We’re experiencing the Screen Writers Guild strike. OK, we’re really not. We don’t watch TV and so the strike means very little to us on a day to day basis. But, I am glad to see a strike, any strike at all. We’ve been living through a time where unions have been retreating steadily. That’s not healthy.
And because the right wingnuts have been so successful at demonizing the word ‘union’, it’s going to be a long haul for the unions of today to get back into being a force to be reckoned with. But, knowing ‘management’ as I do; their abuses will bring more and more workers into the tent of Labor.
I was a member of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America for 25+ years. That membership ensured that I had a pension. And how is that wrong? I received wages that allowed us to live the middle class life; owning our home, raising 3 children and able to afford health insurance. And how is that wrong?
Truth is; unions are not inheritantly evil. They were created to fight evil. But the unions weren’t perfect. There were abuses of power and criminal activity among union leaders. Very much like the kind of abuses we see among the powerful in management today. Perhaps the problem isn’t unions or management? Perhaps it’s simply power corrupting those who wield it. And it’s also caused by union members who don’t care about anything else except the weekly check and the guaranteed raises.
I was one of those members. I went to a few meetings at first, but found them to be incredibly boring and soon stopped going altogether. The same thing happens with stockholders. Very few attend the meetings and they don’t really care what the CEO is doing as long as their dividends look good.
Obviously there has to be a middle ground. But the worker will never see it unless he joins a union.
I am glad you qualified your view of Unions to say they are not perfect. When Dean started a business in San Luis Obispo they could care less, until the nuclear power plant work wound down. Intent on keeping their flock employed, they asked us to fire the guys that had been on our payroll for over a year to hire union guys, start paying union dues, etc. If you fight them, they have more than enough money to pay their lawyers to keep you in court. We did not have that kind of money, so we went under rather than be bullied. Of course, the union lost too. The lawyers won. Dean and two buddies just wanted to make a go of running a local electrical contracting business. It was not to be however.
ReplyDeleteIt's 'people' relating to 'people'. I've had some terrible experiences with Carpenter Business Agents and had to resort to bribery to get them to leave us alone.
ReplyDeleteBut...when my partner and I wanted to do commercial work in LA, we contacted the union; went to lunch with the Business Agent and he told us that we should try going non-union for awhile, maybe a year, and make sure we had enough money to back us up before we signed up with him. He only asked that we avoid bidding on high profile jobs.
Done.
But would that have happened in... let's say Boston? I doubt it.
Of course there are imperfections and problems with unions - but don't tell my Grandpa I said that, LOL.
ReplyDeleteWhat really concerns me is, in talking to people in my age group, they don't really know what a union is. The consensus seems to be that unions are some kind of "scam" by "the man." Most young people I know (outside of my HEAVILY pro-labor family) avoid them. And wonder why they're making minimum wage.
Of course, unions usually require drug testing, which is probably a reason so many people see them as something to avoid like the plague.
Oh yes...demonizing the word 'union' has worked quite well and that's sad.
ReplyDeleteOf course drug testing had to come about... (and I fought it) even the most hard core union member has to see that if you're going to (possibly) endanger a brother by using drugs in the workplace, there's no place for you. Especially at $30 an hour. Some social responsibility should be included in that hourly figure.