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CEPR
The downhill slide in U.S. union membership has stalled.
After steep declines since 2008, the unionization rate leveled off last year, pointing to what is either a number that just can’t go any lower, a lull in yet more union membership hemorrhaging, or the beginning of a labor turnaround.
Union membership plummeted by nearly 1.4 million workers between 2008 and 2010, but “hit a plateau in 2011,” according to the Center for Economic Policy Research, an economic think tank that reviewed data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The private sector led the way with a union membership increase of 110,000 employees, while the public sector saw a 61,000 decline, mainly due to government cutbacks.
The data shows a stabilization following years of unionization declines, but could it be the early signs of a union renaissance?
“No, not yet,” surmised John Budd, a professor of work and organizations at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management and director of the Center for Human Resources and Labor Studies.
“We’ve reached a core group that doesn’t have much left to shrink,” he said, about traditional unionized workers in industries such as auto, airlines, and healthcare. On the other hand, he added, it could be a sign “people are turning to unionization again.”
The growing perception among many that economic inequities are rampant could fuel a rethinking of the role unions can play, he maintained. “That’s something that unions fight for, equality and economic fairness,” he said. “In terms of workers getting frustrated and unions turning the corner as a result, the signs of that potential have been around for a number of years now.”
A positive sign, he noted, is that in a political environment that has vilified organized labor and has spawned movements to hamper organizing rights in states such as Minnesota and Wisconsin, membership numbers have stabilized.
Others aren’t as hopeful.
Gary Chaison, professor of Industrial Relations at Clark University’s Graduate School of Management, believes the worst is yet to come. “There will be greater layoffs in the public sector as cities and states have to lay off workers to narrow the budget shortfalls caused by excessive pension obligations,” he said. “And as the economy stalls, perhaps the result of continuing high employment and low consumer confidence, or the banking crisis in Europe, employers in manufacturing will be reluctant to add to their workforces.”
Here are some details of the CEPR report:
- The largest net increases in unionization came from health care and social assistance; construction; and durable goods manufacturing.
- The biggest declines came from professional and business services; utilities; and non-durable manufactured goods.
- Florida saw the biggest gains in union members in 2011; followed by Michigan Colorado, Illinois and Missouri.
- New York, the most heavily unionized state, saw the sharpest drop, followed by California.
Overall, women represented the biggest increase in union membership with an increase of 36,000 female members, compared to about 12,000 men.
“I don't think that men or woman have a greater natural propensity to join unions, but it's all about industry,” Chaison said. “Apparently there have been fewer job losses or health care occupations or service occupations -- hotels and restaurants -- dominated by women.”
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There is a sort of "middle ground" inhabited by a minority of corporations, who are either owned by employees, or have a major "employee profit sharing program."
However, for the most part, it isn't rocket science. Owners and management acting as agents of owners, seek to maximize profits, through whatever means are available: automation, off-shore production, futures purchases of commodities, etc., etc.
Unions seek to better the working conditions of their members: on the job safety, review of employment decisions, higher wages, better benefits, and the sharing of productivity gains.
Thanks to the Anti American Worker Republicans even their constituants are joining unions.It seems their tired of living in poverty
Anyone who loves the union then they have never had their own business. Unions had a time and a place.
I ask you if unions are so great then why did GM and Chrysler have such problems? Or take notice next time your dealing with a government cheerful employee.
Complicated story...recovery from WW II by Europeans and Japan, unfair competition with foreign manufacturers who bought politicians in "right to work states" for low wages and taxes. Expectations of investors, who want higher profits and lower wages and benefits. Poor management. And, somewhere in there...yes, mistakes by union members and union management, as well.
It would be shallow and stupid to blame ALL of Detroit's ills on labor unions. And, you are certainly NOT shallow and stupid, are you?
You don't need your own business to learn about unions. You learn very quickly that you don't dare do anything more than you are told to do. If you try to help someone else, you will get written up by the union. If you try to do an exceptional job, you will be berated by fellow union workers and even threatened for making everyone else look bad. It sucks trying to get anything done at a union plant.
Any good, well-written management-labor contract today has performance rewards written into it.
stone6,
Try telling that to the workers. Intimidation is rampant in the union culture. You can't file a complaint to management if someone gives you a dirty look and asks you what the hell are you doing.
