I expected to be outraged by an article entitled "UAW decides to skip election and form union at VW plant anyway," but I found instead that the union is proceeding in just the way I'd like to see. They're asking workers to join a union, not purporting to force dues on anyone by operation of law, and not expecting management to acknowledge them as the exclusive negotiators for the entire workforce. If they get big and popular enough, their bargaining position may change.
Not that they should ever have the right to enforce 100% membership or dues payment no matter how popular they get. If they offer an attractive enough package of benefits, such as automatic legal representation in management-labor disputes, they should be able to attract workers voluntarily. Our neighbors across the road used to be involved in a sheetmetal workers union that provided job training and certification services that were good for everyone in both management and labor. It doesn't have to become a boondoggle. (But with the UAW involved, what are the odds?)
2 comments:
The union apprenticeship program was jointly administered by both the unions and the shop owners. We also had a joint health insurance program administered together. These were both very good programs for the members and the owners. The big drawback, though, was competitiveness with non-union businesses. Our cost per hour was over twice that of our competitors which made it almost impossible to compete in the manufacturing end of it when I tried. I also found that when I tried to sell my business to retire, I had an unfunded liability because I had contributed to a retirement program operated by the international association. I was liable for a large amount of money even though I had no control over how the retirement program was managed. In the current business environment I would not have a union shop again.
Tex99's Neighbor
My lurking neighbor speaks up! I'm so pleased!
Post a Comment