[Hotdog]

Have at it....I would really like to get some honest answers...

[atomicpossum]

Unions!

HUH!

What are they good for?

Absolutely nothin'!

[Clemenza]

The UAW arose in the 1930s when Henry Ford, faced with declining demand during the depression, attempted mass layoffs and increased automation at the River Rouge plant, then Ford's largest. When other manufacturers attempted to do the same, they were faced with similar agitation (ie the strike at the GM plant in Flint, MI, where the workers took over the factory in response to new hours of service rules and layoffs).

In other industries, you can argue that unions were necessary to protect working conditions. In the auto industry, however, the unions have ALWAYS been nothing but a barrier to cost competativeness and rational management. Unfortunately, Detroit has lacked strong management since the 1940s.

As the son of an auto industry executive, I can tell you that the fall of the U.S. auto industry is ultimately rooted in GM's approval of extensive social welfare bennies following WWII, and the lack of a comprehensive management strategy since that period. There really needs to be a major shakeout at both the management and labor levels.

[H. Paul Pressler IV]

Over the years Union Thugs have forced on the American Businessman socialist programs like the 40 hour work week, paid vacation, health insurance, sick time and costly safety programs.


The cost of these must be in the trillions.

[quantim]

Teachers' unions are good for keeping your property taxes higher than needed in addition to aiding your kids to be more stupid as they undergo early leftist training.

They are also good for the dem political machine as the extort money to run dem campaigns.

[RedBeaconNY]

Putting my property tax through the roof.

[raybbr]

Well, what do you think of police, firefighters, teachers and American Federation of State, Municipal, County Employees unions. Only 12.5% of manufacturing in the U.S. is unionized.

Unions had an important role. I think they may still but not to the extent they have today.

What about Baseball, Football and Basketball unions? Why do they even need a union?

[passionfruit]

I have never liked unions. When I became a civil servant, I joined one though.

If you remember the air traffic controller strike during the Reagan administration, you know that federal employees can't strike, not that I ever would. The federal employees unions have no teeth.

After 8 years with the government, I finally ran across a problem that I couldn't resolve by dealing with reasonable people, and I filed my first grievance. It wasn't responded to at the third step, and my problem worsened. I filed a second grievance that also wasn't responded to at the third step. The union refused to ask my agency to respond. The union contract required them to respond within 10 days. After nearly a year, I still hadn't received a response. The union told me that I had no right to complain. They had grievances that hadn't been responded to at that step, and had been waiting since 1988. My agency didn't even have anyone assigned to addressing union grievances.

The union took great delight in telling me that I was a pain in the a$$ and they wouldn't be taking my grievance to arbitration, even if I paid the cost out of pocket.

I was more of a pain in the a$$ than the union realized. I researched it and learned that there was an open season to withdraw from the union. I made up fliers at my own expense and had fellow employees who agreed with me post the fliers in their cubicles. I distributed the forms to allow people to withdraw from the union. I led a charge out of the union that cost them thousands of dollars per year in union dues.

The individual that I filed the grievances against continued to harass me. He was transferred out of my chain of command, and placed in my husband's. My husband was then harassed, and his grievances went unanswered. This individual harrassed several others too. Those individuals had paid attention to how ineffectual the union was, and because there were now enough individuals harrasses that there was a pattern, they filed EEO complaints that they won. To this day I don't know how much the agency paid out in legal fees, and lost EEO actions and lawsuits, but if they had paid attention to my grievance, and not just ignored it, they could have saved a great deal of money.

If the union had been working on my behalf, they would still have all of those employees as dues paying members, and there would still be the illusion that the union was there to protect the workers.

My battle was very public. Although most people didn't verbalize their thoughts, they were watching to see what the union was going to do. I was willing to tell my problems to anyone who was willing to listen, and eventually everyone know what was going on. I still am amazed at how stubborn and how stupid the union was.

[polymuser]

I believe the unions have been quite effective in attacking capitalism, limiting choice, and dumbing down workers and students in our once-great America. Union history is rife with socialist/communist infiltration.

[GOP_Raider]

In an economic sense, unions artificially raise wages higher than what they really should be in an open market. Because of this, there’s a mis allocation of scarce resources (in this case, labor) that could probably be working somewhere where their efficiency would be better economically.

Anyone that hasn’t read Thomas Sowell’s book “Basic Economics” really should. It’s invaluable.