They care only for themselve$ these days and have political agendas.
and the bussiness they are bargaining with don't?
here's a little secret, everyone looks out for their own best interest and everyone has a political agenda, are you saying that you don't? why shouldn't unions have an agenda?
the main reason for a union is to gain an equal footing while bargaining for wages (and other compensation). employers complain about the union having a virtual monopoly on labor, what they don't take into acount that how many people you compete with and how many jobs are available, the employer has much more of a monopoly on employment than any union has on work-force.
all of the company whinning about unions hurting them is just that, whinning.
here's a couple facts-
1.
whine: I always treated my employees fairly we have no need of a union.
Fact: you won't have a union forced onto your company unless more than half your employees feel they need one to be dealt with fairly, less than that and a union couldn't get voted in)
2.
whine: all of these complaints about people refusing to do a job that is within the jurisdiction of another union, and other 'union' rules that seem to get in the way of production and efficiency.
Fact: a union can't just 'make rules' for an employers work place. however certain things are open to bargaining, [some of these are working conditions, rate of pay, seniority (and other rules pertaining to hiring/firing), benifits, job description (what type of services can the employer expect for their dollar. like should a guy who gets paid minimum wage to sweep floors, be told to go do plumbing work for the same rate of pay), and other issues there are a couple more. ]
anyway all these things are negotiated, just like any contract you sit down and play 'lets make a deal', the employer throws out something like "I can't afford cost of living increases this year", the union responds with "fine, but in exchange for that I want you to only use our members to change your lightbulbs (or whatever)". it's all give and take. so when I hear an employer whine about the contract rules (that is the corect term btw, the term 'union rule' is just used to make unions look bad by implying that the stupid situations are the fault of the union), anyway when they whine about the rules it tells me one of 2 things, either the guy is just a whinner and blames his problems on the union, or he's a lousey bussiness man if he can't even negotiate an aceptable contract. if a contract issue causes some problems for an employer you can bet that he recieved consideration for it somewhere else in the contract. just like every clause in that contract that benifits you, was paid for buy something you sacrificed. the idea that companys bargain egually and suposedly in good faith to agree on a contract, and then whine and cry when they have to live up to there end. how long would you keep a guy on as an employee if he *****ed and moaned every time he had to do the work that earns his pay?
3
the whine: the idea that the union requires employers to keep bad employees.
the fact: unions can not stop an employer from firing a man for cause. what a union does do is stop unfair firings, if you've done something to deserve termination there is nothing the union can do for you. if however you get fired one night because a mistake your boss made is comming back to bite him in the prettythang, and his coke suplier is running late, so he throws a tantrum and fires somebody for no reason (seen it happen many times), then the union will send a rep (usually the shop steward) to get your side of the story, ask witnesses some questions, and get the bosses story. if the witnesses suport your side of things and the firing is thought to be unfair the union will file grievances for you and provide legal representation for arbitration, and if you win you get your job back, plus any wages you missed out on while unemployed. the other thing a union does is provide you with the same caliber of legal representation available to employers, buy pooling the money of many thousand members, we can have the money to fight on equal terms with the employer when they abuse the rights of our members, also through examples set in this way we can discourage these abuses from happening in the future, as employers will know that the victims can fight back.
