I have no problem with higher wages - within reason.
When we went into negotiations with the union we had a set amount we could give without affecting the bottom line. That included wages and other conditions. Everything has a cost.
It seemed to me that unions were really trying to gradually take control of the company as they demanded inclusion of other than wage earners in the unit. That and many other demands. I am an octogenarian now and just don’t remember much of what was experienced. I do remember the union hierarchy in Pittsburg convinced my corporate brass to send me to a weeklong workshop on interpersonal relationships because they felt I was too hard nosed in enforcing the agreed upon contract.
"Within reason" is a meaningless phrase. It's a matter of free markets. The value of labor is determined neither by its effort (Marxist theory) nor by what an employer or employee thinks is "reasonable" (results of negotiation.) When there is an imbalance between the market value of labor and the negotiated value, the result will equilibrate to the market, either lowering or raising wages or displacing workers.
When we went into negotiations with the union we had a set amount we could give without affecting the bottom line. That included wages and other conditions. Everything has a cost.
Sure.
However, the employees or the proxies negotiating on their behalf are not interested in management's bottom line. They have their own idea of what that is. If that is what you mean by "reasonable," see my previous paragraph. Indirectly, the compensation of people outside the bargaining unit are also part of this process, whether they realize it or not.
It seemed to me that unions were really trying to gradually take control of the company as they demanded inclusion of other than wage earners in the unit.
Typically the union wants people in or out of the bargaining unit in order to strengthen their bargaining position. They want people sympathetic to management out and people sympathetic to the union in. Line supervisors often fall into this grey area.
So do people of dubious qualification to the unit. The union would prefer to get them "automatically" into the bargaining unit, as opposed to having another certification election to get them in, which might also endanger the status of people already in the unit if their are enough "outsiders" to be brought in.
the union hierarchy in Pittsburg[h?] convinced my corporate brass to send me to a weeklong workshop on interpersonal relationships because they felt I was too hard nosed in enforcing the agreed upon contract.
I doubt they convinced executive management of much of anything. More likely, the Bigs decided they could pretend they were more "sympathetic" that way. People in the middle always get stuck with concessions; neither the "upper" union people nor executive management ever pays any kind of price; stewards, employees, and middle managers always have to take the all friction.