I don’t often read the Washington Post. (I’m more of an Onion man…) But this morning I was clicking through the online version over my raisin bran, and this stuck out:
As it helps push for legislation that would make it easier for workers to organize, the country’s fastest-growing union is engaged in its own labor dispute with employees it is seeking to lay off.
The Service Employees International Union, considered the most influential union in the nation, has notified the union that represents about 220 of the SEIU’s national field staff members and organizers that it is laying off 75 of the employees.
In return, the workers union, which goes by the somewhat postmodern name of the Union of Union Representatives, has filed charges of unfair labor practices against the SEIU with the National Labor Relations Board. The workers union’s leaders say that the SEIU is engaging in the same kind of practices that some businesses use: laying off workers without proper notice, contracting out work to temporary-staffing firms, banning union activities and reclassifying workers to reduce union numbers.
“It’s completely hypocritical,” said Malcolm Harris, president of the workers union. “This is the union that’s been at the forefront of progressive issues, around ensuring that working people and working families are taken care of, but when it comes to the people that work for SEIU, they haven’t set the same standards.”
I didn’t even know there was such a thing as the Union of Union Representatives. That’s kinda like the Department of Redundancy Department.
Let me get this straight… Employees of the second biggest U.S. labor union have filed an Unfair Labor Practice suit against their employer? No wonder four out of five American workers who aren’t in unions don’t want to join one.
Hot Air is (fairly, I think) slamming the union for outsourcing workers when they complain about “evil big business” doing the same thing all the time. One blog commenter has the quote of the day:
SEIU is yelling, “Who farted?” and they’re the only ones in the room.
Here’s a recent video from SEIU, mocking non-unionized companies. How many snarks can you find that are going to blow right back on the union now?
What do you think about the “Employee Free Choice Act” (EFCA) anyway?
Here’s the “pro” arguments. Here are the “con” arguments. Release the hounds!
Bonus — My favorite anti-EFCA commercial (at least creative-wise):
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My knee jerk reaction is…I hate unions! I picked my career, I shopped around and picked the company I work for (looking at benefits that were offered) and I negotiated my wages. The last thing I need is to pay someone else to speak for me. If my company changes the way it handles its employees or decides to lay me off then I will go work someone else who will appreciate my charm and smashing good looks. Or I will go work myself.
I have read the links and now I can have an informed opinion….I HATE UNIONS!
Why would anyone want to do away with secret ballots? And if unions are all that great ask the state of California how their budget is doing? Or how about GM and Ford? Or the public schools? Obviously these examples have other issues as well but one common denominator is the ridiculous benefits unions have negotiated.
I do not claim to be any kind of expert on unions, but even I can see that doing away with secret ballots–in unions or elsewhere–can be done for one reason only: To allow, or even promote, coercion. I have a relative who’s a retired union official, and from what I’ve gathered, he and his cohorts were bought and paid for, just about literally.
If unions began as a means to fight abuse of employees by company owners, and I’m willing to buy that they were, then they’ve turned into the very monster they originally sought to defeat. A serf with a new lord is still a serf.
There is nothing good that I can say about unions. There time has come and gone and it is time this country got rid of them.
Workplace safety? Got OSHA. Discrimination? Sexist Behavior? Got the courts. What can the unions do for you? Make a company loose business because of exaggerated pay and benefits not comperable to the work provided. Just what we need.
The unions are so corrupt and greedy they make U.S. based companies pay more in salary than foreign companies, making overall costs greater to U.S. buyers. Then those idiots come up with the solgan “Out of a job yet…” Well if they didn’t rape and pillage the U.S. based companies, making products cost more, we wouldn’t have considered foreign.
Unions used to be honorable. Now they’re just corrupt.
Being a human resources professional I can tell you how many of my peers hate unions and hate working for union companies in HR. Your hands are tied on many things that would be fair and consistent at non-union shops. If someone does not show up for work? fire them, but not if they work for a union shop.
sex harrassment cases and other discrimination cases are handled by the HR staff. Only if I do not do my job the right way should the employee then go to the courts. Same with workers comp, FMLA, etc.
