WARNING SOAP BOX ALERT! I’m a Liberal but anti-union. How can that be? Well, I’m not confident that unions are not part of the problem. Union numbers have been declining for the past 30 years and yet it doesn’t seem as unions are doing anything to change the way they campaign, organize, support, negotiate or even represent. Most of the people I know that are in unions feel as if they are taken advantage of by the union. Their local representatives are more interested in maintaining their own union jobs than representing the folks that are paying their salaries. Many representatives no longer work the “floor” but spend most of their time in the union office, sitting around. Then there are the politics of the unions themselves. Union are very political in that it isn’t often what you know but who you know. A good Union Rep may find themselves out of a job an on the line because they supported the wrong candidate. So given all that I see on the local level does it get better as you go up the union ladder? No, it only gets worse. What have unions been responsible for pushing, passing in the last 20 years? Well some fool listed these things – “Did you know that union letter carriers save lives all the time by alerting officials when an elderly person hasnt collected her mail from the mailbox? That firefighters are fighting breast cancer? That in Erie, Pennsylvania, union members arranged haircuts for more than 700 kids going back to school?” First I think most letter carriers I know (and I know a few) would tell you they want and work at knowing their customers on their route. So the union didn’t do that, human decency did that. The second one, I’ll admit I don’t know exactly how the firefighter are fighting breast cancer, it bring to mind them hosing women’s chest. But more to the point how is that different than what any normal human being is doing? Third, haircuts, really haircuts? That your big accomplishment, giving haircuts to 700 kids? Oh pleeeaaase. Now unionist will respond in two ways: One - a union is only as good as its members. Poppycock, a union is only as good as its leadership. Union leadership has become a joke; most of us look at them as being the people with axes to grind and no basis on how the real world works. Stop talking to your membership and start getting your hand dirty next to them. Base your salary not on what a Fortune 500 CEO would make but what your average member makes. Stop relying on what your predecessor did in the 1800’s and the 1930’s and start working on being RELEVANT today. Two – there is no other organization that represents the labor force in America and unless we unite big business and the 1% will continue to get richer. If that was true wouldnt the labor unions be growing as the middle class is shrinking? The problem for unions is that the working middle class see unions as being a part of the problem not part of the solution. I keep making less and less money and my union dues keep going up and up. So how is the union helping us, not our grandfathers or great grandfathers but us! Can unions change themselves enough to be able to make change for the working/middle class America? So far the answer to that has been NO. So, what do I do as a Liberal do? Invest my time and money into an old and no longer functioning Labor Movement? Or look, and hope for something better to come along. Something that actually, can work with business, work with government, and make our country the great country it once was. One where education is a priority, where we give hand ups not handouts, where perseverance, hard work and innovation are rewarded. A country where everyone can contribute and everyone’s contribution is valued. It is going to get worse before it gets better, because we have too many people who are like our union bosses, they looking to reward themselves instead of understanding that they need to be serving the whole. So this one Liberal is saying to our Labor Unions, until you can show me you’ve identified your issues, can change yourself and be relevant to today’s issues, don’t ask me to pay you any money. Because throwing good money after bad when I have a choice is never something I will do.
Posted on: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 22:35:39 +0000
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