Saturday, November 24, 2012

A Union Story With A Happy Ending

By, Chris Rossini
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Unions are getting some play in the news lately. There's the sad Hostess story, as well as the Robert Reich's of the world pounding the table for Wal-Mart to unionize.

I figured now would be a good time to share my only (thank goodness) experience that involved a union.

Years ago, I worked for a private company in the automotive industry. It was extremely well run and a leader in the areas that we served. It employed about 300 individuals, and it was well known this was a great company to work for.

One day, a union thought they saw an opportunity and started soliciting the employees. The following is what astonished me (at the time) since it was my first direct experience to see how unions operate. They had flyers, pamphlets, etc...and it was pure and unadulterated propaganda.

They were telling the employees that management was nothing but a bunch of pigs, only looking to exploit them.

Karl Marx would have been proud.

Like I explained above, the propaganda didn't match the reality of the situation. Many of the 300 employees were with the company for 20+ years. And when an acquisition was made, often times the acquired employees would stay on as well. In other words, they didn't just take the money and run. They knew that they were being acquired by the best.

So to see the union barge in with its propaganda was definitely an eye-opening experience.

The employees did vote on whether or not to unionize, and the union was sent packing.

The propaganda failed.

Long story short, the company kept growing ever more prosperous afterwards, and was eventually acquired by another firm.


3 comments:

  1. You always see them advocating for the unionization of corporations that actually do benefit people, such as Walmart, but never advocating for corporations like JPMorgan or Goldman Sachs to do that. For obvious reasons...

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  2. Sorry but I and a relative of mine have worked for several small companies. Each of them were VERY exploitative! They overworked everyone while they sat and got rich. Worse, they had less of a clue of how to run things than my relative did. Does this mean everyone should unionize? Can't say because unions always seem to destroy employees. I've come to think there really is no solution.

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    Replies
    1. The solution is to quit and find another job.

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