Anti-Union Rant
Recently I commented on A.J.84’s blog concerning paying teachers more, and began to rant on about how unions have soured the object of their creation. I felt then that I needed to expound on those ‘rants’ into a little better format… here and now!
My intent concerning this subject is not to claim that any and all unions are bad, but I do have issues with their ‘supposed’ intent and/or reasons for their existence. Not that many years ago, I used to be a salesman working within the construction field for a small manufacturing firm of light-commercial products. Within the course of my job duties, required me to visit job-sites where our product had been sold to inspect how the product was working, determine any mistakes, and/or issues regarding the job itself, or the product that had been delivered. Whether or not I was ever anti-union prior to this I’m not so certain, but two days worth of activities did forever change the way that I looked at unions.
Detroit is not the city that I would like to call home, and one that I do not particularly care for. Detroit is a city of great accomplishments, wonderful inventions, and great sporting events. That all being said, I do not care for the city based on the two examples I will tell you about.
The first – As I had mentioned, I was a salesman, and one of the marketing tactics of our company was to be a part of trade shows, which were held at the (old) Silverdome, a huge arena where literally hundreds of vendors, customers and other companies plied their wares to general contractors, architects, engineers, and many lay-workers. As my partner and I began to set up our display in the 10’x10’ booth that we had reserved, electricity was required in order for us to have both light and a computer PowerPoint show continually looping during this particular show. In order for us to even plug our own chord into the wall outlet; we were REQUIRED to call a union representative of the Silverdome for them to do it. We were actually threatened with expulsion if we did these ourselves.
The second – One of my larger clients, was a construction firm in Detroit, which had purchased our product for a large Assisted-Living facility. The order was a substantial one, one that I was willing to travel across the state to visit to make certain that the customer and product was happy and sufficient for the needs of this particular project. During my travel time there, I actually received a call from the job superintendent that there was a damaged good on the site, and required my presence to inspect and do ‘what-ever’ to make it right. After assuring him that this was great since I was actually on my way to this job-site, I continued on my way. (This is where it gets really interesting…) Once I arrived, I was refused access to the job-site because I was not union. With a personal request, and a need for customer service, I was not allowed to inspect MY product to determine the extent of the damage and also in determining the best method of repair or replacement. After being confronted with a half-dozen men claiming that they’d call security if I set foot on “their” property, I left, without providing any resultion to this issue.
Now… I don’t portent to say that every union in the world is like Detroit’s, but it does bring home a message to me and a lot of other people too - Where did the unions get their power from, and why do they still have it?
Although I am very much anti-union, I believe that when the unions were introduced into the working communities many, many years ago, they were very necessary. Child labor, working conditions, and corporate greed were hard to address, where the unions certainly helped in that department, and actually provided much needed ethical and legal statues still in place today. GREAT, Good job… BUT… today... they hinder much needed competition within many industries (Detroit = automotive), demand concessions from organizations that are not cost effective for anyone, and also demand that their employees (those under union contract) listen to, and act according to what their union representative tells them to. So much for freedoms! How about competition? Does the union actually believe that their adamants toward competition (China versus US) are beneficial to either themselves, or the economy at large?
As a resident of Michigan, I challenge the unions to prove to me that their existence is beneficial to a state that has one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation, a state that has the highest/fastest decreasing population in the nation, and one that actually has one of the highest business taxes in the nation…
Hmmmm… Is it possible to have a union to protect us from the government?
I think that some union regulations get out of hand. Like, when the janitor isn't allowed to change the lightbulb or whatnot.
“I am the King of Rome, and above grammar”
Emperor Sigismund
Unions are still important today.....and they get their power from their members.
Take the recent writers strike. one of the main objectives was to aquire a piece of the growing digital media pie. if there were no writers union, producers and television studios could pay the same wages to the writers but make twice the money selling content over the internet.
