Recent Comments:
Tibetan Mastiff Sells For Around $600,000 {Luxist}
Sep 11th 2009 3:03AM He's not that shaggy!
Best Buy's Geek Squad service unit to unionize? {BloggingStocks}
Sep 11th 2009 2:47AM "Thedude" is a nitwit. His style is exaggeration, generalization from one anecdote which is rarely true. The facts of unionization today can be learned, by anyone who is seriously interested, by going to www.nlrb.gov to ALJ decisions, and then read a few of the unfair labor practices cases cases. On the whole, neither the workers who try to form unions and the employers who try to keep them out are totally ignorant of labor law (which is voluminous and complex), and lose cases that they could win if they knew what they were doing. Both sides tend to lie when testifying, and the judge in making his decision either credits or rejects testimony. The workers lie from fear and ignorance. The employers show up with expensive lawyers, many of whom are crooks. A good and honest lawyer can look at the facts and predict with precision how a case will turn out. In most instances, parties would not lose cases if they listened to an honest lawyer. They would settle immediately and take their chances with election or arbitration. But where's the money in that? Lawyers live on long drawn-out cases, not quick settlements. Before any case goes to trial, staff of the NLRB will try to get a settlement. In most cases they come up with one that both parties can live with in a few fours, with no lawyers unless a party wants one. (The NLRB staff are paid salaries and not fees. Trials do not make them rich.)
Of course many employers will go out of business to avoid bargaining with a union. They hire a "consultant" who knows all the tricks and is usually only interested in inflating his fees. The law says that if workers want a union, the employer has to argain with them. It is often possible for a compqny to build a productive relations with the union -- its a matter of give and take. If the employer wants to sweat the workers and rid himself of the non-performers, it is easy to it clear in the initial contract. No one likes freeloaders less than their fellows. What most workers want is a good job in a sound sustainable company. They will fight hard for good pqy, but few are idiots -- show them the books if the company is in trouble, and they will what they can to help the company survives -- unless they have been turned into irrational enemies by company tricks and chiseling. If you want top workers you have to pay top waes. If you don't. the good ones will move on leqaving the layabouts behind. Look at the MBA course outlines at MIT.edu and see what effective universities teach their son to be rich and succesful (and overpaid) managers. Its great if you can build a workforce of intelligent, hardworking, cooperative workers without a union. I believe you can if you establish a fair and cooperative workforce from the beginning. The secret is to hire good people with good training, adapt the company to the people you have, and pay them as well as you can while maintaining growing profitability. Many the most profitable companies provide conditions and wages that the old-fashioned anti-union business can't touch. My favorite is Intel -- non unjo (in te U.S. anyway) with a 40 year-record of rapid growth. Technologically, it is so good that it has a monopoly of microprocessors. It requires its workers to work hard and successfuly. It is not a friendly, touchy-feely place but is out on the frontiers fighting to stay ahead of its few small competitors (with whom it has patent pools). They take what they want and leave stuff like memory (which they invented) to the others who often lose money. Every Intel employee receive stock options (not worth much recently) but they understqnd that they hwve q shqre in the company that depends (like salaries) on their performance. Unions face a hopeless task trying to organize Intel. There are many other examples, but low wage companies that do not innovate, that are swampe by Chinese and Indian firms cqn't last anyway. We are building a huge underclass of uneducated and unskilled workers (many of them illegql immigrants). They hew wood and draw water and barely survive. No one knows what to do with them except to lowier the real wage until their employers can compete with Chinese and Indian and Korean workers. Until then, they work as janitors, food service employees, and non-union construction (which in many cities is conducted in Spanish). Our skilled and trained workers cannot compete with Germany, Korea, India, and China (whicj graduqates ten time as many engineers each year as we do. Don't blame it on unions. Almost all Japanese and German manufacturing workers are unionized. Only 7% of American workers are unionized (many of which are in the public sector where half the workers are in unions.)
