Working Man Blues: The Decline of Unionization

The power of unions, however, is still entrenched by the closed shop policies in the majority of American states. Closed shop laws require that if workers are unionized at a company, then all new workers are forced to unionize as well. As a result of their gaining membership by coersion and state-sanctioned monopoly, unions' membership far exceeds their true popularity. As a result, well-meaning union-led efforts often end in strikes and lockouts that end up banning their own workers, without their consent, from actually working.

As a result of their disproportionate monopoly power, unions remain (not surprisingly) formidable political machines. And like most formidable political machines, they gain power not by reason and dialogue, but by coercion through numbers. The unions' special interest lobbying also has another disadvantage, however, namely that their preferred policies, putatively for the benefit of their members, are demonstrably atrocious for the nation as a whole. Unions oppose open trade with other nations, Social Security private accounts, and portable health care accounts, among others, apparently concerned much less with the national interest than political grandstanding.

Dear Editor,

As Frederick “Rick” Dubinsky, the hard-driving former chairman of United’s pilots union, once said: “We don’t want to kill the golden goose. We just want to choke it by the neck until it gives us every last egg,” the relationship between unions and the companies they work for is “What can you do for me now.”

Unfortunately, years of union benefits piling on union benefits have made many of the companies they work for unviable. For instance, if Ford wants to lay off union workers, they still must 90% of their salaries and benefits for years. To unplug a computer in the Philadelphia Convention Center requires that a union electrician does the work (the actual unplugging). SEPTA union employees pay not one dime in co-pays or deductibles for their medical benefits and are willing to shut down the entire mass transit system in Philadelphia, indefinitely, to keep it that way.

When companies can not make a profit or compete because they are being squeezed for every golden egg, they have two options. Either go out of business or go to areas where unions are not as strong. This used to mean going to the mostly nonunionized Southern United States, where for the last 20 years every major automobile manufacturer has chosen to build new manufacturing plants, but now means to go overseas in search of the most competitive place to do business.

Management is not innocent, they have created this mess. They have made many unwise decisions of putting short term profits over the long term health of their companies. In the same vein, they have also agreed to outrageous union contracts because the bills and heartburn for them would come due on some else’s watch in the future.

Now the bills are coming due. And all the union iron clad contracts mean nothing if the company they work for goes out of business. Just ask the workers of steel and airline companies. And ask their retirees. All wish that the company they work for or retired from was a healthy and profitable company.

Unions need to focus on how they can make the companies they work for as strong as possible. This is the only way to keep union jobs, pay and benefits around for the long run. And that doesn’t mean massive pay cuts. Flexibly in work rules, retraining for new jobs when technology changes the old jobs, plugging in and using membership brains/experiences to make the company more profitable are all foreign concepts in many union shops. Their company’s future is their future. For instance, when union workers in Japan go on strike, they wear arm bands that proclaim “On Strike” as they continue to work. They understand that to cause unneeded financial damage to the company they work for, in these days of global competition, is one way to lose their jobs forever.

Unions also need to get out of politics. All of the major unions are strong supporters (both in money from mandatory union dues and “forced” volunteers) of the most liberal of democrat candidates. They have publicly taken positions of being pro-abortion, anti-gun and anti-tax cut (among a plethora of other social issues). None of these issues has anything remotely to do with how a union operates. But it serves to isolate unions from over half the population of America who want nothing to do with them just based on their political stands on these controversial issues. Many people actively avoid buying union made products because they feel they are financing their political enemies.

The union’s heritage is of the craftsman guilds. When you hired a craftsman, you knew you were getting value – someone who was trained, knew what they were doing and did the job right. Today, hiring a union person to do a job is synonymous for expensive, inflexible, sloppy work and belligerence. That is the image that needs to be changed for unions to flourish – what can we do to provide value.

Regards,

2banana

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