Patricia Hewitt

Local columnist

Labor matters. Case in point, the recent alliance between the PGA (Professional Golfers Association) Tour and LIV Golf to create a collectively-owned for profit professional golfing entity. 

This announcement came as a big surprise to many people, including PGA players. To say there was controversy surrounding the LIV Golf tour from its’ outset would be an understatement. A number of prominent professional golfers, like Rory McIlroy for example, wanted nothing to do with LIV Golf, and then found themselves shut-out of the alliance’s decision-making process. The golfers that didn’t jump ship to LIV Golf depend on the PGA for their main livelihood, just like any other employee. 

How many times have you found yourself on the outside of a critical decision-making process at work? Things like mandatory overtime or family leave policies for example. Perhaps you work for a company that cares about its employees enough to solicit input on these major decisions, but in my experience, these are few and far between. Basically, employees have to take or leave it.

Unless, you are a member of a union. In that case, the union represents the needs and concerns of workers and thus, has a seat at the decision- making table. Which is exactly what happened at the PGA, post-LIV Golf alliance. In a recent announcement, Tiger Woods was added to the PGA Tour Board. This addition strengthens the players position in the PGA since they will now outnumber the independent board members (who are not players) in any final vote. Additionally, the players have demanded that one of their advisors sign off on any future agreements in order to prevent back-room negotiations from happening again.

In other words, the PGA tour players have formed a collective bargaining group designed to ensure that the players’ needs are represented by the players. For workers, it’s a good example that even in a high-profile organization like the PGA, prominent golfers whose labor creates value for them and their sponsors have used their voices for the good of all players. Interestingly, if one follows the analysis of these events, it was another famous golfer, Jack Nicklaus, who started a successful player revolt in 1968 that resulted in players gaining more control over the tour.

There are no other employees who understand how a company operates or delivers services on the ground like Labor.

Especially today, when management is often hired directly out of college or with little or no actual working experience in the industry they are hired to lead. Yet without the ability to require management to consult with them about policy and process changes, have an avenue to ensure working conditions are safe, and hold companies accountable for enforcing fairness and equity in pay and hiring, workers have little say in their working conditions and environment.

For decades, labor unions have provided a path to prosperity for our middle class, but the shift in directing profits away from workers to shareholders, equity investors, and top executives effectively weakened many of them. Yet, we can see, not just in golf, but in many other industries, unions are seeing a resurgence in interest.

According to the U.S.

Department of Labor, “A labor union is a group of two or more employees who join together to advance common interests such as wages, benefits, schedules and other employment terms and conditions.”.

In the greater Savannah area, there are 29 labor unions. Many of these unions offer high-paying training and apprenticeships that require only a high school diploma.

Here is a link to a directory of our local unions https://www.causeiq.com/ directory/unions-list/savannah- ga-metro/.

You won’t find Tiger or Rory on the list, but it might just open up some kitchen table conversations about the future of Labor and workers’ rights in your house.

Patti Hewitt is a local writer.