Labor Unions In America: Pro Or Con?, Share your thoughts and experiences regarding unions here. Options

[Craig Minowa]

In its work to promote social justice, the Organic Consumers Association often sides with unions. In the process, we've received a lot of letters and phone calls from some of our supporters who don't think unions are so great. What's your experience and stance on unions. Below is a letter from one of our readers. Please share your thoughts and experiences here.

Letter from OCA supporter:

While I normally appreciate many of your articles that focus on food safety, and keep us abreast of what sort of mischief may be coming out of government departments, I really wish you would stop pushing unions so rabidly. Particularly, I found your recent article from SocialistWorker.org on Whole Foods very patronizing and disingenuous in preaching this.

I've worked much of my life in non-unionized companies, often as a very ordinary worker at wages that were not very large at all, and I STILL would never ever go to work for a company where I had to be a union member, or could be dictated to by one. There are plenty of petty beauracracies already foisted on people these days, from town hall, to the state, feds, and even HOA's dictating what color your curtains should be. We the people, don't need another layer on top of that. In fact, we could do with a few less.

Additionally, having finally, at the age of 35 started my own tiny business because I no longer wanted to be controlled by anyone else, and having experienced first hand how much effort, grief, money, risk, sleepless nights, 80hour work weeks, and thought goes into the creation of a business, I bristle at the idea that people who merely show up to work as I previously did, with no risk, and expect to get paid regardless of any other condition, should expect to have control over business decisions and want the government to force business owners, who HAVE done all the above, to roll over and give them their way.

If you want YOUR way, YOU start the business, sink your money into it and bear the risk. YOU experience the grief, YOU solve those problems. If you just want someone to hand you a paycheck for showing up every day and going home at 5pm, that's all you deserve.

If you want something more, get off your butt, invest yourself in your own ideas and do what it takes to get there. No one is preventing you from doing that if you want more than a paycheck.

Before you go thinking I'm just another greedy business owner, I should mention that my business is just myself and my husband and we work it daily with our own hands. And because of that, we really understand what goes into forming and keeping one going. More so than I ever could have when I was just an employee. Maybe if some of those crying for unions tried it, you'd understand why any business owner would not want their hands tied by a union.

[Craig Minowa]

Here is a a reply to the above reader's comments from OCA's Ryan Zinn:

------

Why is the OCA getting involved in Labor issues? Is the OCA “pro-union?”

We’ve received many emails about OCA and our support for labor justice throughout the supply chain. Since its inception, the OCA has maintained that ‘fair trade’ be at the forefront of the organic movement. Unions can play an important role in

OCA believes that a healthy and sustainable food system depends on respect for the workers, animals and the environment. Unfortunately, labor laws in the United States do very little to protect the nation's two million farm workers, some of the most exploited and vulnerable members of our society.

Much of the natural and organic food produced in the United States, particularly in the West, is produced by corporate factory farms, employing farm workers.

On average, union workers’ wages are 30 percent higher than their nonunion counterparts. While only 14 percent of nonunion workers have guaranteed pensions, fully 68 percent of union workers do. More than 97 percent of union workers have jobs that provide health insurance benefits, but only 85 percent of nonunion workers do. Unions help employers create a more stable, productive workforce—where workers have a say in improving their jobs.

Over the years, Unions have fought and organized in support of workers rights, often creating laws and policies as a result of their efforts. For example, thanks to the UFW's work, they were able to win the first union contracts requiring rest periods, toilets in the fields, clean drinking water, hand washing facilities, protective clothing against pesticide exposure, banning pesticide straying while workers are in the fields, outlawing DDT and other dangerous pesticides, lengthening pesticide re-entry periods beyond state and federal standards, and requiring the testing of farm workers on a regular basis to monitor for pesticide exposure.

OCA believes that Trade Unions, like the United Farm Workers, represent one of the few ways that workers can organize and advocate for worker justice in a system rife with abuse and exploitation. Organizations like the UFW, can not only improve workplace safety, offer representation and increase wages, but also provide retirement benefits, credit and educational opportunities.

[medtek]

In its work to promote social justice, the Organic Consumers Association often sides with unions. In the process, we've received a lot of letters and phone calls from some of our supporters who don't think unions are so great. What's your experience and stance on unions. Below is a letter from one of our readers. Please share your thoughts and experiences here.

