Last week one of the Mets, Francisco Rodriguez, players viciously attacked the father of his girlfriend, a 53 year old man. He was arrested and suspended for two days (during his arraignment). He returned to the team, pitched one inning and after the game it was discovered he had a torn ligament in his thumb necessitating season ending surgery.
The Mets reacted to this season ending surgery by invalidating the clause in Rodriguez's contract which guarantees his payment. This means that the player will only be paid if the team chooses to let him play, if they choose to suspend him or release him he does not get paid. If he does pitch for the team next season he will earn the salary that he was previously guaranteed.
The Player's Association has filed a grievance against the Mets. This of course has lead to the comments of "Unions are Destroying America." I, like many, think the actions of the Player's Union are wrong. But I, unlike many, do not blame the union. I blame the people who put the Player's Union in the position it is in, the folks with the power and influence.
I have worked for unions all of my professional life. In this time I have seen first hand unions forced to defend people for indefensible behavior. Unions don't defend the indefensible because they want to; they defend the indefinable because the Republican lead Federal Government demanded that they must.
In the 1930's our country was close to revolution. The corporate greed of the previous decades led to the great stock market crash, massive joblessness, and a huge disquiet among the working class. People who wanted to work, support themselves and their families couldn't find jobs. President Roosevelt pushed the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) through Congress as part of the New Deal. For the first time in this country's history the NLRA set up a legal process for workers to form unions set up a machinery to stop employers from simply firing, imprisoning or even hurting their employees for organizing a union. This stopped the massive worker unrest and workers in this country started organizing themselves into unions.
Union density grew and grew. The economy grew strong with union workers. Standards of living grew and America entered a golden age. Average working people could afford homes and education for their children. Life became less brutish for more and more Americans. For the first and only time Americans felt they were living in a country they deserved and felt that they were building something for themselves and their children and they were right. Also during this time, the wealthy grew wealthier but not rich enough.
Joe McCarthy started scaring people that the communists wanted to stop working people from achieving the futures they wanted. He and his cronies convinced the American people that the families, home and futures they hoped for would be swatted out by the commies. Then McCarthy convinced these people that the commies were hidden in the unions and the Unions needed to be controlled to protect their futures.
The Congress amended the NLRA to provide that union could be sued by its membership for not defending its members in any claim the member may make. Unions were destroyed by unhappy members. Employers could rightly terminate these folks but unions couldn't refuse to defend them without being destroyed. How could unions defend themselves, they had no choice but to defend their membership even when their actions are indefensible.
Knowing this, do you still blame the Player's Association for filing a grievance? Do you still blame Unions for destroying this county?
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