Beneath Proposition 1's "idealistic" pose is the dark underbelly of discrimination

As much as I heap scorn on that sad excuse for a newspaper, The Seattle Times, I actually agree with its editorial opposed to passage of SeaTac’s Proposition 1, which calls for airport employees and surrounding hotel and “hospitality” workers to be paid a minimum wage of $15 an hour. Of course workers who make considerably less than that would be thrilled by the prospect. The problem is that this is being imposed from the outside; there is no mutual agreement that represents the give-and-take that is accepted by both sides and does not appreciably hurt either party. The Times noted that “Proposition 1 pushes all this aside. It imposes what amounts to a labor contract written by social activists. The employers are not asked about it, nor are the workers, unless they live and vote in SeaTac. Voters will decide.”

Now, speaking as an “outside” observer who has no say on the matter, it is perfectly understandable why attempts to “unionize” non-union contract workers was a miserable failure. It all comes down to a matter of trust. Many of these contract workers are minorities; most union employees are white, and there does seem to be that impression that employers with union shops are more “comfortable” with hiring employees “like them.” You also get the impression that attempts to “unionize” is not really about “helping” contract employees, but protecting the jobs and wage levels of mostly white union workers; any subsequent job attrition would most likely occur with "formerly" non-union workers. Given the “closed shop” nature of many unions that are inherently discriminatory, it probably isn’t surprising that in the competition for jobs, unions would be seen as an obstacle for acquiring a job to many people.

It is hard for me to criticize labor unions, since they played a major role in forcing working conditions and compensation that would allow the average worker a life beyond simple toil. But economic realities—driven largely by low-cost manufactured products, especially from China, that Americans chose to buy over the “Made in America” brand—required a “rethinking” of production and labor costs to make products that were price competitive with the “Made in China” brand. Today, it is mostly domestic service and professional jobs, like teachers, public employees, “protective services “—police and firefighters—and transportation and utilities workers that have the highest union representation. But durable goods manufacturing—such as automobiles—only had 10.3 percent of its total employed workforce unionized in 2012, according to Bureau of Labor statistics.

The reality is that while the “easy to hire, easy to fire” model is an unfortunate by-product of “right to work,” it at least gives those workers who would otherwise be excluded the opportunity to prove themselves capable of doing a job just as well as anybody else. It is also useful for employers to earn trust by listening to those employees' concerns and responding to them.