Letter from OCA supporter:

While I normally appreciate many of your articles that focus on food safety, and keep us abreast of what sort of mischief may be coming out of government departments, I really wish you would stop pushing unions so rabidly. Particularly, I found your recent article from SocialistWorker.org on Whole Foods very patronizing and disingenuous in preaching this.

I've worked much of my life in non-unionized companies, often as a very ordinary worker at wages that were not very large at all, and I STILL would never ever go to work for a company where I had to be a union member, or could be dictated to by one. There are plenty of petty beauracracies already foisted on people these days, from town hall, to the state, feds, and even HOA's dictating what color your curtains should be. We the people, don't need another layer on top of that. In fact, we could do with a few less.

Additionally, having finally, at the age of 35 started my own tiny business because I no longer wanted to be controlled by anyone else, and having experienced first hand how much effort, grief, money, risk, sleepless nights, 80hour work weeks, and thought goes into the creation of a business, I bristle at the idea that people who merely show up to work as I previously did, with no risk, and expect to get paid regardless of any other condition, should expect to have control over business decisions and want the government to force business owners, who HAVE done all the above, to roll over and give them their way.

If you want YOUR way, YOU start the business, sink your money into it and bear the risk. YOU experience the grief, YOU solve those problems. If you just want someone to hand you a paycheck for showing up every day and going home at 5pm, that's all you deserve.

If you want something more, get off your butt, invest yourself in your own ideas and do what it takes to get there. No one is preventing you from doing that if you want more than a paycheck.

Before you go thinking I'm just another greedy business owner, I should mention that my business is just myself and my husband and we work it daily with our own hands. And because of that, we really understand what goes into forming and keeping one going. More so than I ever could have when I was just an employee. Maybe if some of those crying for unions tried it, you'd understand why any business owner would not want their hands tied by a union.

[Sue Morris]

It is because of labor unions that we have a 40 hour week, instead of the 70-hour week that our grandparents worked. Because of labor unions, we have the ability to join with others to have some ability to negotiate for our benefits. Because of labor unions, we have a weekend. I also have a small business, just me and my husband, but I understand that history of labor unions, what people fought for and what they did, in fact, die for, to give us a better life. We now have that better life, but we can't forget our history.

It's not just the United Farm Workers that have made amazing strides in caring for workers. My personal history, the history of my family, is involved in the garment industry, where people really did work 70-hour weeks in small dark rooms and made just enough money to keep them alive for another day of work. That's not living, and it's the various garment worker unions that have made the difference.

It's true that people who start a business put in many hours and sometimes a good deal of money. But that doesn't give them the right to exploit people, to use their labor to make insane amounts of money. There is no one who should be earning millions of dollars a year while others are barely subsisting. And it is only the power of labor unions that makes it possible to ensure that workers have a living that is sustainable for themselves and their families. Without them, workers must rely on the paternalistic beneficence of owners.

[peh]

Unions once served a great purpose and years ago they were a great help to the working people of this country. Sorry to say...that is no longer the case. They have now, for the most part, become another bloated & corrupt special interest scam! Think aboutthe Teachers Union, the UAW and the Teamsters...no one can seriously believe that they really care about working people. It's an extortion racket....pure and simple.

[muddles]

I personally have mixed feelings about Unions. I have seen the bad side, with teacher strikes, the automobile industry, etc. where Unions come across as greedy, wanting everything for them, and not caring if the industry survives. I also understand that Unions have played a role in helping the people in America to gain good working conditions and decent pay. As a small business owner uions scare me as our margins are slim and if a union was to come in with demands that require more than we already give, we would have to close our business and thus putting the employees out of work. If only we lived in an ideal world.

[medtek]

From this misinformed declaration one can see that the last eight years of Republicant fear-induction has paid off. The issue of "organizing" labor fails of significance with an employer of just a few workers. The devil, however, lies in the ascription of evil to the term UNION. Unless you are a totally self-sufficient hermit, the concept of unionism is endemic to the fact of society. The National Association of Manufacturers is a "union". The United States Chamber of Commerce is a "union". The National Football League is a "union". The United Nations is a "union". The United States of America is a "union". Successful demagoguery is when you can be convinced there is controlling power in a word. But, alas, it's easier than thinking. It's easier than ascribing "good" motives to others as a first reaction. May Dog have mercy on our feeble souls. Lew Goodwin, on the left coast.

