guest editorial – Jason Salzman

Where’s the serious news about unions?

The importance of unions to a community usually slides under the news media’s radar screen. It’s not news when a construction worker brings her sick daughter to the doctor, using the health insurance she gets through her union contract.

Neither is it news when a non-unionized Wal-Mart worker takes her kid to the city hospital, and taxpayers pick up the tab. And it’s normally not news when a union helps an injured worker obtain adequate workers’ compensation.

But unions do make news — and lots of it — in the context of dramatic events, like a strike, bankruptcy or scandal. And they make big news when they have internal fights or schisms. And so it was with the coverage of the recent decision by the Service and Employees International Union (SEIU) and others to part ways with the AFL-CIO, splitting America’s unionized workers.

The story got wall-to-wall coverage, from the front page of The New York Times to network news. Columnists pontificated. TV chat shows went crazy. News stories abounded. How often does a story about the labor movement get this kind of front-burner treatment?

The AFL-CIO split gave journalists the chance to meet their professional obligation to inform readers about broader union-related issues, which are chronically under-reported due to the event-centered nature of news.

But the major media missed this opportunity. They haven’t reported adequately on some of the biggest, most important issues confronting the labor movement. Most of the coverage about the union breakup emphasized that membership in America’s labor unions is dropping, but little of the news coverage addressed why this is happening.

Union leaders report that big companies, like Wal-Mart and other non-unionized companies are harassing workers who try to organize unions. Is the federal government adequately enforcing our nation’s labor laws? And what, if anything, should be done about the situation?

Companies like Wal-Mart see no need for unions. This raises the question, which was barely analyzed in the recent coverage: What if there were no unions at all? How much would taxpayers end up paying for health care and other support for uninsured, non-union workers? What else do unions contribute to our community that might be missed?

And in all the recent news of the breakup of the AFL-CIO, little was written about the minimum wage. An analysis of the politics of raising the minimum wage, to allow workers to make basic ends meet, would have been appropriate.

Some labor issues are complex, and it’s understandable that the mainstream media would avoid them. But, still, with wealth in America becoming more and more concentrated at the top, journalists should take a crack at some of the most complex questions confronting workers and the labor movement.

How much profit is reasonable for large companies to earn and forecast, while at the same time demanding serious concessions from unions or fighting unionization efforts? What does financial health look like to the companies?

And what about addressing, God forbid, the ethical questions involved when a profitable company pays its CEO the big bucks, while at the same time fighting off attempts by workers to form a union? How much should corporate executives and CEOs make? Is there a limit, ethically?

Reporters should ask business ethicists about the decisions facing grocery companies, for example, which try to shed their unions, or Wal-Mart, which fights unionization efforts.

With the AFL-CIO drama still unfolding, it’s not too late for reporters to offer a broader perspective on the big issues facing workers in America.

~ Jason Salzman is the author of “Making the News: A Guide for Nonprofits and Activists,” and board chair of Rocky Mountain Media Watch, a Denver-based media watchdog organization. www.causecommunications.com. Distributed by Minuteman Media.