I am considered by management a "hardcore union activists". I have always supported the right of unions to protect the rights of workers in the work place. Despite having productivity that was in the top 10% of my unit, I found myself being bullied for no apparent reason. The union was there with me and protected my rights and job. I in turn have helped the union prepare defenses for other similarly treated officers.
There is zero rhyme and reason for much of the mayhem.
Much of the fiasco in WI is about the union having to get the dues directly from the members as opposed to a payroll deduction. I work in an atmosphere where union membership is optional. I am slightly annoyed that at least two people whose jobs were saved by the union legal action have not paid a nickel in dues. In short this is a classic illustration of the need for people who are not in the union to pay some dues for services rendered. In one case the person involved is a close friend and a very marginal officer who I help daily.
I am proud of the excellent job my union does each and every day. If a worker whose productivity is in the top ten percent can be targeted for arbitrary abuse it can happen to anyone. I am not defending shoddy work or incompetence, but government can be a brutal taskmaster and at times the conditions do resemble a sweatshop.
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6 comments:
You filled out more forms than 90% of the hacks you work with and they still hassle you?
Why not assume they're anti-semitic, that's your normally catch all response.
Public unions are for sissy-boys.
Be a man, beakerkin. Live w/o a mommy to hold your hand for once.
I despise my union.
I'm worried that you're going to O.D. on Charlie Sheen.
Well, FDR did warn about the dangers of unionizing public employees.
In my view, unions have gone way beyond the good they can do.
Unions have done what happens to many organizations after a long history of unbridled success that allows them to turn into a burgeoning bureaucracy: they become corrupt.
What unions did for workers in the age of industrialization cannot be denied. They helped improve working conditions and base wages for workers. What they have become in the last 20 or 30 years is something else. I was in a union for three years. By the time I left that place of employment, I was totally soured on unions because with my dues money, they lobbied for and supported political causes which I opposed and had absolutely nothing to do with our work environment. It also didn't help for me to see union officials driving BMWs, Jaguars, and wearing more gold and rocks than Mr. T and Liz Taylor combined.
The unions of today are not the unions of the 20s and 30s.
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