My girl friend is a nurse. At one job she was in a union. All of her focus was to patient care. The job she has now is non-union. A lot of BS paperwork on job profit goals, lower costs, increase revenues. She's a nurse!!! Let her do her job! All the crap is from people in management that have to justify their having a job. You could dump half the people in upper management in the health industry and improve care AND lower costs. Unions are not the problem.
Road Warrior - Depends on the issue and how it agreed between the union and management to handle that type of issue. The employer-employee relationship is basically "defined" by contract. Usually, if you have a complaint about someone breaking a law (e.g. sexual harassment, age discrimination, etc.) then the employer should take the lead themselves, while the union only makes sure the employer is taking action.
On other issues, such as getting to work on-time, or violation of a strictly employer "rule" for the workplace, then there is normally a "grievance procedure" wherein the union takes the lead.
I've worked on both sides...labor relations for management and union representative. My personal experience was about 1/3rd of the time, the blame could rest with the employee; 1/3rd of the time with poor management or supervision; and 1/3rd of the time, the dispute was due to a misunderstanding or misinterpretation of the contract.
And, in both cases, I had a pretty good reputation with the other side.
Road-written up by the union? Berated by fellow employees? What the heck are you talking about? Please explain how you get written up by a union. You have never worked in a union plant, have you. Now go ahead and tell me about "a friend you know" that said this was true.
I have worked at Dow Corning in Midland, MI. M&M Mars in Waco, TX. Worked at Southern Railway. Had nothing but trouble working at the facilities. Had thugs grabbed me by the shoulder because I was doing something my boss asked me to do. I had a former written complaint by a group of movers because I was seen helping someone push a hand truck over a door jam. I had people telling me to get rid of a tool or even a broom because it was not my job. Just having the tool like a screw driver in my pocket was a no no.
In other words, there was a legal contract in place between labor and management and you were violating the contract. Got it. I think you are mistaken with the complaint. The grievance would have been against management. You've worked at 3 different places with 3 different unions, and you had troubles at all of them? Maybe the problem lies with you. Just a thought.
K,
Yep, you got it. I carry a miniature screw driver around in my shirt pocket and that violates the contract, so I was told by a union thug to get rid of it. And he was dead serious when he grabbed my shoulder. I am a contractor working all over the country. I have worked at union companies and non-union companies. Non-union companies are much more efficient, flexible and worked with management very well. No wonder all the companies in Michigan are moving to TN and SC.
Wait a minute. You didn't actually work for those companies? You were an outside contractor? No wonder they hated your guts. As far as work comparisons between union and nonunion-you just admitted you're an outside contractor! You didn't actually work for those companies. I have actually worked at both nonunion and union (past tense). Nonunion side, the only thing that mattered was how much butt you could kiss. Union shop seemed to keep upper management in check and from making bone headed decisions. Was much happier union. As far as companies going south, how's Saturn doing these days?
Do you really believe that only union business's have problems. I live in the Phila. Pa. region of the country and most of the great company's are union and they prosper very well as do their workers. Make no mistake about it the Union is as good as its members.If the membership is not strong the union is weak.When work is done by building and trades in Pa. it is done right and is done very professional,difference is we don't work like slaves for boss hog
Pension benefits, health insurance, workplace safety rules, child labor rules, 40 hour work week, etc. Don't you realize that corporate America gave these to workers out of the goodness of their heart?
Exactly...unions are not without sin, but on-balance, have done far more for the American worker than hurting them. Most of our job losses have been due to technology, overseas production. and the simple recovery and growth of the global economy since WW II.
It is highly unlikely the prosperous middle class of the 1950'as to 1970's would have evolved without them.
My current boss is Greek. He goes to Greece to visit relatives every year. He said a government union worker can retire at 51 and collect a lifetime pension of 90% of his or her pay. Only a numnut believe a nation can survive handing out pensions like that. Then again, maybe union workers don't care about the economic health of a nation. Greeks don't.
I don't know enough about the Greek situation to judge. There are many aspects to a national economy that have nothing to do with unions. If a country can afford to have people retire at 51, on a 90% pension, why would you be against it?
