THE 'BIG LABOR' MYTH
Levin, Ruben
The Big Labor' Myth By RUUN UVIN ONE of the horrendous pictures that foes of unions love to naint nowadays is the one about "Big Labor." They portray labor as a Frankenstein,...
...SENATOR HUBERT HUMPHREY, the dynamo from Minnesota, also has frequently pummelled-the propaganda about "Big Labor...
...But the United Steel Corporation alone had $2,53.5,000,000 or 500 limes as much as the union...
...But there is General Motors with $2,958,000,001) in assets—or close to 1,500 times as much as the union...
...Many more examples and statements can be cited to show that the so-called colossus of labor exists only In the propaganda of the union-haters...
...According to the Federal Trade Commission, 113 giant corporations owned in 1947 no less than SO per cent of the nation's industrial physical plant 7-that is...
...The Li/e magazine portrayal of "rich unions" was blasted on the flopr of the House recently by Congresswoman Helen Gahagan Douglas (Dem., Calif...
...Most of that went out as fast as it came in—for services to union members, for organizing efforts, for death benefits, strilie benefits, insurance of various kinds, and a multitude of other protective functions...
...I'm getting...
...Who's Big now...
...The existence of this corporate concentration places them in the ridiculous position of trying to contend that concentration in the form of labor unions represents a danger to the American way of life, but that the obviously greater degree of concentration represented by the corporate monopolies represents no danger and must be lermitted to go unimpaired, uninlibited and unfettered...
...Hardly...
...Also, the United Automobile Workers' union was shown by Li/t to have $2,153,000 in total "wealth...
...In an issue of Li/e magazine," she said, "there jftM a fright article of two pages of figures which showed that 32 of the major unions with a membership of 8,115,000 had in treasury assets the combined wealth of $224,000,000...
...Since then," as the bank said, "the number has doubtless increased substantially...
...Let's get away from this nonsense of labor coming with a club and knocking poor management on the head," he said...
...But —again quoting the National City Bank—there were 33,194 American corporations at the end of 1946 which had assets of $1,000,000 or more...
...it's the ever-growing giant' of Industrial monopoly that threatens American free enterprise and the foundation of democracy...
...No one appears to have made a complete analysis of trade union revenues and assets...
...General, Motors, were double the assets of the 32 major labor unions in the whole country...
...Let us look at those assets...
...This was supposed to scare the country to death...
...The figure of $224,000,000 must cover trust funds, payment for old age, disability, death and other welfare benefits and all emergencies, including possible strikes...
...It isn't Big Labor that's a danger to this nation...
...For every man who has been abused...
...And remember, those assets of the labor unions are spread over 48 states and must provide protection for over 8,000,000 people—less than 28 pitiful dollars per person...
...For 1949, the ratio ia probably greater on the aide of buidneaa...
...Even alongside net corporate profits—of $10 billion in 1943 and of a record $21.7 billion in 1948, after payments of all taxes—the ^ros.s revenues of all unions are puny by comparison...
...They are the members "of the ultra-ultra Billion Dollar Club, Any one of those corporations has more wealth than all of America's labor unions combined...
...The very existence of such concentration in industry and the refusal of Congress to do anything about it knocks the props out from under the position of those who support the Taft-Hartley law on the grounds that labor is a monopoly...
...In short, the labor movement—unfortunately—is still a minority of the population...
...How big is $224,000,000...
...General Motors in 1948 made $478,000,000 after taxes—29.5 per cent of its net worth...
...In the same year, according to the Department of Commerce, business had gross revenues of $17S,000.000.000, or nearly 40O times as much a» labor...
...She came armed with figures to disprove the smear of labor...
...Yet, paradoxically, the Congress has closed Its eyes to the problem represented by the giant corporations, and instead has devised a wide variety of detailed restri?!tions designed to curtail the activ/ities of the infinitely weaker form of economic power—labor unions which protect the living standards of millions upon millions of American families and which tend to stabilize the markets for floDd,' clothing and other manufactured goods...
