The State of the Unions
Beginning with Reagan, unions became an all purpose bogeyman for American business. For years and years everything bad that happened in American manufacturing was tied to unions. Somehow management was never wrong. CEOs never made bad decisions and never ever contributed to a business failure. It was all unions. Unions had become the business equivalent of the mythical “Welfare Queen Driving the Cadillac.”
But here is the thing, unions are nothing more or less than a natural reaction to mismanagement.
Where schools are mismanaged by short sighted and corrupt bureaucrats – you find unions.
Where companies are run by myopic greed heads that view labor as just another consumable raw material – you find unions.
So my question for the UAW is not, why are did you striking? My question is what took you so long?
Unions have become the “welfare Queen” example. Only fat and lazy people work for them and they don’t deserve to skate through life.
Only disgustingly rich people can skate through life.
Hey Don!
Unions made the American Middle Class possible. Disgustingly rich people hate the American Middle Class because we have the audacity to think we deserve a piece of the pie when we should know that the pie is only for rich people. Disgustingly rich people hate union and us!
It’s class warfare baby! Sheesh.
Well, I agree with Jason!
Unions are a symptom of disfunctional management. I blame management for the organization of unions. Union organization has dropped in almost all areas in the US. And that is a good thing because it indicates management is getting better. Now, about the one area where unions are making inroads….. Government.
Urgh. I cannot face that problem today.
No, unions are not “nothing more or less than a natural reaction to mismanagement.” Unions are a reaction to company management doing what company management ought to do, maximize profits by keeping labor costs down. Keeping down costs is not mismanagement, it is good management.
A few years ago, a boyfriend of my sister-in-law regularly boasted how much he was paid for very little work. Then the steel mill he worked for in Baltimore shut down. Do I pity a person who thought that featherbedding was a natural right?
About a dozen years ago, my (then) employer sent me to do some tasks at a faciilty in New York State. My goal was to get the job done and get home. When the movement of a 40-pound instrument (with carrying handles) from one building to another allegedly required the services of a fork lift operator and a helper, the Government representative and I got a bit of exercise and moved it ourselves. I took the grievance as a badge of honor.
Some years earlier, there was a cooperative chain centered in Greenbelt, Maryland that had some furnitures stores named Scan. They offered a lot of value for the money. There was an attempt to unionize and a picket line that I was delighted to cross. They went belly up shortly after their ‘reconstruction’.
Oh my.
When you’ve worked a little get back to me.
That was for Dana.
Arthur has some good “Welfare Queen Driving the Cadillac” examples.
They don’t disprove the assertion that unions are borne out of executive mismangment.
Unions exist to ensure that workers reap some of the financial benefits of the productivity gains that workers are constantly asked for. as unions are on the wane, wages of middle class Americans are stagnant, in spite of the astonishing improvements in overall productivity they’ve been responsible for. Almost all of the benefits of improved productivity now redound to shareholders — not to employees.
Ps. I’ve never been in a union.
Remember also that corporations do not have an exclusive franchise on bad management. Union leaders often fall prey to the temptation to “play” with other peoples money.
“Good” management means getting and keeping the best workforce at the best price. If management pushes too hard on price, they lose out on quality. The free labor market at work!
I knew a guy in the union and he was a communist!
Socialist, Don, socialist. You are confusing your ists.
One of the worst unions is is the NEA. It often includes management types and the goal is simply more money thrown down a gold-plated rat-hole.
Simplistic citeria such as student-teacher ratios and per-pupil spending are used to define ‘excellence’. It this was true, then the District of Columbia public schools should be the best in the nation.
The NEA is part of an unholy alliance that might be deemed to be an ‘establishment’. The goal is indoctrination rather than education. Trendiness always trumps common sense. One panacea was the ‘open classroom’. How many billions were spent on fixing up this mess? ‘Whole language’ teaching promised instant gratification for some but created barriers to reading to far too many. Now there is a grudging return to phonics.
Gimmicks such as ‘multiculturalism’ and ‘ebonics’ have had their supporters.
Mindless credentialism promotes questionable methodology over expertise in subject matter.
…and for all that is wrong with the NEA – when some student claims that a teacher hit on her, or some parent tries to sue a teacher for giving a kid an “F”, then the NEA is good to have around.
anon:
Why won’t the schools administration defend the teachers? I see you point this up, over and over again. Why? Is it that bad?
A friend of mine who taught for four or five years once “slammed” a student against a wall (the student tried to hit him) and he got nothing but a simple repremand from the Principal. What’s up?
I have been a union member for 20 years and yes they are a by product of mamangement. I say management not leadership, there is a big difference.
In my industry the most unionized airline is Southwest, also the most profitable. They have strong leadership and competetnt managers.
While not perfect membership does give you a seat at the table even when the topic is how to cut your pay and take your pension.
Have a great day.