The issue is not the age of retirement or the size of the pension, but whether or not they can be paid for allowing for reasonable government, taxation, growth and a manageable debt load.
As for your own experience, did you ever ask for a copy of the contract and read it?
You do realize you sound like a idiot don't you.
It's the "organized" part of organized labor that really sticks in the craws of the super wealthy elite.
We (America's middle class) need MORE organization not less. We should be forming more unions. This is the best counter to the power of the corporate class.
The union types on this string need to read this January 29, 2012 column by the left-leaning editorialist Thomas Friedman. It presents the very essence that is present today, the reality that you chose to ignore and would rather bleat on and on about how you are the most important employee that exists in the world today. Your condemnation of the business leaders in our country has gotten you blind to the fact that profit is a product of good business practices. Profit is what allows you to survive in the world's greatest economy and that your warped sense of what you're owed for doing a job drives your very livelihoods out into the world markets.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/opinion/sunday/friedman-made-in-the-world.html?_r=1&ref=thomaslfriedman
He makes the point that their is no "Made in the USA" anymore because "outsourcing" no longer exists. He writes:
"These CEO's (of US Corporations) rarely talk about "outsourcing" these days. Their world in now so integrated that there is no "out" and no "in" anymore.
In their their businesses, every product and many services now are imagined, designed, marketed and built through global supply chains that seek to access the best quality talent at the lowest cost, wherever it exists."
The message from this leading "progressive" writer needs to be understood and accepted, or the union die-hards will do exactly that...die hard.
Friedman has always favored outsourcing. He's married to a woman whose father is a billionaire; I think in shopping malls in the midwest. Friedman believes in the Post Industrial Economy and a New World Order.
Part of what he says is correct...but I am typing this on a computer assembled in China, with child labor (according to a recent story in the same paper Friedman works for, the New York Times). [And, yes, that's being hypocritical.]
If we are going to rid the world of wrongs and implant capitalist-democratic values, it's probably best to let people know that we don't agree with child labor.
Most of our export competition is with advanced industrialized countries who have unions, comparable wages, often better benefits, health and safety and environmental regulations and universal health care. I assume Friedman is making a particular point about the development of the labor movement in this country as opposed to elsewhere, not about the principle of collective bargaining.
Of course he wasn't talking about the principles or pseudo-virtues of collective bargaining. His point was that leaders in our business sectors see the world as one big playing field, hence our labor groups need to understand that they are in competition with all the workers of the world now, not just those here in the US who are or are not union workers. His points about global supply chains are a fact today...that can not be undone by wishful thinking, and we'd be all the wiser to get into the game with our best and brightest leading, not tagging along as we're currently doing.
I'm not sure where you get your "facts" with regard to our export competition and if or if not these workers are unionized. But if your referring to the countries with socialized forms of government, who indeed cough up endless benefits, well most of them are in the tank and sinking outta sight. Not were we want to be...
And, parenthetically, Obama, as he did in his State of the Union speech, is regurgitating hyped rhetoric that we as a country can "win" this completion for manufacturing through good old union thinking...ain't goin' happen, but sure sounds good to those who pony up to the PAC. You can bet that as the campaign moves into high gear, BO will be throwing more star dust into the union folks eyes and expect a big pay day for it.
Just IMHO.
TangoChuck......
Suppose some country keeps a large population of slave labor working 16 hour days, living in dormitories, with little personal property, almost no human rights, only enough health care to keep them alive through their most productive years, and working for pennies on the dollar of other workers.
Would you argue that American corporate executives should seek to subject American workers to those conditions in pursuit of your "survival of the most exploited" market model? It's a rhetorical question. Of course, you would. That's exactly what is happening. That hypothetical country is China and other such nations.
You can sell your race to the bottom theory to those moronic enough or sufficiently lacking in self-respect to swallow your swill. American workers are not they. American workers will embrace organization in a truly democratic and fundamentally free-enterprise way (through organized labor) so as to maximize their profit on their efforts.
...and continue to loss their livelihoods...
If you're so damned concerned about 500 millions factory workers in China who have a far better life than they had on the farm, even though they didn't get on your radar until they took your jobs, perhaps you should take a trip to Shenzheng and spout your "Union-Yes" to them...You're the moronic one who has union tattooed on your a$$ and believe all the crap your union bosses tell you and how to think.....LMAO.
