Labor Day

American workers fought hard for generations to make gains that bore fruit in the rising living standards of the 1960's. Yet now we find ourselves rolling backwards-- to a situation in some respects more bleak than any we've faced since the Hoover administration. And yet many of my white collar friends seem to shrug this off as "just how things are." They buy the corporate line that low wages are the key to "being competitive." WalMart, they assume, must be more successful than competitors who pay higher wages. Fortunately, the reality is very different. A happy, unionized work-force with low turnover, incentives to innovate, and good will towards their company is well worth the cost.



Here's just one example cited by Prof. Shaiken from U.C. Berkeley in his testimony before Congress on February 8, 2007:

In retailing, the high-road, partially unionized Costco outperforms the low-road Sam’sClub, a Wal-Mart affiliate. Costco’s labor costs are 40 percent higher than Wal-Mart’s, but nonetheless Costco produced $21,805 in operating profit per hourly employee in theU.S. in 2005, almost double the $11,615 generated at Sam’s Club (Cascio, 2006: 28, 35).And, Costco sells $866 per square foot compared to $525 at Sam’s Club. How does Costco do it? “It absolutely makes good business sense,” CEO James Sinegal maintains.
“Most people agree that we’re the lowest-cost provider. Yet we pay the highest wages. So it must mean we get better productivity.” Echoing Henry Ford, he points out “that’s not just altruism; it’s good business” (Cascio 2006: 28). Costco, as Freeman and Medoff (1984) found in unionized firms, has lower turnover—6 percent annually compared to 21 percent for Sam’s Club” (Holmes and Zellner, 2004).

Support Union businesses-- the economy you save may be your own!