[evaseidelman]

I have worked with low-wage workers in the U.S. and farmworkers abroad and I can say that unions are essential if you believe in a liberal, democratic society. Aside from helping workers negotiate better wages and benefits, independent, democratic unions give workers the ability to speak up about their issues
including such non-economic problems as sexual harassment or excessive workload. Dignity, respect and representation should be considered basic human rights and without union representation, conditions for agricultural workers have shown to be inhumane.

Unions are also the only agents that I've seen that effectively enforce the law, codes of conduct and certification programs.

[Peeko Sanchez]

Anti-union propaganda is very effective, especially when it comes to the concept that one must have a mafia-run union or no union at all. The concept that a union is supposed to be nothing more than a means to unify the voices of workers who otherwise have no voice, has been lost to a lot of us, and replaced by the typical black and white, you're either with us or against us mentality.
I work for a small business. I would never once consider joining a union presently because we are such a small company, but more importantly- my boss listens to me. I do not feel unheard or abused. But I am VERY lucky. There are millions of workers across the world right now that are working under conditions that are an affront to humanity itself. That in order to have pineapple slices on your holiday ham, a young boy in southeast Asia had to die working the fields, or to keep replacing your $10 cute shirts from the mall, women are made to work 18 hour days, 7 days a week until literally their fingers bleed, is a representation of the disconnect and apathy toward the workers upon which our lifestyles and wealth are wholly dependant. Would we have any products at all on our store shelves if all the workers of the world took your advice and started their own businesses? Who would fill their role in society? Who would they be able to hire to help their business grow?
Sure, the dream is to have your own business. But when you need to hire workers as your company hopefully grows, will you be a benign and understanding boss, or will you feel so entitled to the fruits of your efforts, that you will fail to recognize it is not just you who is doing the work anymore? The answer for most is the latter and is the reason why unions are important. Unions should not be about entitlement. They should be a vehicle to ensure that the people who keep our world running, from the men pounding steel in foundries to the immigrants that clean hotel rooms, can have basic protections that our general morality says all humans deserve, like being able to go pee or drink water. When greed turns us into monsters, workers must be able to fight back, and unions are one way among many to do that.

[nakis]

I am definitely pro union. I am a union member. International Association of Machinist and Aerospace Workers.

There are a lot of things I don't like about unions. As with any source of power it attracts the corrupt and corrupts. But as one of the posters stated above, we owe alot to unions. Union people died to get us a better standard of living. It's not just about jobs and pay. It's about the standard of living of the working class. People working together to build a better life for themselves and future generations. I believe in the class struggle. There is a class war going on. And unions are an invaluable part of that struggle. One of the reasons we are loosing this war is the reduction of unions and union members.
Unions are just as valid today as they were decades ago. We've come a long way but we need to go so much farther. And unions will help us get there.
Why do people form groups? Why does OCA exist? Because one voice is small and hard to hear. Many voices together become a choir and cannot be ignored.
Yes, unions are a two edged sword. One I've been cut by but I'm willing to keep working as a union member and work with other unions to use the other edge to make this world a little bit better, today, tomorrow, next year, .... .

[Gwen]

In its work to promote social justice, the Organic Consumers Association often sides with unions. In the process, we've received a lot of letters and phone calls from some of our supporters who don't think unions are so great. What's your experience and stance on unions. Below is a letter from one of our readers. Please share your thoughts and experiences here.

Letter from OCA supporter:

While I normally appreciate many of your articles that focus on food safety, and keep us abreast of what sort of mischief may be coming out of government departments, I really wish you would stop pushing unions so rabidly. Particularly, I found your recent article from SocialistWorker.org on Whole Foods very patronizing and disingenuous in preaching this.