It doesn't matter what the CEO's want in this country everyone has the right to organize period. The anti union and anti worker Republican form of politics is over.The Global corporations that sell goods to America are starting to see that it is now becoming cheaper to make it here .The workers are starting to organize to prevent the mistreatment of the workers at the beginning of this century. They also have started to read between the lines of the Republican Party and are rejecting it
uaw...wow.
I pity your ignorance. Spoken like a true-blue union stooge who will be damned right or wrong. History has many lessons for you that you're too dumb or proud to understand. Oh well.
TangoChuck.......
Folks, such as yourself, just don't like democracy. You would far prefer a corporate (dictatorial) model for the United States.
Unless and until Chinese (and other such) workers are compensated fairly, the world should refuse to buy their products. That includes products of American companies produced by (near) slave labor.
The slave laborers will eventually demand equity. It happened in Japan. It will happen in China. When the last pockets of slave labor gain equity, your arguments will be exposed for what they promote: fascism.
TangoChuck......
On Aug. 21, 2008, you said the following:
This (quote) proves 2 things: 1. You have a serious conflict of interest in that trade with China (however unfair) is IN YOUR FINANCIAL INTEREST. 2. You clearly know that Chinese labor is being EXPLOITED.
Yet, your reaction to this (exploitation) is to wish it upon American labor. One can only wonder how far you would pursue this naive folly.
This much is certain: You are very confused.
BTW---It is possible to construct an argument without using profane epithets.
So Ian...where did I ever say that I prefer a dictatorial model. That, my friend, are your moronic words and is your weak-minded bias against what all the rest of us know as capitalism. You seem to be very free in pontificating your views of socialism as gospel...LMAO on that.
As for my "conflict of interest" as you call it...this again are words flowing out of the mouth of a person who just doesn't know or will ever know the cultural and socialital environment in China...ever. And I'm supposed to agree with you?...really LMAO now. Too bad you think your acceptance of union-socialist propaganda lets think you understand what is reality in China and demonstrates how in the dark you are and will remain until you free yourself of the brainwashing you've endured from your union bosses...LMAO again.
BTW...my view of the way the Chinese government governs their people and how I feel about the fine people of China on a personal is based on my experiences. Those are things you'll never understand unless you do eight years there. To hate the communists and to care for their people is not a mutually conflicting proposition. The level that I'm addressing is not the people you seem to have such a moral dilemma over, and seem to think that you've got the answer to their lives...you do not know a gnat's a$$ about what you're talking about. They take your jobs, so now you give a $hit...more than a tad hypocritical.
My wishes for the American worker is that they come to their senses. They will continue to wither on the vine, as they have, as witnesses by the 87% of American workers who chose to not belong to unions. There is the message for even blind people like you. Deny it if you wish...and that'll continue be your loss. And lose you will because as Friedman states its a global work force today. You have to compete in that environment and to think you can out wait the 900 million peasants in China who are slowly migrating off the farm into the cities and factories that provide them a much better life than the ones they left is folly. Then you need to out wait the Laotians, Vietnamese, Thai, Philippianos , Indians, etc, etc. Good luck with that...LMAO.
I can quote hundreds of examples where unions have run business out of this country with ridiculous greedy demands, but you know what I'm taking about and you just don't want to accept the blame...oh well.
TangoChuck........
Your (quoted) observations regarding the Chinese communist party, their aims, their methods, and their victims are here for all to see. Chinese workers are exploited. That is a fact.
Also a fact is that you take the (self-serving) fatalistic view that American labor must subject themselves to similar exploitation so as to survive. If you believe this, you are an inveterate pessimist. If you don't, you are a deceiver.
American labor and the American middle class represents the largest (by far) single voting block in our democracy. Those who take your view can be tossed out of government. Trade agreements can be enforced. Predatory pricing can be resisted.
The United States can and will protect itself from your lowest-common-denominator mentality. It is already happening. Jobs are returning from China as Americans are injured and sickened by their faulty products and as more Americans realize the folly of depending upon foreign nations to provide our essential needs. This phenomenon surely will distress those such as yourself whose sole loyalty is to money and who sneer at any sense of patriotism or concern for fellow Americans.
