Pennsylvania needs strong labor unions

We must fight for workers’ rights even if the U.S. Supreme Court choose to deny them

Generations of Pennsylvanians have built better lives because of the work labor unions have done to improve working conditions, increase economic security and ensure workers are treated fairly. But on Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear opening arguments in Janus v. AFSCME, a case that could take our nation backward by undoing this progress.

The case aims to reverse the work done by school workers, sanitation workers, teachers, mine workers, carpenters, telecommunications workers, nurses, firefighters, law enforcement personnel and many others to make sure they’ve had the opportunity to work collectively to improvetheir conditions and pay.

We must not go backward. We must charge forward to make the economy work for all Pennsylvanians. If the Janus case is decided against workers, they could lose the right to have their voices heard in their workplace. And thiswouldn’t impact only unions.

Unions have consistently raised health and safety and wage standards for everyone. When unions are strong and workers are heard, everyone benefits, directly or indirectly. And when workers are silenced, history tells ushow it sets back all families.

Our nation is not far removed from a time when workers died by the thousands each year in industrial accidents. Children as young as 4 were put to work in factories. This was the reality of our grandparents and their parents, who sometimes gave their lives, or their children’s lives, to improve working conditions and makeour society more equal.

Today, American children do not work in factories, deaths on the job are thankfully rare, and 15hour days are no longer the norm. But we did not get here by accident.

Our workplaces are better, fairer and safer because unions fought for all of us.

Now, special interests driven by profits are bringing the Janus v. AFSCME case as part of their decades-long effort to destroy unions. Special interest groups haveformed throughout the country with the goal of weakening unions and making it easier for their donors to make money at the expenseof working families.

Janus v. AFSCME is just latest step in their efforts to make it more difficult for all workers to be heard, paid fairly or treated with respect. Instead of seeking to destroy unions, we should help them grow and flourish.

We need unions because the American Dream — once a reachable promise for most who work hard and play by the rules — has become elusive for far too many Americans.

The pathway to the middle class provided by unions has never been more important. A recent study by researchers at Harvard, Wellesley and the Center for American Progress found that children born to low-income families are much more likely to raise themselves into the middle class in areas where union membership is higher. It also found that not only do unions help secure for their members the wages necessary to raise a family, they also help all workers.

Here in Pennsylvania, we are going to fight for working families. That means pushing for policies such as raising the minimum wage, providing all workers with sick days and adequately funding education. It also means fighting for the right for workers to organize and join a union that will make sure their voices are heard.

A living wage and strong unions will allow our economy to grow and strengthen Pennsylvania’s middle class. And so, as the Supreme Court takes up the Janus case, we will do everything in our power to make sure Pennsylvanians can join together to fight for the good, union jobs our citizens and communities need.