I've worked much of my life in non-unionized companies, often as a very ordinary worker at wages that were not very large at all, and I STILL would never ever go to work for a company where I had to be a union member, or could be dictated to by one. There are plenty of petty beauracracies already foisted on people these days, from town hall, to the state, feds, and even HOA's dictating what color your curtains should be. We the people, don't need another layer on top of that. In fact, we could do with a few less.

Additionally, having finally, at the age of 35 started my own tiny business because I no longer wanted to be controlled by anyone else, and having experienced first hand how much effort, grief, money, risk, sleepless nights, 80hour work weeks, and thought goes into the creation of a business, I bristle at the idea that people who merely show up to work as I previously did, with no risk, and expect to get paid regardless of any other condition, should expect to have control over business decisions and want the government to force business owners, who HAVE done all the above, to roll over and give them their way.

If you want YOUR way, YOU start the business, sink your money into it and bear the risk. YOU experience the grief, YOU solve those problems. If you just want someone to hand you a paycheck for showing up every day and going home at 5pm, that's all you deserve.

If you want something more, get off your butt, invest yourself in your own ideas and do what it takes to get there. No one is preventing you from doing that if you want more than a paycheck.

Before you go thinking I'm just another greedy business owner, I should mention that my business is just myself and my husband and we work it daily with our own hands. And because of that, we really understand what goes into forming and keeping one going. More so than I ever could have when I was just an employee. Maybe if some of those crying for unions tried it, you'd understand why any business owner would not want their hands tied by a union.

This is the second series of posts from this person, Craig Minowa, both of which I find historically ignorant. If Mr. Minowa had been taught the need for the rise of labor unions, he would be able to make intelligent responses. Facts: As industry developed, after the Civil War, American workers were exploited by owners and managers horribly, a form of "wage slavery." Read Theodore Dreiser and other knowledgeable investigators of American labor and capital, including Studs Terkel. Workers used the only resource they had to secure living wages, working hours and conditions. The first movement was "sit-in strikes," where workers would not leave a plant, that would allow owners to bring in "scabs," depression ridden workers who would do anything to earn a dime. The owners hired thugs known as "goons" to beat workers. Only by withholding their only asset, their labor, were workers able to advance beyond perpetual poverty. The argument against unions--and there have been "bad" union bosses, just as there develops in anything--including government--no matter how well-intentioned initially.
I don't know where--or if-- Mr. Minowa mis-learned his information on both labor unions and alternative medicine, but he should have had some of the teachers I did--or me.

I've never belonged to a union. I would have if an employer exploited workers , including me, and the workers chose to form a union. The United States is a UNION. To be anti-union without the historical knowledge is sad. Investment firms and banks ARE unions, and they have power. Why is it that those who are at the lowest rank in society, those who do the grunt work. make the things, etc. should not have the ability to organize for themselves, against such power. How many unemployed do we have, while the owners may have a stash in Switzerland and the Cayman islands?

[hooka]

unfortunately the right wing has been successful at conflating the interests of corporations with those of mom and pop style businesses and working people in general. corporations, which dominate our agriculture, are profit driven machines. they must expand or die. this provides the incentive for constantly squeezing labor, demanding more and more production for less and less compensation. the worker's unpaid labor is the source of profits, which go to those who dont work, but rather own, and finance expansion through the hiring of more low paid workers, whose unpaid labor can thereby increase profits. workers discovered long ago that in order to counteract this pitiless race to the bottom, and secure for their labor the dignity and remuneration it deserves, they needed to organize. even nonunion workers benefit from the the existence of unions, as the mere threat of unionization often compels firms to keep wages, benefits, and work hours at tolerable levels. of course unions arent perfect, but given the harsh reality of our economic system they are absolutely necessary. unions can go away when capitalism does. until then, the OCA should continue to support them.

[jkuniholm]

In its work to promote social justice, the Organic Consumers Association often sides with unions. In the process, we've received a lot of letters and phone calls from some of our supporters who don't think unions are so great. What's your experience and stance on unions. Below is a letter from one of our readers. Please share your thoughts and experiences here.

Letter from OCA supporter:

While I normally appreciate many of your articles that focus on food safety, and keep us abreast of what sort of mischief may be coming out of government departments, I really wish you would stop pushing unions so rabidly. Particularly, I found your recent article from SocialistWorker.org on Whole Foods very patronizing and disingenuous in preaching this.

