Montana labor news., 1947-05-22
UNIONS, INCOME AND HEALTH

Throuch long and sometimes bitter years of struggle.
American workers have come to realize that in union
there is strength. Through organized efforts. i'll which
the single worker found Il powerful group voice. the
unions have brought about better wages. social security
BENEFITS. improved job conditions and. thereby. I'M
provements in the American standard Of living.
In Il very direct way. then. the unions have contrib
uted 10 tie health OF workers and their families because
health is purchasable. The amount Of illness in a fam
lily decreases when the Income OF that family rises. BY
achieving bigger pay checks. safer and more sanitary
working conditions and some assurance OF regular EN-
pIoyment, the forces Of organized labor have done more
for the health Of the nation than is usually realized.
To-day the unions are fighting an all out battle for
their very existence as free and effective agents. And
The Tait-dominated congress. in its efforts to smash
unions, is striking directly at the health of all workers.
1t is just Il Bit unconvincine. then. to see 4 Taft socalled
health bill in the legislative hopper.
Good health depends upon decent wages in two fun
damental ways. In the first place. under the current
system of health care III the Us. the family OF the sick
person must have enough ready cash to pay for the
costly services OF modern medicine, just at the time
when the illness may have shut off the family income.
Studies have shown that the poorest families get the
least medical service, although they have the greatest
burden of illness. The National Health Survey in 1886
revealed that families with annual incomes under $1,000
had 40 per cent more general illness and IS per cent
more chronic illness than those whose incomes were
$4,000 a year or more. Illness not only occurred more
often but was also more serious and lasted longer in
the lower income groups.
In the face OF this burden Of ill-health, the families
with less than 1,000 income were able to spend an av-
erase of only $40 a year for medical care. while the
richest families spent an average OF no less than $500
a year.
Not only are people with low incomes unable to pay
for the medical care they need, but poorer communities
cannot attract and hold sufficient numbers of doctors
and other health workers, nor can they support ade-
quate hospitals and public health departments. The dol
lar, it seems, is the magic key to medical care, and the
people who need the most services are the very once
who have the smallest supply of dollars.
Health is related to wages, however, in an even more
direct way. The p~aycheck has real meaning only when
converted into housing, food, clothing and the like. And
it is the poor state of these conditions that is really the
greatest cause OF bad health. Drafty. crowded and I'M
sale tenements, skinny diets, lack Of enough rest and
recreation. oyerwork in the effort to make ends meet
these are the important factors in disase.
They set the stage for tuberculosis and rheumatic
fever, for high infant mortality rates, and for the accum-
ulation OF mental and physical defects. Even certain
types of cancer have been shown to be most common
in lowest income groups.
AS income rises the ability to build good health in
creases, and as income rises the ability to get good
medical care when illness does strike also increases.
The fact must be faced by every worker. as well as by
the union-wreckers, The price-raisers and the antihous.
ing bloc, that the nations health depends on the in
come OF its working families. And workers know that
their union strength is the protector of their family
budgets.