Trust

I see from the news that Wal-Mart has successfully avoided being unionized in the US once more. (They are unionized in China…their new “home town”) From the news accounts I read, the union election wasn’t even close after Wal-Mart brought in their anti-union team from Arkansas and added six new employees to the unit that was going to vote.

I am at a loss when I hear the anti-union rhetoric from Wal-Mart and others and I can’t understand the position of those who voted against being represented by a union…it simply baffles me! What were they thinking? That Wal-Mart cared for them?

Yes, I have a history of union membership and I’m glad I do. I joined the Carpenters union after I left the Navy and it was the best thing I ever did. Was the Carpenters union fair in all of its dealing with me? No, of course not. Is your employer always fair? The fact is, people are not always fair…unions and employers. But I had some protection from unscrupulous employers by joining the union.

A story…when I was a young carpenter I used to install drywall as a pieceworker. I was paid by the square footage of the material that I installed. The faster I worked, the more money I made. Simple! And it worked well for both employer and employee, as long as the unwritten rule of fairness was observed. But what happened quite often was that greed entered the scene. A contractor would negotiate with the owner to finish a tract of homes for a certain dollar amount. I would go to work for that contractor and he would agree (verbally) to pay a certain amount per square foot. Then the contractor would watch the labor market and once he saw that building trade employment was slowing down, he would immediately lower the price he was willing to pay for installing the drywall. He didn’t get a reduction in his contract (written) with the owner, so he made quite a bit more in profit when economic times were slow for the workers. Some ethical contractors, and there were only a few, continued to pay the agreed upon amount. Eventually, after many years, the union was able to negotiate a piecework contract that protected the workers by ensuring that the agreed upon price was paid from start to finish.

My point…you cannot trust your employer and you need the strength of a union (and a contract) to protect yourself.