My home community of Madison has become “ground zero” in the struggle for workers’ rights, and the outcome may change the face of our state’s and our nation’s social fabric. A little over a week ago, an environmental colleague referred to the huge response to the impact on unions in the budget bill by saying, “but this is a labor issue.” It didn’t take long, though, for her to realize how much more is at stake, and she and others have added their voices to the tens of thousands of supporters who understand this. It is about the ability to build and sustain a better life for everyone. It is about the kind of people we want to be and the society we want to live in.
Public servants are the front line of environmental protection and public safety. These are the people who review and make tough decisions on pollution permits. They sample and test our water to determine whether it is safe to drink. They enforce the laws that reduce the threat of a child dying from an asthma attack or hazardous waste from seeping into your well. They manage and run sewage treatment plants and oversee projects to get toxic contaminants out of our harbors. They protect wildlife from poachers and harassers, try to keep invasive species from wiping out our fisheries, and operate and care for our public parks and wildlife refuges. They protect our health, the quality of the very air we breathe, and more broadly, the quality of our lives. And those are just the obvious jobs.
Many of them take a lot of heat for simply doing their jobs and enforcing the law. Some of them get pressured to let things slide, or to overlook a permit standard, or ignore a violation. It’s relatively easy to threaten and intimidate a nonunion employee who stands alone under such pressures. Union employees, on the other hand, have rights, and they have used them to stand up for you and me and the law.
We want smart, dedicated professionals to do this hard and often thankless work. We want people with experience and a devotion to public service and community protection. If we strip the right to bargain collectively from these and other public servants, we’re heading down the slope of devaluing this work and the people who perform it. And, we’re joining the race to the bottom for all workers’ rights.
Many of the states with the deepest union tradition also have some of the strongest environmental protection laws in the country. This isn’t surprising because, even though we sometimes disagree, both movements share many common values: We aspire to a live a life of dignity and safety, to give the basics of the good life to our families, and to ensure a better life for our kids. We seek to prevent victimization and to safeguard the rights of those who do not have a voice on their own in the presence of oppressive, dangerous, or insensitive power. We are motivated by the dignity and quality of the human experience and aspiration for a better world.
No human institution or movement is without its flaws. But to relegate the labor movement to the dust heap of history, to treat it as antiquated or no longer serving a useful public purpose, is expeditiously naïve. Millions of workers have no health care benefits, and the tragic stories of suffering, financial ruin and unnecessary deaths are all too common. The disparity between rich and poor is growing rapidly. The middle class is losing its footing and yet it is that slice of our society that gets slapped for “over reaching.” This is not social progress for a nation that wants to continue to be a global leader.
States that do not value their public workers are not likely to value environmental protection either. True, quality workers and a safe environment come with costs. And yes, everyone’s budget is tight and times are tough. We all get this. So why can’t we talk about revenue and not just cuts? Why can’t we, as a civilized society, sit down and collaborate—including through collective bargaining—to come up with a way forward through which everyone has a voice and everyone shares in the solution? We can choose to chart this difficult path in ways that safeguard the things that have helped make Wisconsin a great place to live and work. Or, we can allow a handful of “leaders” to impose a more rancorous, divisive, and eventually far more costly slash-and-burn strategy through which the losses are likely to be permanent and the winners few.
At this pivotal moment, let us aspire to greatness during adversity not divisiveness. We need thoughtful wisdom in turbulent times to safeguard our democracy, our families and the environment that sustains all of us. We’re all in this together.
Jane Elder
