5 Things to Know About the Employee Free Choice Act

The Value of Unions

The union to which I belong, the Service Employees International Union - the notorious SEIU, is a prime example of the value – or lack thereof – of modern unions, at least big unions.

As a government employee, I was pressured into joining the union through continuous “random meetings” with union leadership until I finally relented. In my observation, the union does very little to help the employees of this government entity. The union reps, with one exception, create hostility in the workplace between staff and management. The lone exception faced a recent recall election. He is the only union rep with whom management is willing to discuss anything. The rep is skilled in business and understands both sides of the relationship between workers and employers.

But, the SEIU ensured Barak Obama won the Nevada primaries.

It is painfully obvious that the SEIU is first a political organization, then a union. So seems to be the case of every large union. AFL-CIO, Teamsters, UAW; the list goes on.

When I displayed a McCain/Palin bumper sticker, I was approached by my union reps who asked “what are you doing?” When the union called me at home asking that I donate to the Obama campaign and I said that I was voting for McCain I was cursed at before the phone was slammed in my ear.

Workers rights! Protect the workers! Right, when the SEIU actually starts working on labor issues, perhaps then the value of the union will return.

Unions are created to protect workers and unions are created to save employers from having to deal one-on-one with hundreds or thousands of employees. In an ideal world, when unions sit with employers and rational discussions about business take place, unions are valuable to all parties.

Eliminating secret ballots would change the structure of business forcing employers to be wary, if not openly hostile, to workers.

Skip the union label, just make it a tatoo.

T Peterson of NV @ Jul 09, 2009 11:22:41 AM