UAW Local 31

Members - Vee Harrison, Shantay Riding, Jane Harris
James Graham, Kevin Montgomery

Victor Armstrong Scholarship Application period opens March 31,2010

In 1937, the men and women of General Motors in Flint, Michigan participated in a historic Sit-Down Strike which led the way for the UAW to represent workers at GM plants to this day.

They were heroes that stood up against oppression, abuse and injustices from their employer.  While many years have long since past, there still remain many managers and corporations (as well as politicians) that have little or no tolerance for labor’s unity.

However, let us be inspired that neither they, nor anybody, can deny the greater good that has evolved because of unions.

CHEAP LABOR CAN BUILD CARS, BUT ONLY ORGANIZED LABOR CAN BUILD A MIDDLE CLASS.  In fact, the middle class is in some ways the most important of all the things unions build and maintain.  For without a middle class, our whole economy is in trouble.  That unfortunately seems to be exactly where we are headed.

Signs are everywhere that the middle class is getting weaker by the day.  Wages, even for college graduates, are falling behind inflation.  The number of families in poverty is growing.  The middle class debt is off the charts and the personal savings rate is below zero.

As the very wealthy become even more so, they do not spend money in the way middle class people do.  After all, how many houses and cars, no matter how fine, can one have?  Once people have more money than they can possibly spend on goods and services, they no longer use it in ways that stimulate the economy.  Instead, they use the power that money brings to get them more tax breaks, less regulations, more support for globalization and policies that favor capital over labor; thus the middle class continues to weaken.

Rebalancing power in the economy is essential if the middle class is to thrive.  Doing this, however, will require more than our government alone can reasonably be expected to deliver.  We must act together in the marketplace as well.  The way to do that is the way we have always done it – to join and support the unions that build the middle class in the first place.

INTERESTING POINTS ON THREATS TO THE UNITED STATES ECONOMY
Most Americans have been led to believe that the problem with America’s competitiveness is that American workers earn too much money.  Below are the ratios of the top managers’ average wages in relation to the workers’ wages in five of the industrial nations of the world:

For every $1.00 a Japanese worker makes, the top manager makes $11.00.
For every $1.00 a Mexican worker makes, the top manager makes $20.00
For every $1.00 a German worker makes, the top manager makes $30.00.
For every $1.00 a British worker makes, the top manager makes $30.00
For every $1.00 a United States worker makes, the top manager makes $531.00
For example, an American worker that makes $45,000.00 per year, the top officer of their company is making $23,805,000.00.
            Source:  Michigan Wayne State University.

LOCAL 31 EDUCATION COMMITTEE
Vee Harrison
Shantay Riding
Jane Harris
James Graham
Kevin Montgomery