dgibson
New member
As a funny (
) story I offer you the tale of a local plant. The union there went on strike a few years ago, and followed all the rules...picketing, no members crossing the line, etc., etc. The company had to keep producing to stay afloat during the strike, so they hired a bunch of "scabs" to temporarily fill the line until a resolution could be found.
The scabs proceeded to break production records like raw spaghetti.
So, the union workers stayed on strike for over four years; most finally had to break down and get other jobs because their union benefits just weren't enough to pay the bills. Finally the national union rescinded their backing of the strike, seeing it as a lost cause. Then the strikers had the choice of continuing without benefits or giving up. Naturally, they gave up. The vast majority of this issue was over some perceived reduction in retirement benefits.
So, all those workers essentially put themselves out of jobs. Admittedly, that's an extreme example of unions gone sour, but there it is.
YH, you make some good points regarding protection of employees. Unfortunately, I still believe that in many cases this "protection" is taken a little too far.
My father often said that the unions were a great deal of the reason factories were going overseas; they have priced themselves right out of employment. I can't argue with the fact that more and more companies are pulling up stakes and setting sail for China, Mexico, or wherever, where employees and production costs are much cheaper. Is it true that unions are cutting off their noses to spite their faces?
No need to get angry; we're all just having a conversation.
EDITED PART: Having done some research on the background of my little story, I find that--in the Union's point of view--the strike was about quite a bit more than retirement benefits. You can read more about the Great Betrayal in the union point of view at these websites:
http://solidarity.igc.org/atc/98Feeley.html
http://www.labornotes.org/archives/2002/05/f.html
Fascinating.
<FONT COLOR="#800080" SIZE="1">[ 12-31-2003 11:44: Message edited by: dgibson ]</font>
The scabs proceeded to break production records like raw spaghetti.
So, the union workers stayed on strike for over four years; most finally had to break down and get other jobs because their union benefits just weren't enough to pay the bills. Finally the national union rescinded their backing of the strike, seeing it as a lost cause. Then the strikers had the choice of continuing without benefits or giving up. Naturally, they gave up. The vast majority of this issue was over some perceived reduction in retirement benefits.
So, all those workers essentially put themselves out of jobs. Admittedly, that's an extreme example of unions gone sour, but there it is.
YH, you make some good points regarding protection of employees. Unfortunately, I still believe that in many cases this "protection" is taken a little too far.
My father often said that the unions were a great deal of the reason factories were going overseas; they have priced themselves right out of employment. I can't argue with the fact that more and more companies are pulling up stakes and setting sail for China, Mexico, or wherever, where employees and production costs are much cheaper. Is it true that unions are cutting off their noses to spite their faces?
No need to get angry; we're all just having a conversation.
EDITED PART: Having done some research on the background of my little story, I find that--in the Union's point of view--the strike was about quite a bit more than retirement benefits. You can read more about the Great Betrayal in the union point of view at these websites:
http://solidarity.igc.org/atc/98Feeley.html
http://www.labornotes.org/archives/2002/05/f.html
Fascinating.
<FONT COLOR="#800080" SIZE="1">[ 12-31-2003 11:44: Message edited by: dgibson ]</font>