Save your advice to American labor. It is clear you could not care less for their life, liberty, or happiness. You care only for yourself. May you find solace in that company.
You know you just gotta get over mouthing your trash as fact on others and then blaming them for saying what you yourself are saying. You can't even begin to quote where I said anything like this crap that fell off your lips.
Ah yes, another missive right outta the George Meany bible on stealing the public blind. Place blame on the competition and tout the virtues of a labor force who sh*t in their mess kits years ago, but are new-born, have seen the light and are ever so humbled by their past indiscretions ...LMAO. Bet you scored an ace on this one at the labor academy...right?
And, I know that you certainly know all there is to know about the climate and implementation of western businesses in China. I mean you do read the papers and if it's in The NY Times, it's gotta be the truth...sadly you're a fool who has fallen for all that $hit.
BTW, Mr. I Got It All Figured out, I worked as an US industry adviser to the Chinese government upgrading their system within my area of expertise so that our US firm, who employs about one hundred and seventy thousand American workers, could sell our products TO THE CHINESE. Billions of US dollars are on the table, but only if the Chinese are capable of assimilating and using the products...you guess what the industry is, or not. I could care less.
Do yourself a favor and quit making preposterous claims about the poor down-trodden American worker who, if they only made union scale, would resurrect our once great manufacturing and industrial system...It ain't about to happen in your life time. In fact the few jobs coming "back" to the US are 95% non-union jobs...so if and when that may happen, it'll be those workers who accept competitive and a livable wage for the work they do, without holding the owner and public hostage to the greedy demands of the past. See ya on the picket line...LMAO.
uaw-779887
You truly are naive. Again I suppose GM and Chrysler very well ran unions. That's why a car made in their union plants cost more then the Toyota plants in the right to work states?
Wanta see more declining numbers in Union membership, just give this clueless community organizer of a President 4 more years and watch how many union jobs vanish as corporations and jobs flee from America.
bill you made an interesting comment - but I'll put it to you this way. I worked for Toyota for 12 years and am currently a public employee with a union for the last 17 (and a Republican all my life). When I worked at Toyota we DIDN'T NEED A UNION because the company treated us right - didn't try to screw us on pay or benefits and had very generous plans. They also cared about their employees and their ideas. Fast forward to where I work today as a public employee with a union - my current employer is a joke (and no it's not the government). Our President just got a 15% raise, an increase in his car and tech allowance. We the workers (read as most of middle America) have not had a raise in 4+ years and they treat the workers like they were throw-away items. "you don't like it - someone younger will take your job for 1/2 price". If that's the America that you union haters want to live in.....by all means you can have it.....but don't complain when there is no more middle class and you go back to the early 1900's with the robber-barons!!!!
how can you be a public employee and not work for the government? you are either a private sector employee or a government employee (public sector).
Obviously we have a problem with compensation sustainability when it comes to the state and local employees. We’ve seen, during the recession that while compensation in the private sector and struggled, in the public sector it has done quite the opposite (http://bit.ly/pn5weF). In times like these, this trend simply can’t work. As we continue to see states rack up pension liabilities, the threat to all taxpayers is clear (http://nyti.ms/p9JEUG).
In order for there to be fair compensation for all workers, so that we can have fully functioning state and local governments long into the future, there needs to be an effort from both unions and politicians to work towards creating compensation that is both fair and sustainable.
True. And, that should be able to be accomplished without destroying the principle of collective bargaining.
Part of the problem is the advantage a "national union" has over a local or state organization negotiating for a tiny part of the whole. A national union watches it's parts very carefully and a threat to one part is a threat against all parts. State and local governments don't have that advantage - in fact, they may actually be competing with another state or local government - and, consequently, are often simply "out negotiated" - one way or the other. In bad economic times, they want to cut costs; in good economic times, they want the "best schools," the "best police and fire protection," etc.
Fix Public Employee pension plans and you probably fix all the problems in every state. People can cry about cuts to their favorite program and stomp their feet in protest, however, if the pension programs and entitlements of Public employees were brought in line with the public sector there is a great probability that cuts in other areas may not be required. One pocket, many hands.
