Mar 19, 2015 2 min read

The Tuesday letter by John Manning, “Unions are not the answer,” doesn’t pass the smell test.

Essentially, Manning wants readers to believe that unions had no direct impact on the economy in the years after World War II. But let’s go further back in history. Some of our grandfathers, who toiled in the steel mills under ruthless men like Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick, were murdered at the Homestead Steel Works for having the audacity to stand up to those tyrants, demanding a safer work environment and a better wage.

And let’s not forget the miners who literally had to crawl on their hands and knees, digging coal for mere pennies. If it weren’t for unions, most children born in the 1950s or 1960s would have never had the opportunity to further their education, thanks to their forbears standing up and bargaining for decent, safe working conditions, health care, and a wage that allowed their families to buy homes, automobiles and pay for college.

Without unions, there wouldn’t have been a minimum wage, the 40-hour work week, and overtime pay. Neither the Occupational Safety and Health Administration nor the Mine Safety Health Administration would exist.

Perhaps Manning doesn’t realize it, but when a union is successful in securing benefits at the bargaining table, those benefits also are enjoyed by those who choose not to belong to the union. So, using Manning’s rationale, if unions aren’t necessary, then all those who choose not to belong to a union should then not enjoy the same benefits the union secured at the bargaining table.

Barry L. Andrews

Washington

Andrews is the president of the Washington-Greene Central Labor Council.