Also, this is a main reason why BIG BUSINESS does not support immigration reform. with the large influx of immigrant workers, businesses can pay less to get the same work. A common misconception is that the IMMIGRANT WORKER is uneducated. I personally know two immigrants who are doing menial jobs until their immigration status allows them to use their technical degrees.
Also with trade embargoes like NAFTA, and basic outsourcing you are seeing BIG BUSINESS out maneuver the mostly unionized "small town americans" who rely on factory jobs, and other unionized industries.
THE LACK OF UNION POWER IS WHY THE ECONOMY IS THE WAY IT IS.
plain and simple
;-) I'm not willing to guess from where you are from, and it actually doesn't matter.
I could not disagree with you more concerning our economy can only grow, or get better with more unions.
Take for example this situation... Union workers working on 'a' assemply line are getting paid $25.00/hour. The same process, same skill level, same everything done overseas in any of the multitude of manufacturing plants worldwide are being paid $5.00/hour... and in some cases, that $5.00/hour is a 100% increase than what they were being paid prior to getting this 'job' from what-ever company.
As a businessman, I don't need a calculator to see how this is very wrong. businesses and economies do not survive by what they pay their employees, they survive by watching their costs in relation to their profits. When profits do not rise, the next step is to look at costs. In the above example, I'm all for outsourcing based solely on cost alone. If and when unions want to put pay back into a competitive situation concerning skill and technology, then lets renegociate. If not, then I'm the one saying to the board of directors, let's outsource this process, thereby saving us $20.00 per man hour. If the unions cannot understand this, then (again as a business owner), lets get rid of the unions... they are the ones that are putting me out of business, not the $5.00 labor elsewhere!
As to rising profits, that is out of the businesses hands to some extent. That is based on supply and demand. If customer's continue to demand it, and supply is large, then the price tag goes down... if I can't lower the cost to make it, my profits go down, thereby forcing me (again) to look at my costs, and ways to drop those too.
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"Can you imagine what I would do if I could do all I can?” (Sun Tzu)
Actually, if there were no writer's union, writers would have been able to negotiate their own contracts and could have written such provisions in themselves.
--Mike
the economy is based on the wealth of PEOPLE not BUSINESS...
so the reason i made the statement was to enlighten you. If BIG BUSINESS outsources then what happens to those workers? THEY DEFAULT ON MORTGAGES, cant PAY CREDITORS, all the problems that are happening TODAY.
I am also a business owner, so i can understand cost/profit ratios, but there has to be profit sharing so that all those involved can prosper.
Outsourcing is devistating the working class. pretty soon there will only be those who have extensive technical skills getting REAL work in america. so if you manufacture, teach, use a telephone, sell products, or anything else that can be done for cheaper in other countries you will be out of a job.
a man in china can raise his family on $5/ hr
a man in america needs atleast $20/ hr to raise a family
Mr. Warbanks, Its a pleasure to have this debate, and I hope we have many more...
I agree that ousourcing is creating a terrible problem with businesses as they send their work elsewhere, leaving their indigineous workers unemployeed. I also agree that American workers cost of living is higher than those of other nations. But where I draw the line is the use of unions to force the pay change to the businesses instead of working with the business to change the way that company DOES business, thereby making the business more willing to keep the experienced labor, and socially responsibility intact. I wont claim there will not be problems, but I do blame many of those 'outsourcing' problem on the union.
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"Can you imagine what I would do if I could do all I can?” (Sun Tzu)
you are right....outsourcing is the reaction to US unions making sometimes outrageous demands......
however, if the unions were dissassebled then businesses would maybe pay US workers fairly. the key is a balance. i think that US unions can be a bit more diplomatic in their negotiations, but US businesses should not be able to just "Cut and Run" to Taiwan, then still call themselves A US COMPANY.
A simple way to alleviate the problem would be to charge an outsourcing tax to american businesses.
Your idea of a outsourcing tax is an interesting one... could certainly see some benefits to that.
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"Can you imagine what I would do if I could do all I can?” (Sun Tzu)