Labor-intensive

Many historians agree that the years immediately following World War II constitute the high tide of America's unions, and that the place where the foamy froth of labor activity left its highest mark was right here in Philadelphia. In 1946, the United Radio and Machine Workers of America led a legendary six-week strike against General Electric and Westinghouse that saw ten thousand people rally at City Hall in support of the unions. They eventually got the pay raise they were looking for.

A lot has changed since then. In subsequent years, major employers moved jobs to the South and, eventually, out of the country altogether. Globalization has created a high-tech and service-based economy at the expense of industry, the traditional heart of unionism. Just as critically, popular culture has taught us to think of ourselves primarily as consumers, and to identify with the wants and needs of fellow consumers rather than those of fellow workers. How else can we explain the phenomenon of Wal-Mart -- the nation's largest retailer and employer -- which has won America over with rock-bottom prices even as it guts downtowns, drives down retail wages and, according to an article in Monday's New York Times, forces thousands of its own employees into state-supported health care programs as a supplement to its own inadequate benefits?

The fact that the public raises a hue and cry when gas prices rise above $2 a gallon, but says virtually nothing about the growing problem of full-time workers who cannot afford healthcare, is sadly telling.

It is in this context that we should consider the unpleasant issue of union protests right here in Chestnut Hill, where Springside School is building a new field house using a "merit-based," or non-union, employer. Despite the claims of some protestors, Springside is not anti-union; the school used union labor when it recently undertook its $14 million upper school construction project. The overly aggressive tactics that some parents say they endured from picketers are as unwise as they are counterproductive, especially given the widespread perception of unions as corrupt and bullying. You can't set up a giant inflatable rat at a homecoming game and expect to win over the hearts and minds of the local community.

On the other hand, what these unions are fighting for is undeniably valid. When companies cut costs to boost profits or offer a lower price to the consumer, it usually comes out of the labor side -- lower salaries, fewer benefits, more layoffs. In the construction business, you don't have the option of improving efficiency by switching software or -- literally -- cutting corners. Let these protests be a reminder that what our fathers/mothers and grandfathers/grandmothers were picketing for in the '40s is still an issue here, and around the nation, today.

James Sturdivant