Testimony : ONE PERSON’S STORY ABOUT UNION HARDSHIP : ‘Can You Live on $6 an Hour?’

The economy in the state of California is the worst I’ve seen in the 30 years that I have been here. I’ve been involved in the union movement for those 30 years and this is the worst it’s been. Our membership in Orange County has dropped from 1,500 to 800.

Nationally, the labor movement is about 16-17% of the work force; it used to be 24%. There’s a lot of people who say they are not in a union, but they are--they don’t realize it. My son’s a deputy sheriff and he belongs to an association. They don’t call it a union, but it’s the same thing. The teachers have the same thing. I think the union movement will come back.

Everybody thinks of Orange County doing so well. In our local we’re about a third unemployed--electricians, brick masons the same way. Used to be that about 80% of all the houses that were being built were done union. Now it’s just the opposite--about 90% are built non-union. There’s about two housing contractors left who are union compared to about 40 some 15 years ago.

(Contractors) are paying less money, but they’re not getting qualified workers. Hell, we go to school two days a week. We have to keep up with the technology. I’m not the type of plumber who goes house to house fixing people’s leaky faucets. We have a five-year apprenticeship program--going to school two nights a week, plus you’re learning on the job.

But with work being so bad and you have to feed your family, they go out and get a job non-union, so they’re working with their union card in their shoes and they supervise unqualified guys.

A year ago the dry-wallers in O.C. had a strike. They were non-union dry-wallers who were coming in and underbidding the union dry-wallers. When they got down to where those builders were paying them 80 cents a square foot instead of $6 a square foot, they got mad. I see it happening again--all these non-union guys out there working for 5, 6, 7 dollars an hour with no benefits. They’re going to see that the home builder is getting top dollar for his house and they’re getting shafted.

You can’t support a family on that kind of money. You see three, four families living in a single house. How did we get to this place? It all started back when the air traffic controllers got zapped by President Reagan; everybody was down on unions after that.

The quality of life is unfortunately coming down. I’m lucky. I have a little dry cleaning business my wife runs. People are working under the table trying to collect unemployment--people are on unemployment, welfare, four or five kids, God bless them, it’s hard enough to raise even one kid. Making 4, 5, 6, dollars an hour you have to have three, four people working in each family to make a decent wage.

Orange County is changing quite a bit--got more people unemployed then they ever did. The aerospace people out of work. The dry cleaning plant my wife runs is in Cerritos where a lot of McDonnell Douglas people live, many of them are out of work; 7,000 laid off last year. A lot of people are worried. They don’t know what’s going on. Used to be if you had a job you knew where you’re going to go on vacation this summer. Now you’re out worrying whether you’re going to be working this summer.

I have two grown kids. I was very fortunate, not a college grad, making $50-55,000 a year, plus my wife was working. We bought a house, brand new, in 1973 for $33,000 before the property started going up in Placentia next to Yorba Linda. Got a house, a pool, we got it nice. I’m not complaining, but my kids, unless you become a doctor or a lawyer I don’t know how you do it.

Our benefits have gone to hell just like everybody else’s. I used to have good health coverage, but it’s shot now. Now we have $500 deductible per person. That hurts. Hopefully, that’s one thing Clinton can do, work on this major medical insurance that’s hurting everybody. People are putting off going to the dentist, not going to the doctor.

When my kids were growing up they had good insurance. Every time they sneezed my wife had them at a pediatrician. Now the guys down at the union hall are going to clinics instead of pediatricians with their kids.

Can you live on $6 an hour? Most of the kids who are getting into the apprenticeship are still living at home, that’s the only thing that helps them; they’re living with their Mom and Dad.

The non-union guys who work live in apartments; their wives work. They’re working 50 hours a week and paid straight time. The state says you gotta get time and a half for over 40 hours. But people are doing whatever they can to make a few bucks, you know what I’m saying? They’re also working two jobs, pumping gas at night.

What every parent wants is for their kids to have something better then what they had--to go on to be a success. My kids, both of them graduated from high school and went to college. My daughter makes pretty good money and her husband does too and they live in Santa Margarita in a condo; they need a bigger place. They have two children. My son, he’s something he’s always wanted to be, a cop. Me and the wife, we pray every night; you know what’s going on in the news now with the cops.

What do I want from Clinton? I just want him to make sure American workers get what they’re supposed to get. That’s all that any worker wants. They want to make a decent living to raise a family. What the hell’s the use of having a contract that pays $80 an hour if there’s no work?

Clinton has got a good labor secretary and he’s trying to reverse that bill on the replacement of workers that Reagan put in. Which would help. The Constitution says a man has a right to better himself. Which means if I want to go on strike to better myself, I have the right. I have hopes for Clinton. I think I would have had hopes for anybody new to tell you the truth. We needed a change. We’re not going to know for four years unless you got a crystal ball or your wife talks to the Pope. Only time will tell.