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greytone · 04-24-2005, 04:28 PM

I have no doubt that unions have done quite a bit of good since the industrial revolution, but for the most part, I think their time should pass. Most of my recent experience is that the unions do more harm to their members than good. Often the union leadership is only looking out for their own good instead of the membership. They convince the members that they are getting something they could not get on their own.

While I think most workers should be allowed to join unions, I think being forced to join a union in a closed shop state is horrible. A friend of mine was in that situation once. When his contract was up, he and his employer both wanted different things. He is a night person and they needed a morning shift employee. They both agreed to continue with the existing contract until he could find another job. He is a broadcast journalist, so that can take some time. About 3 months into this, the union he was paying dues to against his wishes figures this out. They sent a letter without asking him that forced the station to fire him immediately. Who benifited from this other than the union membership?

Take the UPS strike of several years ago. They permanently lost market share. Well a year or so later, the company went public. Now get this; the company had been employee owned at the time of the strike. They made a killing on the stock sale, but who knows how much more they would have made if they had not permantly lost market share in the strike (which coincided with the big boom in on-line sales).

About 6 weeks ago the workers at the Lockheed plant near me went on strike. The workers at other plants were happy with the same contract, but not here, with our low cost of living. This strike happened to coincide with congressional hearings on cutting the F-22 which is having big cost overruns. I am sure that if the strike went on more than a few days that the cuts would have been really dramatic.

04-24-2005, 04:28 PM	#32 (permalink)
greytone Junkie	I have no doubt that unions have done quite a bit of good since the industrial revolution, but for the most part, I think their time should pass. Most of my recent experience is that the unions do more harm to their members than good. Often the union leadership is only looking out for their own good instead of the membership. They convince the members that they are getting something they could not get on their own. While I think most workers should be allowed to join unions, I think being forced to join a union in a closed shop state is horrible. A friend of mine was in that situation once. When his contract was up, he and his employer both wanted different things. He is a night person and they needed a morning shift employee. They both agreed to continue with the existing contract until he could find another job. He is a broadcast journalist, so that can take some time. About 3 months into this, the union he was paying dues to against his wishes figures this out. They sent a letter without asking him that forced the station to fire him immediately. Who benifited from this other than the union membership? Take the UPS strike of several years ago. They permanently lost market share. Well a year or so later, the company went public. Now get this; the company had been employee owned at the time of the strike. They made a killing on the stock sale, but who knows how much more they would have made if they had not permantly lost market share in the strike (which coincided with the big boom in on-line sales). About 6 weeks ago the workers at the Lockheed plant near me went on strike. The workers at other plants were happy with the same contract, but not here, with our low cost of living. This strike happened to coincide with congressional hearings on cutting the F-22 which is having big cost overruns. I am sure that if the strike went on more than a few days that the cuts would have been really dramatic. __________________ I was there to see beautiful naked women. So was everybody else. It's a common failing. Robert A Heinlein in "They Do It With Mirrors"