A gentleman who lives north of Baton Rouge clearly understands chemistry better than he understands political and economic reality:
I anxiously await the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, which will give workers a great deal of power to join a union and bargain for their wages and working conditions.
The people rejected the lies of business about this legislation.* Let the unionizing begin!
Even former Sen George McGovern – hardly a stalwart conservative or friend of “Corporate America” – is on record against the Employee Free Choice Act. Donald Lambro describes the bill-proposal:
The labor-law reform is known as the “card-check bill” because it would allow employees to form a union simply by publicly collecting a majority of cards signed by workers supporting unionization of their employer’s business.
Sounds simple and innocent yes? The catch is that the union will then know how you the employee voted. As opposed to the secret ballot system we currently have in place. If a business unionizes – the employers do not know who voted in favor. If a business does not unionize – the union does not know who voted against. No pressure and no punishment.
I am not going to suggest unions are bad. I did not grow up in a “working class” family. (Okay so my dad worked 60-80 hours per week and sometimes more but he was a salaried high level manager which means he was not really a “working man”. Feel free to laugh.) Perhaps with a different background I would be a stronger supporter of unions. And I assume – assume - that there are times and places and situations where a union would be a very good thing indeed. (I am sure there are legitimate historical reasons they came into being.) But let me share a few things.
Consider the proposed bailouts for Detroit automakers. Why is General Motors doing so badly? Not the only reason but one is the constraints put on automobile makers by the unions. They used to spend $86/hour per automobile worker. (And people who work in automobile factories absolutely do not make $86/hour. That is how much the companies have to spend.) That has since dropped to $75/hour. Toyota is not unionized. Their workers are the highest paid in the industry with $45/hour in benefits and wages. Workers get more. Company spends less. No union. Hmm. (See “Breakdown” by Cal Thomas at Townhall.com.)
My mom lives in New York – as do most of my relatives. You want to see a sick stagnant economy? Visit the state of New York. Boy do my relatives sit around and complain including the economy in New York. Almost impossible to get a teaching job (at least in the nice rural districts). Difficult and expensive to get anything built or fixed. Almost nobody starting new businesses or industry because of the taxes and regulations and costs. One of the reasons – certainly not the only one – is the power/influence/control of unions.
My cousin in high school worked at a grocery store outside Syracuse. We are in New York so that means you will be part of a union and you will pay union dues. Took a nice little chunk out of his tiny little paycheck. You think making $5.50/hour is pathetic? Take out union dues.
I worked at a grocery store in Virginia while in seminary. Not unionized. I made $7/hour. That is pretty darn good pay for working in a grocery store. Oh and the store (chain) dominated with a 60+% share of the local market. The competition pretty much made their money on Sundays when our grocery store chain closed.
In other words – you can have a great thriving business that pays its workers well and gives them decent benefits and time off without a union.
I am sure that there are situations where the local business that employs half the town is evil and exploitative and nasty and boy we could use a union to stand up to those fat cats. But what I have seen (experience and anecdote) is that life is harder when unions are in control of the local workplaces. They create a system in which you have to play certain games and go along with the system for enough years before you get a decent position with decent hours and decent pay and benefits and so on.
And at the same time I have seen (experience and anecdote and concrete examples from industry) what can happen when you have decent people running a business that is not unionized.
You know the “economic crisis” facing the United States? Guess where the economy is still thriving or at least not doing that badly? Yeah Louisiana has a lot of problems and can be pretty backwards sometimes. But the economy is doing mostly fine here. And this is a “right to work” state (unions are not in charge although unions can form by secret ballot and people can choose to join them or not). Business are much more free to do what works best – and more often than not employees benefit.
I can see the difference between the health of the economy in New York and Louisiana. And I know what one of the chief reasons is. (Tell me – where are people moving to and starting businesses more? In the Northeast or in the Southeast?) I will not lambaste or badmouth or demonize unions as some do. But from what I see and what I have experienced…
Economies (which includes businesses – which are not bad things because you know they hire people and stuff) are better off when they allow unions but do not have unions just for the sake of having them.
*While we are at it – I find it curious how rhetorically some people assume that what a “business” says and wants is suspect. Business owner bad. Employee/worker good. Could be worse. Business owner never start business. Business owner never hire employee/worker. Oh well.
