subject: Unions: the Dinosaurs that are Destroying America [print this page] Unions: the Dinosaurs that are Destroying America
The fact that what I am about to write is going to become a burning controversy, merely proves how firmly entrenched we are in the belief that unions are a sacred cow that can never be criticized. It is the unions themselves who have instilled that idea into our national consciousness. They have convinced us of their importance in the protection of their workers from the evils of corporate, governmental, and industrial, management abuse.
Do we really need unions anymore? Are they still protecting their workers from abuse by management, or horrendous working conditions; or are they actually hurting their members by forcing management into budget-breaking deals that only result in more labor being farmed out overseas?
Why on earth does the government employee need to be unionized? How much more money could be poured into the departments in which they work if they did not keep demanding higher wages to do their jobs. Wages, incidentally that are being paid by we, the taxpayers. Take a social worker for example. Why do people become social workers? Certainly not for the money. They want to make a difference. The same holds true for police and firefighters. Did they join the departments because they thought they'd get rich, or because it's what they wanted to do? Most of America's firefighters work in volunteer fire departments. They don't get paid at all.
Are teachers really in need of a union? Is it really a good idea to allow inadequate teachers to keep their jobs while denying good teachers merit wages? How much of our school budget goes to pay teachers higher salaries which are not merit-based? How much better would schools be if that money were used to buy new computers, books, update chemistry and biology labs, buy musical instruments? Why did they become teachers in the first place? Certainly not for the money.
Do football, basketball, baseball, and hockey players need a union? Are they really being held back by being forced to remain on one team until they are no longer useful? Is one million dollars a year, too little? How about four hundred thousand? Like the government, we are the ones paying these salaries. If you are a good player, you should be paid more, if you are a bad player, you should be traded. A basketball player recently described his position in professional sports as akin to slavery. Since when do slaves get paid six and seven figures to do their job? How many of us would love to get paid six figures to play a game we love?
Why are so many American auto manufacturers on the verge of bankruptcy? Perhaps it has something to do with paying workers thirty dollars an hour to wield a wrench or turn a screw? Why are so many of our auto parts being made in plants overseas? Those plants have no unions. Why are foreign auto manufacturers building better automobiles than we? They are paid on merit and they still feel the need to be competitive.
Why is it that one can not find good quality American-made electronics? We invented the transistor, the best televisions, the first personal computer, the telephone, and yet everything we own in the field of electronics is Japanese-made. If I wanted to buy American only, it would be virtually impossible, since most American products are assembled in other countries, along with many of the component parts. Why?
The reason is that they can be made cheaper overseas. Other countries are not held hostage to Unions. Every time a Union goes to the table with demands for more money, higher pensions, or better health care plans, we pay for it in the form of higher prices, while the quality of our goods and services goes down.
Unions, by their very nature, are a socialist concept. The whole idea of unions is to pit management (the bourgeoisie), against the workers (the proletariat). It begins with the assumption that management is an evil force whose sole purpose is the abuse of the worker. Perhaps this was true in the early days of the industrial revolution, but one rarely hears of unions complaining about working conditions any more. The union philosophy is predicated on the notion that everyone should be paid the same regardless of the quality of their work. Who wants to do a better job than someone who is getting paid the same amount for doing the same job poorly? Obviously, the quality of the product will suffer.
Unions now are big, powerful lobbies, whose sole purpose is to keep people who are not in the union from working, while demanding higher pay and benefits for those who are. They keep inadequate workers on the job, but do not reward the better workers. They create unnecessary jobs by dividing the labor of one person into the work of three. The man that turns on the lights, can not pick up the trash. The man that turns the bolts can not also put on a tire. They have driven the prices up on everything, while their management' gets fat on the pensions of the workers.
There should be no unions in government, in the school system, or in professional sports. These people are not being abused by their employers. Bad workers should be fired, good workers should be given merit pay, and everyone should be entitled to work who is able to do the job, without having to join a union. Protectivism doesn't work in world economics and it doesn't work in the job market. Most unions are dinosaurs whose time has come to an end, with the possible exception of coal miners and nuclear power plant workers. It is time that we bid the others adieu and get back to work.
