Union Vs Management = Greed

"What I'm Thinkin"

First, Happy New Year! May you all be blessed.

The battle between unions and management has a long and disgusting history.

The old phrase "owe your soul to the company store" is true. Oppression of the worker is a long history. It came to a peak in the coal and copper mines during the early 1900's. Employees were able to go to the company store to buy things on credit; like food and cloths. The mine would pay them just enough to pay their bill. Sometimes the employees ended the week owing the company store more than they were paid for working that week.

Safety was hardly considered. Mine cave ins killed many miners, safety standards did not exist. The cost of safety was retorted to be to much of a financial burden for management to bear.

Let me put this another way. Greed ruled. Pay as small of wage as possible, safety costs; so don't worry about safety, and over charge them at every opportunity (at the company store) to maximize profit. Oh, and your health Mr. Employee... that's your problem. Managements attitude was terrible. A revolt happened.

Along came the unions. Many wrongs were made right. A decent wage, health coverage, safe working conditions. Great!

All of that being said the pendulum has now swung in the other direction. Now it is the unions who have become greedy. Unions have grown powerful. Their unbridled hunger for more of everything has been out of control years.

Have you ever noticed how close politicians and unions are related? Here is what I mean:

We elect politicians to politic for us. Politicians must do something - like make some more laws or regulations - or they are accused of not doing anything. Right? This is a true story. The problem now; we have so many laws and regulations it is nearly impossible to keep up. Businesses and managers are overwhelmed OSHA, EEO, FLSA, FMLA, Minimum Wage, Tax Laws..... oh Lord, the list goes on and on.

Unions do same. The worker expects the union to fight for more "stuff" when their contract is due. The problem now; unions have taken so much "stuff" businesses can barely survive; only certain workers can do a certain job, time and a half or double time, protecting poor performing employees, accusing management of poor management......oh Lord, the list goes on and on.

Kind of the same, don't you think? More is better. I don't think so.

Anyways.

The fact is unions share no responsibility for the health of a company. And, there are plenty of cases were the unions have taken so much "stuff" they put the company out of business.

Today a union employee can accuse management of anything they want to, and management is guilty until they prove themselves innocent. Management must pay the employee time to make the complaint. Management must pay the union steward time to accept, process, and file the complaint. Management must pay for mediators to hear the complaint.

Unions and employees can file a grievance for absolutely anything they want, union stewards answer to no one; and management must pay for it all.

This story really happened. A manager asked an employee why it "took so long to do a job". It took an employee 9 1/2 hours to do an 8 hour job and this cost 1 1/2 hours of overtime pay. The employee refused to answer, accused management of harassment, filed a harassment charge against the manager, and also filed an EEO for discrimination. The union backed these charges all the way and even encouraged them. Management will pay the union steward to press the charges. Management will end up paying thousands of dollars in wages and mediation fees before the EEO charge is even looked at.

The union has a pretty heavy hand with no accountability. Even if the manager is found to be innocent of the charges, the company pays the costs, not the union. There is no accountability by the union or employee for any false accusations. EVER!

So this is a very effective union tactic to stop management from asking an employee anything that has to do with poor work performance. It becomes very costly for management to try to control overtime. If management tolerates the poor performance and just pays the overtime this encourages more abuse. It is a lose lose for management. Management pays a very high price for trying to find out something as simple as "why did it take you so long to do the job". Not to mention the anguish the manager will go through for personally being falsely accused of wrong doing.

The company pays for the employee's pursuit to be "made whole" (get money for their pain and suffering) because they were violated, and management's defense against the accusations. The unions and employees have nothing to lose and everything to gain. There is no rule, policy, law, or regulation that prohibits false accusations or any punishment to the accuser or union if the allegations are found to be false.

It comes back to greed. Get as much as you can! Especially employees who want to do as little as possible for as much money as they can get. The union protects them; the union says, "don't let management push you around, your a great worker". There is never a cost or penalty for employees or unions taking this position, even if they are wrong. And they can do it over and over again.

Whether the accusations are true or false, management loses. Firing an employee can cost tens of thousands of dollars. Then the ex-employee will probably sue the company for wrongful dismissal. So, who wants to fire someone?

As you can see employees and unions lose nothing when creating trouble for management. In fact they both will be rewarded with more rights and money if they win.

All of this has set the table we are now sitting at; as we continue to eat a poison called, greed.

"What I'm Thinkin"

Sincerely,

Timothy James Maki