Unions were a good thing when they gained popularity (back with the onset of the Industrial Revolution), but that was during THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION! Times have changed, the federal and state governments have passed laws that pretty much make most union activities obsolete. Unions continue to try and convince the masses (ie, the uninformed) that they are still vitally needed to secure their employment. The problem is now most unions are so large, that they don’t really care about the individual needs of the “little guy” (you know, the guy that they are suppose to represent). Unions are bloated, mob-affiliated fossils who cost the economy more than they are now worth.
Case in point: wonder why we’re having to spend millions of dollars to try and save Detroit while foreign car companies seem to be keeping their heads afloat? Toyota and Honda do not have unionized workers that cost the companies millions of dollars each year.
The Irish: “Toyota and Honda do not have unionized workers that cost the companies millions of dollars each year.”
Millions? Ha Ha! Yeah right.
Try Billions…
Not to mention look at all the companies that used to be in America and employed thousands of workers that were virtually run out of states and even the country due to Union strikes and demands, International Harvester, Catapiller, and recently, the entire American atuomotive industry.
Funny story, back when the Primaries were going on I had a girl show up at my door with an AFLCIO petition in her hands. She had a smile on her face when she noticed I had long hair and asked me to sign a petition so that the AFLCIO could present it to the government and support my rights to better government and living conditions. I asked her what candidates the AFLCIO supported and with a straight face she stated that they don’t support candidates they are bi partisan. I asked her to name one Republican candidate that the AFLCIO supported and she couldn’t. But she kept pressing that my name and signature would only be used to help America. I told her I don’t sign blank forms that people can fill in later with whatever they wished to which she got snotty and stomped off to the neighbors houses.
The best thing that could happen too Detroit is for the car companies to declare bankruptcy. In bankruptcy the reorganize their company structures, kick out the unions, and go back to the “pick the car you want and order it and it’ll be here in 4 weeks” model as opposed to holding huge amounts of unsold inventory.
I have a friend who works HR for a large hospital. Recently, they have had to major layoffs. Most of you would say, “Great! Way to cull the dead weight.” You would be wrong. What it means is, because of the union, the last person on board is the one who is fired. Performance? Eh. Losers can stay on the job for years, protected by the union hierarchy while decent, even stellar performers are the first to lose their jobs. That’s one of many reasons why unions are going to die a slow, painful death.
The only thing the union I belonged to did was take money out of my check. If you had a problem with a coworker or a supervisor, the union just stood around with their hands in their pockets. People had their hours or positions cut with union approval. No unions for me.
I was pretty much forced to join the UFCW when I took a job at a “big box store”, I was 20, my job options limited. Well, they prattled on and on and on about how the protect worker’s rights. I was severely injured on the job by another coworker who was horsing around, he basically shattered my ankle. Long story short… company was self-insured and refusing to pay for proper medical treatment or compensate lost wages. The union refused to help me, and basically said “sucks to be you, guess you need to hire a lawyer”. I paid $50 a month for them to “protect my rights” and when I needed those protected, they ran. I quit that job and the union. My attorney helped me win the case, and even helped me get reimbursed for those union dues that did me no good.
Years later, the UFCW called and asked if I would be interested in rejoining. That poor chap received an earful about what I thought of their union and where they could stick the free month they were offering me and why!
That’s what I was thinking. I wonder when they are going to form the United Association of the Union of Union Representatives? They have to protect themselves right?
Anyway, let me go vote.
My experience with unions is limited to the movie F.I.S.T. I didn’t even know unions still existed…I’d probably sign up, but…I can’t find the bells.
I hate unions. I see the point of them, but I really think they shouldn’t be official bureaucratic organizations – they should be formed when needed and disbanded when not.
I’d defintely vote for a Union Oversight Committee as watchdog nowadays. Woody Guthrie was right about workers needing representation, and unions were good at first, but they are more like organized crime now.
Some of the European unions aren’t so bad, oddly enough, they saved their people (Germany in particular) from a lot of the rampant IBM firings in the recent past after the Cookie Monster took over…so more non-unionized American workers got axed instead to make up the slack.
I was recently let go from my place of work and my union,Unite Here,denied me my right to an arbitration which I would have easily won.Now I’m going after both by filing an unfair labor dispute.Fuck em