A serious question: Why do you support unions?

Belonging to a union helps you not get screwed over by your employer.

First of all I cannot relate to those stories about union laziness. Only ten percent of the workforce is unionized for another what most people don't realize is that as the union proportion has gone down, so has non union wages and benefits declined. So there is a correlation between a strong union presence and good paying jobs with benefits in all areas of the workforce.

Remember how 401k's were supposed to be the retirement pension of the future, and you were given matching funds by your company? That's gone the way of the dodo. You can still contribute, but they don't.

As far as teachers go in WI, this isn't about dissatisfaction with their work, or they with they job. They have already agreed to a cut in pay, and increased contributions to health and pensions, this isn't about money.

The governor got that, but not he wants their heart too. He wants them to be at his mercy without the union to represent them. That, like it or not, is un American. He won't negotiate, won't even talk to them.

This is one of the few times I can remember when we told educated people to shut up, that they were thugs, leeches. These are schoolteachers, once honored, now being told they are thugs. They can go elsewhere, they are college grads with degrees who don't make as much teaching as they would elsewhere, most do it because they feel they are doing worthwhile work, knowing the people they work for now vilify them makes them lose that feeling, some will retire, others will just leave and still others will stay on the job with less of a reason to give things up for their kids.

My husband was a union driver, they had rules, and they had regulations they had to meet, and it wasn't easy nor was it functional for them to work less. If they did, they wouldn't get paid.

I don't know where you worked, and I can't say all unions are alike, but for the union workers I know that wouldn't fly.

I am alive because of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 665. When I first got out of the Army, I got a job driving an airport shuttle. Union shop. Shifts were bid on in order of seniority. Compensation was based on the same, and because the Union fought for it, we had a strong health plan. Fast forward a years, and I collapse on a bus. Find out I have Hodgkin's Disease. My union not only was the reason I had good health insurance (the VA is a joke) but they made sure that my job and seniority were waiting for me when I returned to work. During one long hospitalization, the union made sure my wife had groceries, and even sent a crew to get our apartment ready for my recovery.

I saw the same thing time and again, the union working to protect members who had fallen on hard times or had been wrong accused of wrong doing.

You like weekends? Thank the unions.

40-hour work week and overtime pay? Thank the unions.

Safe working conditions? Thank the unions.

Paid vacations? Thank the unions.

I don't. I support a group of employees' rights to form a union. That's different.

Just read some of the questions in "Law and Ethics" or "Business" here and see how some people are screwed by their employer. Forming a union can help those people.

P.S. ALL those objections you bring up are negotiated with the government and management...ALL OF THEM. They weren't created in a vacuum. They can be modified if the management and government want to do so. But that takes time and effort and negotiating skills.

(1)

Purely by chance I have never been a union member.

However I have friends who are union members.

They all like their unions. They like the way that the union’s

management can negotiate contracts for their members.

Unions are an organizing instrument for workers. Unions, with

this organizational power, frankly are able to squeeze employers

for higher wages. Yes, it works that way and union workers like it.

(2)

Wal-Mart is famous for being a low-wage operation.

In a few cases in which workers tried to form unions in Wal-Mart

the employer has been successful at preventing the unions’ formation.

Wal-Mart has even shut down departments in which employees have

unionized.

According to your rhetoric Wal-Mart workers should be better off because

they are not unionized. But if that were the case then why is Wal-Mart the

low-wage leader of retail?

(Well they can always turn to the salvation of the genrous non-unionized

outfit named McDonald's.)

And don’t bother kidding yourself with the idea that McDonald’s

workers are lazy individuals seeking a free ride. It’s a sh|tty job

in which you stand all day. Once upon a time I experienced it;

“easy” is not quite the word to sum it up.

(3)

I live in NY City and Wal-Mart has failed twice to be granted the right to set

up shop here. There is not one Wal-Mart in NY City. Wal-Mart is trying

again now for a third time and the battle currently continues.

Why hasn’t our council let Wal-Mart in to NY City; because labor union

representatives and community representatives have gone to their council

members and ‘urged’ them (with the power of their vote) to prohibit Wal-Mart

from moving in because Wal-Mart makes wages in a locality drop and also

[reportedly] eliminates three jobs (of competitors) for every two that it creates

(in its store openings).

You may be a good employer as you claim but you sure can not speak for

every other employer out there.

(4)

Most people shall not buy your argument that employers shall contribute

more to their employees’ well-being if the employer is not distracted by

the presence of a union.

While that may actually be true in some cases there are just too many

examples of the opposite.

Because management just can't be trusted. They'd prefer a slave-labor force, which is why a preponderance of items sold here in the US are now made in China.

At one time in this country, there was a general attitude of fairness in business. It was an unwritten code of ethics and those who violated it were exposed, humiliated and shunned. Now, business is as predatory as possible. Industries have adopted the credo, “Greed is good.” Banks, credit cards, mortgage companies, insurance companies, for-profit hospitals, all try to get every nickel they can from the people who are least able to afford it while squeezing the blood from their employees. It's as though all of American Business has been re-trained by a sleazy, fast-talking used car salesman. Never give a sucker an even break. It's unrestrained greed and it's as ugly as sin.

I've worked union jobs and I've worked non.

Unions rule by far.