It's A Union Thing

I grew up in a home where both my parents worked, my mother an office manager for a water pipe company and my father owned his own independent insurance agency. We lived a normal middle class life and I remember never needing for anything.

Our family life seemed normal, just like most of my friends. I would get up in the morning and my mom would be getting ready for her 8-5 job. My dad would still be in bed -- owning his own business gave him the luxury to make his own hours. My parents were always home on the weekends and during the evenings. I never even questioned that aspect of my childhood and teen years.

As I headed into the working world in my early twenties, I took different jobs here and there - most of them above the minimum wage range. I remember when I told my dad that I got my first union job as a meter reader at Puget Sound Energy. He was instantly upset that I was going to have to join a union; unions are corrupt and that they make you pay extra, he argued.

I only knew of the jobs that my parents had and neither of them were union. I hadn't ever heard of union jobs and was so excited to here about all of these benefits and was really proud to have a good job. I'm not sure if I ever fully understood my father's point. I think after he saw how well I was doing and what great benefits I had, he left it alone.

I don't think it was until this last summer, some 12 years after my first union job, that I completely understood the role of unions. I was volunteering on a political campaign and one of the the issues revolved around the 1,500 container truck drivers at the Port of Seattle. Now, I'm just going to let you know that I have a bleeding heart and care for everyone, especially those that are down and out. So when I heard about the truck drivers and the way they were being treated, I really started paying attention.

Most of these truck drivers are immigrants from Ethiopia, Somalia and India. Their families invested what little money they had to buy outdated semi trucks, so these men could come to America and find good paying jobs. But due to greed in the profiting trucking companies, most of these truck drivers make very little money and have no benefits to show for all their long hours that they work.

Port truck drivers pay for all of their own maintenance fees, insurance, fuel and any other upkeep on the trucks. They start lining up at the terminals around 4:30 am every morning, because it's first come first serve and if you miss out on containers, you don't get paid. As you can read in this article from the Seattle Times, these truckers work hard for very little.

In this specific industry, there are lists that are kept on who is top and who is not and if any of these truck drivers make a stink, they can be sent away with no runs. The companies have all banded together to keep it this way and protect their own interest and their profit margins.

These truck drivers would love to unionize so they can have the opportunity to make decent money and have benefits. But they are afraid. Most of them are the only bread winners for their families and if they lose their jobs, they may not find anything else. I hope that in the future these drivers will finally get their fair shake at life and what they deserve.

I have a feeling that if my dad was still with us today and he was able to meet some of these fabulous, hard working truck drivers, he may just have a different opinion of unions and how they work and who they are good for.