Unions change the management structure of companies.
I've never seen any management structure differences. Management is management. It differs from company to company regardless of whether there is a union or not. Managers tell the workers what to do, and the workers do it. Union or no union.
Employees sometimes are able to input how a company could be better run or how management could do better-union or no union.
Companies hire managers to hire and fire and kept the company running smoothly.
Yeah. Managers main job in any situation should be to know the job at least as well as the median employee and be able to execute decisions that steer the process efficiently and profitably.
As for firing...that shouldn't, and hopefully doesn't have to happen too often. I would put firing pretty low on the list of managerial duties. Any shop, union or non-union, has a workforce that went through possible training and probationary period. After that, the workers should be able to execute all managerial directives reasonably well enough. They should know their jobs and do them reasonably well.
After that, what does a person get fired for? Theft, sure! Assault-sure! An abject, chronic dereliction of duty-sure. Union or non-union!
What else do you want to fire a guy for? Mild tardiness? Hell no! Trying to organize a union?
Unions take that power from the managers and move it to a grievance procedure that involves a vase amount of paperwork, lawyers an time.
Sometimes. Often grievances are settled quite easily on the front lines so to speak. Sometimes they aren't. What if the employee has a legitimate grievance Mike?
The union gives him the power to address this.
A legitimate grievance!
It can require workers giving testimony against other workers and create an unproductive work atmosphere.
This can't happen in a non-union shop? I would say it's more likely frankly.
While this process is taking place the company is at risk of sabotage by disgruntled employees that could put the company out of business.
That's ridiculous. In any case sabotage happens in non-union shops too.
Example, look at the navy, this guy is unhappy at work, starts two fires to be able to go home. One fire alone cost taxpayers over $500,000,000.00. The navy labor rules are a lot like the union rules. Now the question remains, we have not seen these type of work related sabotage in the private shipyards.
You can't expect me to take this seriously do you?
Next, look at food safety, other than the peanut butter recall, almost all recalls from food caused by the processing stage are from union shops.
Hmnn, didn't know that. I don't believe it either. It makes no sense. No sense at all. Most food recalls I see are coming from food that is processed overseas or in Mexico. Chinese baby food and Mexican vegetables.
No of course not, they are the voice and some times the only power that the poor working man has. And many lives were lost in getting the unions the power they have today.
Many more lives are being
lost dismantling all that power the unions once fought for and had. Unions have very little power today. I'm talking private sector unions.
A union is no better than its management. Each union can be different. Just as unions can be good, unions can be bad for the workers too.
Each union is different. I agree that Unions are no better or worse than management. Hostess didn't go down because of the union. It went down due to poor upper level management for years.
Unions just represent the workers. The workers do what management says to do. That includes teachers. Unions are going to try and bargain for the best deal they can get. Rightly so! But nobody puts a gun to anybody's head. It's an agreed upon contract.(and they get crappier and crappier every day!)
There's absolutely nothing in my contract that says I can disobey my management. In fact it says I can be disciplined for it.
I had the head of the largest school district in America asking me to help him with his union problems. He claimed the school district spent half the time in lawsuits filed by the teachers and the other half in lawsuits filed by the parents of students.
Education is a very, very touchy subject. There are alot of problems in this field that have nothing to do with labor, or management. It is a multi-faceted
problem.
I would say that I believe wholeheartedly that teachers unions would never want policies or practices that prevented them from teaching or putting their degrees to good use. It's not in any unions best interest to campaign for policies that would threaten job security. Ever!
Unions most always take an active roll in promoting the work and excelling at it. Almost always. The problems come from bad policy or management.
My research showed me that the Teachers Union was to strong in money, size, political power and law firms to ever fix any of the problems.
Again, fix what problems? The ability to deal with bad teachers? What percentage do you really think that is in the "problem pie graph"?
Russia was what I considered a large labor union.
Does that include the Gulag system?
Many people think unions are about labor management.
Unions are about collectively bringing the employees together to get a better deal.
If this was true then union could buy or start up companies and put all the non-union companies out of business.
I'm sure that was tried somewhere. I'm just guessing. Lot's of union and non-union companies have profit sharing.
In any case if the Union bought up companies and ran them then you would need a new union. The old union wouldn't suffice anymore. It would be beholden to the bottom line.(profit)
And unions aren't run by Business people or entrepreneurs who have that knack. That's why there are business men and women. That's what they do.
But there are no large union owned and operated companies that I know of. Why is that? There are a few employee owned companies, but just a few.
See what I just typed above. That's like asking why there are no Franciscan Monks getting in the porno business. A union is a business. It's business is taking care of employees collectively. That's its business! Car Companies make cars, Unions make a better workplace.
A union is a business. It has presidents and treasurers and budgets and plans and meetings and employees etc etc.
Look at companies that have great management structure and good track records with employees. Companies like Lincoln Electric or Baker Hughes and you will find that workers have the ability to rise to the top of the company by hard work and skills, which is not part of the union system.
It can be. I work with managers who were once Teamsters. Lot's of 'em. Some went way up in the company. Same with GM. Same with Teachers. Same with everything.
There is no Union
System. Workers can have a job at the shop and be happy or they can try their hand at something else. Lot's of people do it.
Companies use to keep the management non-union. The IRS case that is in the news today shows that the government allowed the top management to be part of the union, Lois Lerner is sitting at home drawing a big fat paycheck.
I don't follow any of this stuff. It doesn't interest me. I'm sure she would be collecting a big fat paycheck regardless.
I certainly don't care about unions for high level management or any management for that matter. I care about the working class.
In a way you could say that the IRS is a union run company. And it can operate in this manner because it has no competition and a endless supply of money. So what failed in Russia as a management system is embraced as a management method by our government today.
This is off-track. And I wish it didn't skew your ideas about what unions are for. I'm for the working class.
Myself, I am for union and against unions, all depends on the facts involved.
I think you are. You raise good points. You seem to understand the history of the working class. And you seem to understand the imbalance of wages-whether it is caused by inflation or the value of real dollar wages and their depreciation through time.. I'm glad you see that. That's all I care about.
As far as the fast food unionizing, yes, that is a good idea. Because the government screwed the people on keeping the minimum wage up with inflation. Inflation is good for the government and the rich and bad for the poor working people. One system the people have to balance the governing system is to form unions and strike. But this will have to be done in trades that can not be sent off shore. And let’s hope it is done by a good union that has the workers best interest at heart.
Amen Brother! Amen!