...It's the old game of the robber crying, "Stop thlefj" I0 confuse those pursuing him...
...For example, the United Steeltvorkers' Union was listed es having assets of $5,100,000...
...Of the 32 biggest unions on Li/e magazine's list, 23 had aggregate assets of over $1,000,000 each...
...It^ould be well for those who oppose labor unions to remember these facts...
...That's less than 12 percent of the total population and about 25 percent of the working force...
...Does it have giant treasuries...
...In fact, according to the National City Bank, 56 American corporations in 1948 possessed assets of over a billion dollars each...
...THE CONTRAST is even more striking if individual unions are compared with the major corporations in their industry...
...Think of that...
...Assistant Secretary of Labor Ralph Wright likewise swung a wallop at the twaddle about "Big Labor...
...No group in this country has done more to increase the American standard of living than organized labor...
...They portray labor as a Frankenstein, all-powerful, rich and grasping, trampling poor little businesses underfoot...
...One-half of our Eroductive facilities owned by 113 uge corporations with the other half spread out among some 70,000 smaller corporations...
...Wall, one aingla U4S...
...Ruben Levin is tha editor of LnhoT...
...It would seem, therefore, only logical and appropriate that the Congress of the United States, in viewing these two types of organizations, would inevitably come to the conclusion that the degree of economic power held by the giant corporations is infinitely greater than that of the labor organizations...
...You frequently hear comments about big, strong and rich unions," he said...
...The giant corporations count their resources not in terms of a few million dollars, but in billions...
...If what unions had left after all expenditures in each of those years were conripared with corporate profits, the union totals would appear microscopic, << * « WHAT ABOUT THE ASSETS of labor organizations...
...That's about $25.00 per union member for the year...
...That's the kind of caricature that Tories painted in Congress during the fight to keep the bulk of the Taft-Hartley Act on the books...
...Life neglected to say that the great bulk of that "wealth" was represented in union insurance funds which cannot be touched except for payments to policyholders...
...For one thing, as everybody knows, there are approximately 16,000,000 organized workers in this country...
...its net capital assets...
...In contrast, consider the economic power represented by the organizations on the other side of the table...
...Is it a Goliath alongside corporate industry...
...In short, for every union with a million-dollar troRBury, there are easily over 1.500 corporationa of the ap.me magnitude...
...What about labor's wealth...
...Well, as the professor would say, what are the facts...
...tired of hearing all this stuff about 'Big Labor.' "1 haven't heard yet of any labot leader becoming a millionaire...
...Such a law, with teeth and claw, is needed, they proclaimed, to protect the country from "Big Labor...
...Naturally, the apologists for Big Business want to divert attention from the monstrous menace of monopoly, so they shake the "Big Labor" bugaboo for all It's worth...
...In other words, one year's earnings after taxes of one corporation...
...But you seldom hear anyone mention that 40 per cent of all industrial workers In the United States are employed bv only 1/10 of one per cent of all the employers...
...One of the last tabulations put together by the Treasury Department—on the basis of reports required by law from labor unions and otHfer non-profit organizations — showed gross revenues in 1946 by all labor organizations, national and local, of somewhat over $477,'/bl,00...
...corporation—American Telephone ft Telegraph—bad asaeta In the aasne yaar of approximately $10 billion, or 40 timea aa much aa all 32 Intornational unions put togother...
...In May ]94t', Li/e magazine carried a doublepage spread calculated to show that unions are "vigorous and rich...
...Life added up the "wealth" of 32 of America's largest unions, representing over half all the trade union membership of the nation, and found the total ran to $224,200,000...
...How big is labor...
...Is there anyone who wishes to contend this is not a shocking concentration of economic power...
...by labor there are thou.sands — yes, millions — who have been cheated, reamed and drycleaned ' by such things as bank failures, foreclosures, business bankruptcies and the like...
Vol. 33 • March 1950 • No. 10