I've worked much of my life in non-unionized companies, often as a very ordinary worker at wages that were not very large at all, and I STILL would never ever go to work for a company where I had to be a union member, or could be dictated to by one. There are plenty of petty beauracracies already foisted on people these days, from town hall, to the state, feds, and even HOA's dictating what color your curtains should be. We the people, don't need another layer on top of that. In fact, we could do with a few less.

Additionally, having finally, at the age of 35 started my own tiny business because I no longer wanted to be controlled by anyone else, and having experienced first hand how much effort, grief, money, risk, sleepless nights, 80hour work weeks, and thought goes into the creation of a business, I bristle at the idea that people who merely show up to work as I previously did, with no risk, and expect to get paid regardless of any other condition, should expect to have control over business decisions and want the government to force business owners, who HAVE done all the above, to roll over and give them their way.

If you want YOUR way, YOU start the business, sink your money into it and bear the risk. YOU experience the grief, YOU solve those problems. If you just want someone to hand you a paycheck for showing up every day and going home at 5pm, that's all you deserve.

If you want something more, get off your butt, invest yourself in your own ideas and do what it takes to get there. No one is preventing you from doing that if you want more than a paycheck.

Before you go thinking I'm just another greedy business owner, I should mention that my business is just myself and my husband and we work it daily with our own hands. And because of that, we really understand what goes into forming and keeping one going. More so than I ever could have when I was just an employee. Maybe if some of those crying for unions tried it, you'd understand why any business owner would not want their hands tied by a union.

I worked in a furniture factory in Mass. when I was in my 20's, 40 years ago. This factory NEEDED a union! It logged more serious worker injuries than any other business in Massachusetts. And they did have a union, but the only sign I ever saw of the union was that they took out dues from my paycheck. And the work rules favored the inept guy who was hired 15 minutes before me, even though he had no experience with machinery whereas I already had a couple of years of varied experience. But seniority ruled, and I got out of there as soon as I could - - after I got injured, and after that other guy had lost four fingers, and after the union did nothing to help or protect us. Unions have apparently helped our society in a lot of ways, but I never wanted to belong to one, because I always did better bargaining on my own than being a member of a collective that never recognized individual ability. I have always stood up for organizations to promote workers, but somehow all of the unions that I know of stand up for the union, but not always for either individual good or the common good. I have seen too many labor organizations behave just like the businesses they are supposed to stand up to -- protecting their own vested interests, giveing privileges and big money to the leaders, and treating members like ants. I have been a licensed professional for many years now, and I work for an engineering company. I don't always get what I want from this company, but we are an employee-owned company and we all treat each other like the professionals we are. And the people who do better get the rewards, not just the people who have been there the longest. So I wonder about this. I am not opposed to unions, I just wouldn't want to belong to one. And I just cannot see giving blanket support to a union just because it is a union. It was a union that opposed the bottle bill in MA because they thought it would cost them jobs -- meaning that waste created their jobs, so they were all for it. Some unions in USA had a chance to be more like unions in Germany, taking seats on corporate boards to influence company policy for the better for all, but the American unions explicitly refused to do this, saying publicly that they could "get" more by being adversarial. THe UAW did that in Detroit, so that the average auto worker made double what I make before the crash -- but they also made lousy cars that cost more than they were worth. The meltdown in Detroit was not solely the fault of the corporations, because the unions were just as greedy as the bosses, it seems to me. I feel we should support organizations that protect people, but also all organizations -- corporations AND unions, should be chartered with a requirement that they serve the public good as well as themselves, their stockholder and their members.

[Craig Minowa]

Gwen,
Thanks for your posting. Just to be clear, that is not my letter, nor is the other post I put in the forum that you are referring to. As noted in my posts, they are letters submitted by OCA readers, not my own thoughts. I am not saying I agree or disagree with anything I post in this forum from readers, nor does OCA claim to endorse it. This is a letter to the editor that we are posting for discussion. Thanks.

