporations were going. I began using the word “corporatism. Not to define them as a group of holding companies. But rather, as an economic model, backed with the capital to buy them political power. A new style of economic theory. Not Capitalism, not Socialism, not Communism, “Corporatism”. I became so concerned about this possibility that I felt compelled to write this so many years ago. I am by no means philosopher nor profit but how ironic the road we are headed on:

The C.E.O Pledge of Allegiance
I pledge allegiance to the laws, promulgated by the Corporate Leaders of the World, And to our major shareholders for which we stand:
One sovereign global government, under the auspices of appointed directors,
With opulence and amnesty for us all.
Kowalski