No one is forced to stay in a Union .... like Glen Beck,Rush and the whole Republican Party , If you do NOT like Unions then get out of your Union job or shut up.
I am in a Union and would very much prefer not to be ,but if my place of employment has the funds to hire lawyers then I get to pay someone to fight for me and Union dues are a lot cheaper than a lawyer (does not always happen that is for sure) , pay a living wage and have healthcare for all and maybe the use for a Union will go away.
I believe there are "closed shop" States, wherein if you want to work in a certain trade, you have to belong to a union representing that trade.
Madeline hit the nail on the head. There is a direct link to the decline of the middle class and the decline in Union numbers. In the 60!s,70!s, and 80!s there were plenty of Unions (Good or bad). Still jobs were plenty and the American dream was alive. I ask you what do you have now?. This coming from a guy who is not in a Union.
Answer, globalization, right or wrong. 50 years ago no company would even consider making products outside the US. Today those workers are equally capable and provide a lower cost alternative in some cases to US based Manufacturing. The rub is that now companies are coming home, so to speak, as supply lines, cost of shipping, quality, timeliness to market, dollar value have equalized. It wasn't the Unions that gave us a middle class it was the demand driven by consumers in the US. Those same consumers are now bought into the I want the lowest price, Walmart syndrome, and that leads to off shore job creation and middle class job destruction. Nice to have it both ways but not realistic.
AT+T (formerly SBC), managed from Dallas, is less than fond of unions that don't reside in "right to work" states where they are relatively powerless.
A substantial part of the drop in unionization rates in California is a consequence of the fact that they moved tens of thousands of jobs to states where they could exert more control- as was their right.
By the same token, it's the right of all their former employees to avoid all their services like the plague- the plague of unemployment they brought to the tenth largest economy on the planet- which, by itself, once generated about a sixth of AT+T's revenues.
This brilliance from the same leadership that simply gave away some six billion dollars in cash and assets as a consequence of misjudgement.
Perhaps that would explain why their stock remains below 30- when the DJIA has gained some 20%.
One wonders....
i am not anti union, some in my family are union others aren't and they all work hard or at least work. But one needs only look around the world to see what bloated pensions and promises do in the end. Look to Greece, Portugal, Spain, when things hit and people lose what they thought they would get but there is no money, chaos.
With all their faults, unions kept corporate abuses, such as job outsourcing, and price gauging the consumer in check. Unions brought the 40 hour workweek, annual vacations, employee health benefits and so much more.
85 years ago. Where is the relevance today.
You must be deaf, dumb and blind!
The true measure is unionized workers as a % of the workforce. Guaranteed that is a far lower number than 5 years ago, 10 years ago, 35 years ago. Government employment is about to take a hit and the numbers/overall % will drop even further. The public purse is snapping shut. Industrial sector is moving away from the control of the unions and will continue to do so. With all the State and Federal protections in place today is there even any relevance to a Union? You can't pass wind without state and federal regulations dictating how, when and how much gas you can expel. Only half joking.
I am reminded of the old Proctor and Gamble plant in Los Angeles.
About 25 years ago the employees were whooping and hollering about how management finaly became "reasonable" and gave them everything they asked for,most peaceful contract they had ever negotiated.
The dip@!$%#s were so pleased with themselves they didn't realize there was something they didn't negotiate... automation.
YEEUUP along came the rise of the machines and within 5 years they had trimmed something like 48% of their production workers.
I heard all i care to hear these airhead been bought by the rich and cannot think for themselves. They think you buy houses on min wage, service jobs, non-union jobs. the unions have been giving up more and more and all the companies been doing is giving bigger pay to themselves. How is it a ceo can lay off thousand of worker saying the company he don't own labor too high and turn around a get millons in bonus when he counted in the labor cost too. airheads wake up.