[farmerJ]

Some years ago I was a member of the AFSCME union for several years. I got decent pay and excellent benefits compared to non-union jobs doing similar work. The protection of the union also made it possible to tolerate working for some real idiots of managers. The down side was that the union made it necessary to tolerate working with some real idiots of co-workers who would never have lasted in a non-union job where performance was required. The workplace as a whole was much less efficient and the work done was not to as high a standard as some similar non-union jobs. That job was also the only time I ever worked for the government and it could be that was the cause of some of the disfunction. If I had a choice, I would rather work for enlightened, fair management in a non-union workplace. If I had to work for incompetents, I would rather have a union to protect me.

[Child of Gaia]

Letter from OCA supporter:

While I normally appreciate many of your articles that focus on food safety, and keep us abreast of what sort of mischief may be coming out of government departments, I really wish you would stop pushing unions so rabidly. Particularly, I found your recent article from SocialistWorker.org on Whole Foods very patronizing and disingenuous in preaching this.

I've worked much of my life in non-unionized companies, often as a very ordinary worker at wages that were not very large at all, and I STILL would never ever go to work for a company where I had to be a union member, or could be dictated to by one. There are plenty of petty beauracracies already foisted on people these days, from town hall, to the state, feds, and even HOA's dictating what color your curtains should be. We the people, don't need another layer on top of that. In fact, we could do with a few less.

Additionally, having finally, at the age of 35 started my own tiny business because I no longer wanted to be controlled by anyone else, and having experienced first hand how much effort, grief, money, risk, sleepless nights, 80hour work weeks, and thought goes into the creation of a business, I bristle at the idea that people who merely show up to work as I previously did, with no risk, and expect to get paid regardless of any other condition, should expect to have control over business decisions and want the government to force business owners, who HAVE done all the above, to roll over and give them their way.

If you want YOUR way, YOU start the business, sink your money into it and bear the risk. YOU experience the grief, YOU solve those problems. If you just want someone to hand you a paycheck for showing up every day and going home at 5pm, that's all you deserve.

If you want something more, get off your butt, invest yourself in your own ideas and do what it takes to get there. No one is preventing you from doing that if you want more than a paycheck.

Before you go thinking I'm just another greedy business owner, I should mention that my business is just myself and my husband and we work it daily with our own hands. And because of that, we really understand what goes into forming and keeping one going. More so than I ever could have when I was just an employee. Maybe if some of those crying for unions tried it, you'd understand why any business owner would not want their hands tied by a union.

Dear fellow OCA supporter

Twenty-six years ago, I was your current age and in your current shoes and believed exactly as you currently believe. In my early twenties, I had been forced to join unions when I did not want to, and had been literally robbed (extorted) by unions. I hated them. Then I went to work for non-union businesses as I made preparations to open my own business, which I did in my middle twenties. And by my mid thirties, as you are now, I was still proprietor of a small business with a handful of employees.

Well, I am not going to bore you with the details of my life from then on, but I will say this. I see now that the unions are not all bad. Most of them have become corrupt, yes, but still, without them, the little guy would be up the creek. And that includes small business owners.

I don't expect you to be able to understand that right now, as I did not understand it when I was 35 and in your shoes. But let me just say, always remember to look at the big picture. If you keep your focus on the big picture, I think perhaps you may change your perspective, as I did.

[Vampyra]

It is because of labor unions that we have a 40 hour week, instead of the 70-hour week that our grandparents worked. Because of labor unions, we have the ability to join with others to have some ability to negotiate for our benefits.

Let me tell you my husband has a job delivering bread and he is a union worker and works nearly 80 hours a week (he is not paid by the hour). His union does nothing for the workers and in his last contract hardly got him an increase in salary and they signed a 5 year contract with the company.

We wanted better health insurance and they settled with us having a $3000 deductible a year. I'm a diabetic so I have stopped seeing the Dr for the last 2 years because I can't afford the bill.

I worked in a nursing home years ago that the union did nothing for us except take a chunk out of our paycheck. Eventually we took a vote and got them out. I think we got a whole 10 cents more an hour for having the union but what they stole from our paychecks cost us more.

Now the unions stick up for illegal aliens instead of legal US workers which just sickens me. I just don't understand this country.

You believe what you want but I know how we are suffering and unions are useless.

