Unions: Bad or Good?

I’ve never been part of a union and I can’t say that I have I ever wanted to. There are many that think unions have outlasted their usefulness and I tend to agree. Unions as we know them today were started around the time of the industrial revolution, where workers often found themselves in appalling conditions with no government legislation to protect them. Today, that is not the case. The Canadian Government has set in place a set of rules that must be followed with regard to working hours, conditions, etc. So today’s unions are all about ‘safety in numbers’. The mentality of unions is ’if we band together we can get a way better deal’.

That attitude makes me angry, more so the other day when I saw an ad on behalf of the Telus employees, who are currently locked out. The ad was a take off of Telus’ tag line ’The future is friendly’ and the ad instead read ’The future is NOT friendly’ and went on to encourage people like me to switch to a different provider. Where is the employee loyalty? There isn’t any. To these spoiled, cry-baby union members Telus is an evil entity, despite the fact that Telus is employing them. How do they pay the company back? They encourage people to switch to a different phone provider. Of course, the irony is that if people do switch then there will be fewer jobs, so all the union has done is shoot themselves in the foot.

That all said, a business is a two way street, but unfortunately for most companies management and employees have both put up blockades and it’s not likely any traffic will flow on that street again. When I owned a software development company, my partner and I had absolutely no reason to reward our employees any more than their salaries, which were already well above standard. Yet when the company did well, we gave out bonuses and raises. That, in turn, helped build employee loyalty which then makes me want to reward that loyalty as our success continues. That loyalty is something you don’t see in unionized companies like Telus.

For union organizers, it’s a big numbers game; more members means more union dues. That’s why you see unions that represent odd groups collectively. And are unions really interested in getting into WalMart to protect the workers there? Absolutely not. WalMart has thousands of employees which translates into a lot of unions dues. And because it’s all about numbers, it means that all members are treated as equals and that unions protect their members no matter they do. Think I’m off base? I’d love for a pro-union person to explain why a shotgun toting employee who showed up drunk and tried to shoot his boss should have his job back. Or why it’s so hard to get fired from Canada Post (employees who’ve stolen cheques from people’s mail are still sorting mail at Canada Post).

1 comment »

1. By david 2 days later:

   
   
   I've belonged to two unions (once as a teaching assistant, and once as a professor) and detested both experiences -- I don't think that unions really have anything to offer skilled workers. On the other hand, for unskilled workers at the very bottom of the economic chain, there might still be a role for unions. I haven't decided for sure yet, but I think I might see a role for unions somewhere like Walmart. The biggest danger is that we change the laws to give the unions too much power, as happened in Quebec -- there has to be a fair balance between the union's power and the employer's.