Originally posted by Shawn R. L.
@supervike - While I support unions in principal, they have tended to be their own enemy. My dad was a business owner and ran a union shop. Soon as he went from worker to owner, he turned into the enemy in the unions eyes. His guys were making A LOT of money and the union made them go on strike for more. The unions of TODAY seem stuck in the 20\'s when more....even a lot more....was reasonable and very justified. Now, 90 years later and a WHOLE LOT MORE $$$, the operating guideline seems to simply be MORE!! I tend to blame them somewhat for our imigration problem. The unions simply priced themselves right out of the market.
I can\'t say I disagree with you on some of the points, but the playing field isn\'t exactly equitible.
For instance, the CEO of my company makes 65,000 dollars PER DAY! That is more than the yearly base salary from any one of the \'union\' employees here. They have a reported 1.8 BILLION in \'liquid\' cash, but they have balked at a raise they could manage for was 3 percent. Inflation is currently at about 7.5 percent. So, in essence we\'ve taken a pay cut.
It is in any Unions best interests to keep the company they work for healthy, productive AND profitable. To price yourself out of work would be a ridiculous idea. Thats cutting off your nose to spite your face.
Unions members don\'t get to compete on an open playing field, because so many of the jobs can be \'sent to china or India\'. We cannot compete fairly with those countries. They do not use the same industrial standards we do, do not have the same laws.
Why don\'t they ever send the CEO or the board of directors titles to people in China, they could surely find someone who could do it for less that 65,000 per day, couldn\'t they?
It is far too easy to paint Unions as greedy pigs, but then somehow overlook the fact that the executives from many of these same companies basically steal money, they get a pass.
It\'s not too much to ask, is it? Union workers want an equitible share of the goods or services that they provide. Not one single Unionist will advocate bankrupting the company to do so.
The problem is that companies want huge profits. Not just profits, enormous ones. However, they see their own employees, not as assets and contributors to those profits, but liabilities!!
Ask any HR Director at ANY firm, and they will always say \"Employees are our number one ASSET!\"
Then ask for a COLA (cost of living adjustment) raise, and they go from ASSET number one, to greedy pigs! Practice what they preach!
I understand that Unions have themselves to blame for many of their woes. But a collective bargaining agreement protects workers rights, gives people dignity, AND produces superior products and services to any NON-union shop. It also creates a tax paying base and has the spiral effect of creating more jobs and services.
Of course the price of unionized labor is higher, it\'s a better product! Countless studies prove that, but somehow decision makers and bean counters cannot get past the fact that someone may make Time and a Half when they have to work past 40 hours.
