Terrell Williams of Townsend is a union member and an attorney.
The first documented union in the United States was organized for shoemakers, around 1794 in Philadelphia. The Federal Society of Journeymen Cordwainers was the first group of laborers to demand competitive wages and safe working conditions. Its commitment to solidarity protected union members from “scab” laborers and reduced compensation. The shoemakers, in their resistance, would form the blueprint for future labor organizations to combat owner greed and unsafe working conditions, while promoting livable wages and benefits, and due process rights negotiated into collective bargaining agreements.
Union labor grows the working and middle classes, and has been the prevailing mechanism for most Americans’ upward mobility through the various social classes. Despite the trendy notion that entrepreneurialism is the new pipeline to the American dream, some studies have shown that many more Americans will fail than succeed at starting their own businesses. Therefore, I believe that the safest and most efficient way to move Delawareans from poverty into the working and middle classes is through union labor. I want to challenge Gov. Matt Meyer and the elected leaders throughout our state to recommit to organized labor and support the growing unions in Delaware. Moving forward, no state entity should go unrepresented and be forced to settle for 2% cost-of-living increases. No public construction projects and development requests for proposals should be approved without a commitment to unionized labor from Delaware. Union labor, whether white collar or blue collar, has been the backbone to democracy and a financially stable economy.
Delaware, like the rest of America, is only as strong as our working- and middle-class labor forces. The strength of our economy is directly tied to workers’ wages. Ensuring that every Delawarean is properly compensated for an honest day’s work should be our state’s new focus. The lack of organized union labor is the reason many peers of my generation will not have the same financial stability as their parents and grandparents. I am the product of a union household and the beneficiary of union labor. Demanding that industries and corporations pay their workers fair wages promotes American solidarity.
Judge Clarence Darrow once said, “With all their faults, trade unions have done more for humanity than any other organization of men and women that (has) ever existed. They have done more for decency, for honesty, for education, for the betterment of the race, for the developing of character in men and women than any other association.” I tend to agree, and that is why I believe labor unions are the last line of defense to protect American democracy.
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
