It’s no secret that Arkansas is hardly home to a strong organized labor movement. This is true about much of the American South. With decades of industrial head start, the union fervor that swept the Northeast and Midwest just never seemed to foment here. It is no understatement to suggest many of us are outright suspicious of labor unions. It’s almost as if we secretly worry the ghost of Eugene V. Debs is going to rise up out of the grave and make us all socialist robots. Anything that smacks of a collectivist mindset, which is to say, thinking of something larger than ourselves, is ready fodder for this polemic. Even so, little pockets of organized labor peek up from time to time. The railroads and paper mills that once drove the engine of local commerce are heavily unionized ventures. So too, is Central Moloney, a local manufacturer of distribution transformers.
Central Moloney’s union workers, have never gone on strike during the entire 63 year course of plant operations. Unless agreement is reached on a pending labor contract, that may soon change.
As reported in the Commercial, Members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1658 in the transformer wing of the Central Moloney plant here voted overwhelmingly Tuesday afternoon to reject a new three-year work and benefits package offered by the company. After casting their ballots at the Pine Bluff Convention Center, the workers voted 208-14 against the proposed contract. The union’s negotiating committee will meet Friday to decide the next move, which could be a strike, according to local President Charles West.
West said the union doesn’t “want to strike,” but company officials are responding to union proposals by “throwing everything back into our faces.”
Disagreement such as these form the substance of both pro- and anti-union sentiments. On the one hand, we have the American worker, just trying to provide for his family and hoping to garner fair compensation for dedicated service. On the other, we have the American corporation, provider of opportunity, producer of goods and answerable to owners and shareholders. Both are a source of public good, tax revenues and communal growth.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
It is only when excess and avarice tip the balance of interests do we see the rancor manifest among either constituency. Of course, what constitutes excess or avarice depends on which side of the paycheck you happen to be holding. Throughout American history, we have seen both sides demand unreasonable things of the other.
Often agreement was reached without government intercession. On occasion, it could not. Such instances yield a mixed bag of moments in labor history. All sides can claim honor and infamy. In 1877, a general strike halted the movement of U. S. railroads. In the following days, strike riots spread across the United States. The next week, federal troops were called out to force an end to the nationwide strike. At the “Battle of the Viaduct” in Chicago, federal troops killed 30 workers and wounded over 100. In 1892, striking miners in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, dynamited the Frisco Mill, leaving it in ruins.
Perhaps the most infamous excess of workplace danger was the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Co. in New York. The company, which occupied the top three floors of a 10-story building, was consumed by fire. One hundred and forty-seven people, mostly women and young girls working in sweatshop conditions, perished. Approximately 50 died as they leapt from windows to the street; the others were burned alive or trampled as they attempted to escape through stairway exits that had been locked as a precaution against “the interruption of work.” On 11 April the company’s owners were indicted for manslaughter.
Yes, in a century or so, we’ve come a long way. Thanks to progressive business practices, government oversight and good faith negotiations, our workers have a decent shot at fair compensation. Let’s hope our workers (and companies) remember the history that got them to the table.