I am a 25 year construction union member and I detest public sector unions they are the biggest spoiled brats on the block, they do not pay squat into their pension and healthcare funds and their benefits rival mine or are alot better and I personally would like to refuse to pay for them, but noooooooo I have to pay taxes , and their benefits come from my taxes and it takes a whole lot of guys like me just to pay one stinking public sector employee, where half the the jobs could be done cheaper and more productively by private sector worker that could also be unionized, I say do away with the public sector unions , and let the rest of the middle class taxes go down, and I don't mind working for the MAN , because the MAN provides the work for me and no union ever created a single job unless its some union cronie that our President seems like nuzzle up to , the biggest increase in union enrollment is probably public sector , in the realm of the AFSME, or SEIU, and I wish those to unions in the public realm would just dry up and go away, because they are not my type of union brother.
OK fire away
In my experience, the problem with unions is that they forgot who they are supposed to serve - the unionized workers. They became big businesses in their own right, collecting dues to pay the union management (at what we, the workers, saw as exorbitant salaries) and staff. Our union representative was never available to talk to us. Because the company we worked for had considerable non-union competition, when the union pushed too hard for wage improvements, the competition stole our customers with lower prices and put us out of our jobs. The company failed in 1977. The union did not care.
If unions want to increase their membership roles, they need to protect and help the worker AND help the company prosper and grow. Those goals are not inherently contradictory - they just need to make sure that the company shares the wealth in good times and that management shares in the pain in bad times.
Billions of tax dollars from o'bammy have been poured into Thuggery unions as payback for votes. Only union jobs are created, not real American jobs. Sorry axxholes unions.
Unfortunately, unions bleed american businesses dry, until the company either folds or declares bankruptcy. Eventually this places the responsibility of a pension on the shoulders of taxpayers.
Unions had their place in american business, however, if they fail to adapt to the realities of worldwide commerce, they will be tossed aside.
All you Union haters look at the latest Boeing Union Contract!
1: It was signed 8 months early, without a strike or even a threat of one!
2: Its main topic was to keep jobs IN the United States!
This shows that when both the company and there workers work together something great can happen.
Perfect, NO, but it's a start!
Yes, Boing, next strike, Production moves to Mexico or Brazil
You know you just gotta get over mouthing your trash as fact on others and then blaming them for saying what you yourself are saying. You can't even begin to quote where I said anything like this crap that fell off your lips.
Ah yes, another missive right outta the George Meany bible on stealing the public blind. Place blame on the competition and tout the virtues of a labor force who sh*t in their mess kits years ago, but are new-born, have seen the light and are ever so humbled by their past indiscretions ...LMAO. Bet you scored an ace on this one at the labor academy...right?
And, I know that you certainly know all there is to know about the climate and implementation of western businesses in China. I mean you do read the papers and if it's in The NY Times, it's gotta be the truth...sadly you're a fool who has fallen for all that $hit.
BTW, Mr. I Got It All Figured out, I worked as an US industry adviser to the Chinese government upgrading their system within my area of expertise so that our US firm, who employs about one hundred and seventy thousand American workers, could sell our products TO THE CHINESE. Billions of US dollars are on the table, but only if the Chinese are capable of assimilating and using the products...you guess what the industry is, or not. I could care less.
Do yourself a favor and quit making preposterous claims about the poor down-trodden American worker who, if they only made union scale, would resurrect our once great manufacturing and industrial system...It ain't about to happen in your life time. In fact the few jobs coming "back" to the US are 95% non-union jobs...so if and when that may happen, it'll be those workers who accept competitive and a livable wage for the work they do, without holding the owner and public hostage to the greedy demands of the past. See ya on the picket line...LMAO.
Sure it's stopped declining because government is getting bigger so government unions are getting bigger.
If a company has union represented employees and is in a right to work state,the union,by law,has to represent those employees that choose NOT to pay union dues if union representation is asked for! Dirty slime ball slackers want the best of both worlds.
When the contract is finalized,the slackers enjoy the same benefits as the Union folks but pay no dues. I say screw the slackers.
The majority of Unioin Membership is Government employees, So I guess that Obama is now hiring more Federal employees to bolster the Union membership. What a joke. The Union mentality has driven all of our industires offshore. I guess in a perfect world we would all be working for the US GOvt and getting our money from China
WRONG, cheap labor has driven all of our industries offshore. There are only two ways that will cause it to return, either wages drop to the same levels as other 3rd world countries or tariffs are enacted that making it economically advantageous to move the business here. The real question is why do conservatives love communist labor? I suspect it is because they work dirt cheap.