Alternative version:
People don’t always join a union…
but when they do, they get protection
from union thugs who will physically attack
them if they *don’t* join a union.
Seriously… what is this, Collectivism 101 for children? I can’t remember the last time I saw a more simplistic meme posing as a eureka moment. But then, the greater the stupidity, the greater the opportunity for a good rant. Such memes are easily dismantled.
The problem with unions is that they inevitably devolve into centrally-controlled extortion rackets that destroy realistic price discovery by forcing up wages to exceed the actual ROI value of a job, typically causing massive product price inflation, potentially driving a company into insolvency by rendering it unable to compete in the marketplace… especially once globalism and outsourcing (which the unions helped make inevitable) took root.
Back in the day, I recall when an unskilled laborer could demand $40/hour for literally turning a screw before sending the product on down the assembly line (I’m sure the wage inflation got even worse than that, but that’s my memory of things back in the 70s).
Now, unions originally served a very noble purpose by improving wages, working conditions, and benefits for laborers. But once that had largely been accomplished, the union bosses got greedy (imagine that), and perpetuated the “submit or we strike” tactic against business owners by continuing to ratchet up demands beyond all reason. It got to where uneducated people (as in, not having a comprehensive overview of the entire business, and thus unqualified to influence — much less make — major business decisions), and with little or no real financial stake in the business, were in de facto control of the operation. It was either submit to union demands, no matter how ill-conceived, or labor would forcibly render the business inoperable. Is it any wonder US companies began outsourcing labor to more favorable countries, bringing about the collapse of US manufacturing?
All that said… we have been hearing of some employee-owned business models that have proven successful in the marketplace, and I’m willing to concede this limited form of *voluntary* collective management, when non-coercive, well-implemented and well-managed, can work favorably for all concerned, and serve as a rebuke to a firmly anti-collectivist philosophy. Forced collectivism and voluntary collectivism are two distinctly different animals!
I understand that our local Oliver Winery operates under such a voluntary collective model. In this instance, the employees are also co-owners. They enjoy meaningful influence with regards how the company is managed, can freely contribute their institutional expertise to the general good by making suggestions and correcting unproductive operating protocols when practical procedural matters of work flow and efficiency are not so well-understood by upper-management. As a result, workers naturally have less of an antagonistic stance towards management (and vice versa), and as co-owners, they also have a real partial-ownership stake in the success of the business, and will be less self-serving in their demands. From all reports I’ve heard, both the founders of the enterprise and the workers they hire love the business model, take pride in their product and service, and feel a palpable sense of solidarity with one another.
Such a model can, to everyone’s advantage, bypass the union vs management paradigm altogether… which brings me full-circle to the general undesirability of old-school labor unions.
Great post! I remember hearing a UAW forklift driver brag he only had to move 2 pallets during his 8 hour shift. As if that was a good thing.
That seems to be the inevitable culture that grows (perhaps metastasizes is a better word) within organized labor, Terry. My family was in the heavy equipment business, and back in the day had a lot of dealings with manufacturing plants and factories in the East-Central Indiana area, so we dealt with union labor a good deal. Our company was non-union, and being a family-owned operation with only a couple of outside employees (who were friends and treated almost as family), we had a vested interest in efficiency and making our time pay. This ethos was nowhere exhibited by the union guys with whom we had to work, however. Feet-dragging, frequent breaks and slow-downs, and sometimes outright hostility that they had to keep our pace were normal.
My nephew, who later took his crane operating skills into a factory setting after my brothers retired, would shake his head at the difference between how the family business operated compared to his new factory environment. He didn’t like it, was often bored, but stayed there because he made fantastic money. If you’re riding a good horse, stay on it, aye.