The place of work

The recent Teamsters strike against United Parcel Service accomplished something significant beyond a better deal for the brown truck set — it focused the nation’s attention, just in time for Labor Day, upon the troubling state of the American workplace.

The 15-day strike had an immediate and negative impact across the land, yet the public clearly was on the Teamsters’ side. Millions of inconveniences and hundreds of millions in lost or delayed business could not outweigh the deep concerns Americans have about their forced transition from full-time employees with full benefits to part-time, disposable temps.

And lost amid the turmoil of the strike was news of another disturbing trend — the evolution, make that devolution, from a manufacturing economy to a service economy reached a milestone when WalMart surpassed General Motors as the country’s largest private employer.

Nothing against the discount retailer — WalMart has a deserved reputation as a responsible company — but its average hourly wage of $7.50, $10 including benefits, is a mere shadow of GM’s $19, $44 with benefits.

This combination of downsized jobs and downsized paychecks is having, and will continue to have, a devastating effect upon society. Parents scurry from half-job to half-job, kids are shuffled from day care center to baby sitter to TV set, health needs go unmet due to lack of insurance. Family members become ships passing in the night. Stress, tension and worry are the new family values.

The tragic part is that it all seems so illogically counter-productive. By impoverishing its workers, the corporate board room also is impoverishing its best customers. Americans are the most conspicuous of conspicuous consumers in the world, the most impulsive of impulse buyers. Give an American some spending money and a little leisure time to spend it, and the din of cash registers will be deafening.

Organized labor has been in the dumper for 16 years, ever since the disastrous air-traffic controllers strike of 1981. The success of the UPS strike may be a sign of recovery, although many experts say it’s not — few other unions have the clout the Teamsters have.

And organized labor has another big problem, a union elite with a public image almost as wretched as that of the corporate elites. Just days after UPS caved to Teamsters President Ron Carey, a judge nullified Carey’s re-election, citing campaign finance irregularities. The AFL-CIO’s blitz of attack ads in the 1996 national election was offensive to all political persuasions. Americans may embrace the goals of Big Labor, but too often they find those leading the way repellent.

On this holiday dedicated to the struggles and accomplishments of America’s toiling men and women, speeches will echo throughout the land about the work ethic, the sanctity of work, the past, present and future of work. We can only hope those echoes reach the top floors of corporate headquarters and union halls alike.