[amomynous]

Polls indicate that over 90% of working people wish they could belong to a union. The high point of the median wage in this country was 1973. When the right killed the unions, productivity continued to rise, but the benefits all went to management. (The CEO of Goldman Sachs said this in print years ago.) Some economists say the underlying cause of the crash of 2008 is the wage productivity gap: high productivity has created more goods and services than today's wages permit the consumers to consume. After trying to maintain their standard of living by borrowing, people have had to retrench and there is no market for all the houses and cars that we could produce if only people could afford to buy them, i.e. if they had a living wage. The country was far better in the Eisenhower years when he said it was a good year when production was up, wages were up, and profits were up. Compare this to Bush's comment that it was a good year because profits were up, the market was up, and we managed to avoid "wage inflation". Alas, Obama and Clinton are well to the right of Eisenhower.

[SJB 1922]

This is a topic I've reflected on for many years. In brief--it seems to me that the only role model unions had was ownership, so it's not too surprising that they adopted some less-than-ideal practices/attitudes.
If unions were to disappear over night, wages, benefits, and working conditions in most workplaces would deteriorate rapidly, since it's often only the fear of unionization that keeps non-union shops "honest."
Perhaps most important, one has only to read the daily paper (where one is still fortunate enough to have a paper to read) to see countless examples of weak or absent morals and ethics among individuals in every occupation and level of society. Whether it's greed trumping honesty in the workplace or respected institutions putting their survival ahead of the welfare of helpless kids, human behavior does not seem to be on an upswing. The standards unions are held to are higher than those of any other group on Earth: Union-opponents expect a saintliness absent in companies, schools, churches, or governments at any level.

All that said, I believe any group is only as good as its members are willing to work to make it. In a society where most folks are "too busy" to bother to vote, most workers unwilling to put the time and energy into cleaning up any corruption, those with the most to gain will triumph, and they're often not the most altruistic. We see repeatedly--from corporate boardrooms to school boards, from state legislatures to union halls--selfishness and avarice prevailing because it takes guts to stand up for what's right.

[charleysfarm]

I applaud OCA for supporting unions. I have worked in a hospital for 25 years next to RN's that have always been unionized. My wages were low and seldom had a COLA increase while the RN's always got a great COLA. When they were being disciplined they got to have an investigation into the discipline first while we simply were written up or fired even when we were innocent. Our work schedules could be altered without any notice but not theirs. The rest of us finally got smart and voted in a union 7 years ago. In the first year of our first contract, my wages increased $6,000/year. And every year since I have gotten at least a 3% COLA or better and/or a step increase. Poor workers cont. to get disciplined and sometimes even fired but only after an investigation proves wrong doing. It wasn't until after we got the union that OSHA standards started being enforced.

When co-workers have complained that the union hasn't helped them, my first question is: Did you even call the rep. or shop steward to ask for help? Frequently the answer is No. On the very occasional time when the answer was yes, I looked into the situation and found that the employee was in the wrong and deserved to be disciplined. Also most people do not attend the union meetings where we decide which direction the union will go on various issues. I have gone so far as to be elected as a member of the executive board of our union local so that I am able to give feedback and vote directly on things like the wages the union employees will get or how we spend our dues. My union local is UFCW Local 21. I am proud to say I am a member.

If you don't like what your own union is doing then you must get involved. The union is only as honest and strong as the members who get involved. Union locals that accept a lower COLA/wage etc in a contract, do it for 2 possible reasons. Either the employer truly can't afford more, or the members refuse to stand up and fight for more. This economy has forced us to make concessions on our retirement. That is not the unions fault or my employer. If the economy were better we would be in there fighting for something better. Unions allow people to fight without the fear of retaliation.

On the last post she said her husband must work 80 hrs/week and the union hasn't helped. My question is: Was your husband and other employees willing to fight and perhaps even strike? Most likely not. Someone voted to accept the contract. If enough people had voted down the contract then the unions bargaining team would have been forced to go back to get something better. Her husband could have even tried to be elected to the bargaining team. Hardly anyone will do that but they do find it easy to complain. I wonder if her husband even showed up to vote against the contract? I have to work to get people to just show up to vote.

This is a long reply but I want to show that unions give you a chance to do something but they can't make you do it. Just because you pay dues does not mean you can just sit back and let others do the work. You have to be willing to help to create a union that will work for you.