Unions

Unions have become one of the big issues in the last few weeks and it looks like the White House will use the unions and their support of unions as a main campaign issue in 2012. Lord knows the current administration doesn’t want to campaign on their horrendous foreign relations record, economic track history, nor their healthcare debacle, but that is another issue. It is important to look at the unions to view their positive attributes and their negative attributes.

Now I know this will startle many of my liberal friends, but I believe unions have been an important and a generally positive part of our society for a long time. Whether you are pro-union or anti-union, the truth is that unions do serve an important purpose in America and that at the same time there are unfortunately too many union officials taking advantage of their positions.

Because of unions, we have safer places to work, better standard working hours, health benefits, retirement benefits and a better life for the various individuals who work in the various industries in America. The theory of how unions work and what they can do for their members is commendable when it is kept to its theoretical base and used as it is designed. All too often the union officials regrettably take over and take a union in a direction that would probably not be supported by a majority of union members.

This can occur when union members pay their dues and then have little to no idea of how those dues are spent or on what campaign they are given too. Many people think this can simply be rectified by the union members leaving the union if they disagree with the direction the union is going and it does in many states, but in some industries workers must join a union to work and in some states (Such as Wisconsin, Ohio, and Indiana – Sound Familiar) there is no right-to-work law and anyone working in that state must join a union to work there. Even if they don’t want to be a member they still have to pay money to those unions for the privilege of having a job in that state.

This Forced Union philosophy many times motivates better workers to leave these states for right-to-work states. Basically then the unions and these forced union states are all too many times left with a working class that is looking to do the minimum work at a maximum Price. This Forced Union philosophy also limits the expansion of business into those states because many businessmen would rather do business in a right-to-work state.

Public Unions are also important and also have their problems, but unlike those of the private sector they must not be allowed to make political donations – AT ALL. Private unions should be able to give money to political movements or politicians if the membership agrees with it based on membership voting; however, since Public Unions are potentially negotiating directly with the very politicians they donate to, how can we be assured those politicians are actually looking out for the tax payers best interest and not handing over the purse government’s purse strings – your purse strings.

Unions can be and are great organizations when they truly work for the betterment of their membership. There is no problem when they do so. It becomes a problem when union officials move behind the scenes and control their organizations and politicians through coercion and scheming.

So if the unions are to continue to be effective they must realize that to work in the modern media environment they must learn to work in the Right-to-Work atmosphere. They must learn to work with the people they represent and utilize the marketing of their positives to attract members and not just rely on Forced Union laws to garner their membership and conduct business any way they see fit to do.

So in the end, it seems that unions are like every other organization working for the betterment of people. That is because even with the sincerest of purpose, the best of intentions and the highest regards for the membership, there is one thing that can undermine progress to be made by a union and that is the greed of those at the top. Not all unions have this problem, but clearly there are too many that do and because of that a growing majority of Americans are beginning to have a negative view of unions.

Sincerely,
Bill