Some folks have asked “Gosh Ken, you can’t really want to get rid of Unions”…. My answer is yes, I do.
But more specifically, I either want to get rid of all of them, or have a LOT more of them. Unions, like any other BUSINESS, should compete. An employee should be able to choose which union to join based on competitive offerings. And if any one union gets too big, or too dominate in a region, business sector, or even a company, it should be broken up or banned.
In other words, unions should be treated like businesses, which is what they are.
The idea that it is bad for only one company to sell cars, but okay for only one company to sell the labor that builds cars makes no sense.
And… if I find unions dividing but coordinating attacks on business or politics, well, I’ll smack them just as hard as I would other businesses attempting end-runs around competition.
This an obvious and needed change that won’t happen because our politicians, like Barack Obama, are already bought by unions like the UAW and SEIU.
December 30th, 2009 at 1:52 pm
Unions in general are incredibly corrupt. Much of my mother’s life was shaped by a union Coup d’état which ran her father, and therefore her family, out of town.
Unions are necessary to fight monopolistic businesses and poor working conditions. For instance EA software was sued in a class action lawsuit for demanding 65-80 hour workweeks from salaried employees without compensation. They contended that the employees contracts stated that they were salaried and not entitled to any overtime. In a sue-happy legal system, especially California’s, the class action lawsuits are the Modus Operandi for such situations but I honestly believe that a pair of Unions (one for the Programmers, one for the Artists) could keep EA in check in the long run.
However, when the unions *become* monopolies they are as much a threat to the worker as the company itself, sapping increasing “union dues” from the paychecks, forcing people to join, etc, etc.
When I worked in a deli in California over the summer I was forced, contractually, to join a union. And I was told that I could ‘fight’ to have my dues not used for political donations, but that it would take me months. They also told me that every grocery store in the county had to have the SAME UNION. That tells me that the entire supply chain of food for 3 million people could be threatened by one union. Tell me how that is helping workers, who also must eat?