Unions

These are my opinions on what Unions are doing for our country today. Some of the m are doing some things, but others are holding up progress. I'm not an anti-union guy, really I'm not. However let's understand some of the facts. Look at the states that are growing, and the ones that are losing population. The states with the heaviest union presence are declining while the states that don't have "strong" unions are growing.

At one time in this country we needed unions to ensure fair wages and benefits and work conditions. Even today we still really need unions. The worst unions are the trade unions. For years they were infiltraded by the mafia and their severences were lost or stolen. Today members of the trade union harrass and set up picket lines outside of non-union construction sites because they feel that they should protest because the companies doing the work don't pay fair wages. They don't care about the wages of the workers, they care about their own pockets. When a union company does the work then the union is the one who gets paid for the job. If the union is so concerned with the wages of non-union employees why is it that some of their protesters resort to physical violence to get their point across?

Another complaint they make is that the companies won't hire locally. I was recently reading an article about another union protest at the building of a supermarket, and the union boss was complaining that they're not going to hire local people to do the job. He's claiming they'll bring people in from the other half of the country. Really? I can't imagine how a compaanies would take less money and drive across the country and pay hotel costs and all the other costs that come with traveling across the country.

Trade unions are so bad they'll break windows and hold up progress of construction sites to let their unhappiness be known. I heard of a story from Staten Island where a construction union was protesting a job inside of a supermarket. One of their members saw a reset being done inside a store and the union boss came in and threatened to protest if they didn't get hired for the job. A re-set isn't a construction job, it's just something a supermarket does to straighten out the shelves. Anyway, the union threated to protest if they didn't hire men to come in and put the hooks on the dairy wall. The hooks are literally a half turn and they're in. I woould estimate that there are roughly 60-100 in a store? So they protested for a twenty-five minute job and ran up the costs.

Trade unions don't save costs. Instead they run up the costs. Unions are the reason so many companies have moved overseas. They're the reason our country is in the worst recession we've had since the depression. They're selfish and only think about themselves. What's worse is they have politcians fooled. Politicians make a big deal over getting a union's endorsement. In return they get favors and jobs. When President Obama signed the stimulous that he said would create jobs the unions were happy. It didn't create any jobs. It just put more jobs in the hands of companies that already had work. The unions didn't hire any more help, they just kep the help they had and lined the pockets of the unions.

I work for a supermarket, and we're a union store. Overall I think the union of a member of has it's pros and it's cons. The pros which a lot of people overlook are the benefits. I understand by having a union they've negotiated decent benefits for us. Not as good as the union I was in prior, but I have benefits and I won't complain.

When it comes to the pay of my union it actually works against us. When someone gets hired they take a certain position in terms of seniority. When someone is hired a week later they're technically under that person. In other words if I hire a guy today and he's a great worker compared to a guy I hired three weeks ago who is terrible, I have to give the terrible worker more hours because of the union.

Another reason it hurts is the union has a set standard when it comes to raises. Every so often you get enough of a raise to get a pack of gum each week until you get to what they call top rate where you get a decent raise. After you reach top rate you'll only get a tiny raise on a yearly basis. I'm not disputing the fact that it's fair, but it rewards lazy workers and hurts hard working workers. Compared to another company who is non-union where they can pay whatever someone is earning and they can reward a good worker with more hours and not have to worry about someone going crying to someone who comes in the store once a week.

One of our local competitors is a non-union store. They start people out at a higher wage and they even give better raises. They'll start someone out at the same wages as it takes someone three years to make in my store in some cases. When I started with the company it was irrelevent because there were no non-union stores. Although I've been with the company long enough where it doesn't matter what store I work in because I make a decent wage and I have good benefits. The reason this hurts the union store is if someone comes in at minimum wage and they work for three months and then they find out they'll make about $3 more per hour at the store around the corner why would they stay in our store?

The point I'm trying to make is that if Unions want to have the support of people anymore they have to be the ones making concessions now. They don't have to run up employee wages to the point that companies are hurting like A&P recently had happen. Although a lot of that was because of A&P because they ran that into the ground, but I digress from that.

If the unions want to survive they're going to have to reform and change they way they operate. I still believe everyone has the right to organize and be rewarded with all the good things that unions provide to their members. They need to allow companies to pay more to those who deserve it and let the companies use their personell the way they see fit. It benefits both companies. They need to stop strong arming companies and politicians need to stop falling for their acts.