A Fork in the Road

By David McCall
USW International President

Kevin Ziegelbauer looks out at the parking lot at the Ahlstrom paper mill in Kaukauna, Wis., and glimpses more than rows of new pickups.

He sees the power of workers standing together to build better lives.

Ziegelbauer, president of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 7-2-20, credits his co-workers’ high quality of life to a union contract that anchors them in the middle class despite the economic inequality raging across America.

The richest 5 percent of Americans now control a staggering two-thirds of the nation’s wealth, an imbalance that widened dramatically during the pandemic as millions of ordinary working families fell even further behind.

Nothing laid bare the gulf between the spoiled few and the hard-working masses like photos and videos of the country’s three biggest oligarchs hobnobbing without a care at Donald Trump’s inauguration.

With a combined wealth of more than half a trillion dollars and counting, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg personify the insidious lurch away from the joint struggle, shared power and widely held values that built America. Along with other billionaires and corporations that reap record profits on the backs of workers, they’re rapidly chipping away the nation’s democratic foundation and turning the land of the free into a fiefdom for the rich.

Collective action remains the only true path for rebalancing the scales and saving the middle class, which encompassed 61 percent of Americans in 1971 but shrunk to just 51 percent by 2023.

Some workers begin jobs at Ahlstrom believing “either you’re rich or you’re poor,” said Ziegelbauer, who quickly explains how the union empowers them to fight for more.

“Do you think the company wanted to give you these benefits,” he asks the newcomers, ticking off a list of USW wins.

Just last year, for example, the workers went into negotiations determined to win a greater share of the wealth they generate for their employer. By every measure, they succeeded.

“It took a long time, but we ended up with what we think were the best raises we ever bargained,” recalled Ziegelbauer, adding that the contract also improved weekend pay and included other provisions to enhance workers’ standard of living.

“Our work-life balance wasn’t right. We used that as a bargaining tool. They couldn’t deny that,” he said of management, noting the company needs to keep recruiting and retaining workers.

That strong union contract benefits all of Kaukauna, a city of about 18,000 in east-central Wisconsin.

Local 7-2-20 members pay taxes supporting schools, public services and amenities, including an environmental center and conservation zone. They patronize local businesses. They contribute time and money to civic projects such as a food bank and Toys for Tots, lifting up their neighbors.

And their high wages force other employers to keep pace, helping to explain why the city’s median income is higher and the poverty rate lower than the state and national figures.

Sadly, the maniacal uber-rich oppose all prosperity but their own.

Towering stacks of money will never be enough to sate people like Musk and Bezos. Just like the robber barons of the last Gilded Age, they also crave the pitiable satisfaction that comes from lording their wealth, bending others to their will and reigning over a hierarchical society.

Over the years, Musk vilified unions, the greatest equalizing force in America, and suggested that workers at one of his car plants would lose stock options if they unionized.

Amazon, the company Bezos founded, viciously attacks union drives by workers concerned about oppressive performance quotas and unsafe working conditions, going so far as to post anti-labor messages in restroom stalls.

The two tycoons even went to court to try to kill the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), established decades ago to enforce the labor law enabling workers to unionize and bargain collectively. And while their scorched-earth campaign continues, Trump paralyzed the NLRB—firing two top officials and leaving it without a quorum—days after his inauguration.

As if all of that weren’t nefarious enough, Musk fawned his way into Trump’s inner circle and began slashing federal departments, programs and jobs. His minions sent an email—with the subject line “A Fork in the Road”—to tens of thousands of union and nonunion government workers on Jan. 28 demanding they quit or risk getting the boot.

It’s one more front in the oligarchs’ widening war on labor. Right now, tens of millions of American workers stand at a crossroads, their organizing and bargaining rights, workplace safety protections, voice on the job and retirement security all at risk if elitists like Musk begin steamrolling over labor rights.

 “If unions are gone, the companies are going to have full control,” said Ziegelbauer, warning it’s more important than ever right now for workers to stand together, safeguard their labor rights and build back the middle class.

That fight is underway.

Thousands of workers, including USW members, gathered Tuesday in Washington, D.C., to protest Musk’s attacks and put him in his place. It was a poignant reminder that ordinary Americans forged this nation with solidarity and sweat equity, the sorts of riches beyond a narcissistic billionaire’s grasp.

“That isn’t quirky behavior,” Ziegelbauer said of Musk’s quest to subjugate working people. “That’s evil.”