A union experience - what’s the problem?
I was at a union hall the other day and was reminded of this story as relayed to me. Why do unions have a bad name? This post is based on first-hand knowledge conveyed by a reader (who shall remain nameless).
A machine needs to be moved, the workforce is unionized and if you do it yourself before a specified time, you chance getting a grievance.
So the moving group gets called and the guy says he can move the machine today. The union guy is told to come in an hour because the machine needs to be packed up but this is good news. 20 mins after the call is made, the union guy shows up a bit annoyed that the machine isn’t ready. It is explained and the guy is asked to come back in 40 mins. He apparently looks a little annoyed, but he comes back 40 mins later and moves the machine.
Then the guys workspace needed some repairs, so he calls the unionized electrician who fixes what he needs to do. The electrician does a couple of extra things and then leaves.
But this is the kicker -
in a management meeting - after a coworker announces she took a chance and got a grievance the others in the room start piping in about “they just want their money”, “freakin’ Union”, blah blah blah…. The guy chimes in and says - here is my positive experience and gets a bunch of looks like you aren’t with the program.
Anyone want to chime in. Is this typical at large organizations? I get a lot of “us versus them mentality” from my coworkers and I don’t get it.
It’s pretty much that way in unions large, small, and in-between.
I don’t work in a union shop, nor have I ever worked in one. My father worked as a union shop steward, a strong supporter of the role of unions; and then he and a few others bought out the company and he became co-owner and suddenly, a union adversary.
From the stories he told, there were indeed times when the union was a barrier to progress; when their rules prevented some common-sense things from happening that would benefit the company. In more recent times, many unions came to realize that their best interest was served when the company was healthy and was able to avoid issues like the one Stlo7 has quoted.
So there seems to be a mix of good and bad with unions … the good is the enhanced worker salary, benefits and security; the bad is there was often the adversarial relationship which was unnecessarily detrimental to the company. I think in today’s world, most unions have given up silly fighting over turf like who moves a piece of equipment. I think stories like the one Stlo7 quotes were quite commonplace in 1970, but much less commonplace today.
Just my opinion, based upon the stories told to me. I have no scientific data to back this up.
One of my best friends is a union mason. He tells me it is strictly an “us against them mentality” at the union hall and on the job site. He has been actively seeking other work in a non-union environment for some time now but $45.00 an hour at a minimum is hard to walk away from, especially when you’re married with a newborn at home. Furthermore, he says that anyone who doesn’t think the unions aren’t still run by the mob is out of their mind.
I didn’t get the story.