From negotiations for better working conditions, day care for single parents, paid sick time for family members, paid vacations, workman’s compensation, safety regulations to keep workers safe on the job, fair hiring and firing practices, fair promotions, fair performance evaluations, and a lot more, unions have brought a lot to the table for American workers.
And, quite honestly, that’s why employers and Republicans, hate them with a passion.
Why is that?
Because all of that takes money out of their pockets. It’s true. It does. Now they do not have pay full freight on this stuff because the workers also pitch in out of their contributions from deductions of various kinds. But it is much more efficient and effective if bargained for on scale by the employER instead of the employEE. It’s sort of a wholesale thing if you want to look at it that why or maybe buying at Costco or BJ’s.
If, for example, let’s say a daycare has room for 5 babies 6 weeks to walking, 10 toddlers walking to 2.5 years old, and10 pre-k 2.5 years old to 5 years old. They are inspected and accredited by all relevant agencies. They are open for parents to drop off children from 6:00 am. Parents must pick-up children by 6:00 pm. This fits the working shift for 7a-3p workers very well.
But the employer must ALSO find a daycare to suit the needs of workers who have children who require AFTER SCHOOL supervision for those workers who work 9-5:30. Those children get out of school at 3:00 and parents will often not be available to pick them up until 6:30 or later.
There are also the parents of small children who need care on the 2nd and 3rd shifts. Reliable family and/or neighbors are not always available. These parents need reliable, SAFE places for their children to be while they are at work. They also need to know that these places are able to care for a sick child if necessary. Single parents with a sick child could lose their jobs if they spend too much time looking after a chronically sick child, but if they have a place to “park” them, they can work and just check on them.
Elder care works pretty much the same way. This is a growing concern as the population ages and unions can address this issue in a meaningful way. Can employers help employees find a cost-effective way to get day/night care for elderly relatives who are unable to feed/care for themselves and maybe make necessary appointments? Ability focused enrichment activities that keep their minds and bodies active and engaged are important as well.
These are but two of the issues that unions can address to help workers improve their lives. But they are what employers and business owners generally view as “unnecessary expenses” on their balance sheets. Anything that takes what they see as “profits” away from the bottom line and, therefore out of what the Board of Directors will look at when determining their bonuses at the end of the year, is always considered “unnecessary”. It’s a matter of point of view and what your goals are.
The goal of the employer/business owners is to put as much profit into the pockets of the owner/stockholders as possible at the end of every year. That’s it. Taking care of employees is simply not a part of it no matter how much they mouth platitudes of “we treat our employees like family”. When you hear that, any business school will tell you that it is pure fabrication.
The goal of employees or an employee union is to PROTECT the interests of the employees. Now you can do this on your own which does not work very well (trust me, I know, because I’ve done it many years ago), a group of employees (generally speaking also does not go well either because they’ll just get fired as a group in a State like Georgia with right to work laws), or as a union and THAT’S when it gets interesting because there are laws about negotiating with unions (just ask Jeff Bezos about what happens when you try to “union bust”-he wasn’t very happy).
A little of MY history here for background: I grew up in a Delta Air Lines family. Delta is notoriously anti-union. For years, at least to my knowledge, the only unions there are the pilots and flight attendants. That’s in spite of having acquired other airlines that were heavily unionized. They’ve been able to do it by doing some things that other airlines weren’t willing to do. #1. Pay line workers extremely well. #2 Give rank and file employees benefits that union employees had at other airlines. #3 Under-compensate their C-suite people. And this remained pretty much true up until the 1980s. Things began to change after that. My grandfather, whom I adored, was a railroad man and he was pro-union. I got it from both directions. Paw Paw came along when unions were first getting going and you better believe he was strong on the benefits of belonging to a union (and the Democratic Party for that matter.)
The “granddaddy” of the union world is the AFL-CIO which has many unions under its umbrella. Carpenters, electricians, plumbers, screenwriters, actors, nurses, janitors, housekeepers, farmworkers, doctors, and many more. It might be easier to list the occupations that are NOT under their protections. But it is mostly in the Northern and Western states. The Southern states are strangled by the doctrine that is misnamed “Right to Work”.
Right to Work really means this: an employer has the right to work anybody for any reason for as long as they want and then FIRE them for no given reason at any time.
Right to Work DOES NOT MEAN that any employee has the right to any job at any time nor does it mean that an employee deserves a notice before being terminated or a reason for being terminated.
Of course, the employer will expect employees to give THEM a two week notice prior to leaving which is something that I find highly objectionable given the Right to Work law. But that’s me. You do you.
In the past few years, unions have started to come back and I’m glad to see it. I’m tired of seeing corporate greed running over line workers. Maybe it’s the way I was brought up in the church to believe that whatever you had, the Good Lord gave to you to share with those who didn’t have the same blessings (and, as my father would point out, the Scriptures didn’t leave room for exceptions because you didn’t like something), maybe it is my Scottish genes that make me fiercely independent and unwilling to accept the dictates of “masters”, or maybe it’s the education I’ve been fortunate enough to acquire, but elitism just drives me crazy. I hope people can do well. But while they do it, they should be helping other people who are not able to do as well. Accumulation of things just to be doing it is just greed. I can’t stand that.
In case anyone is interested, IMO Taylor Swift is a smart young woman with a kind heart who does much for others. She doesn’t need Travis Kelce in her life. For his part, he’s done well for himself and has the kind of money that he doesn’t need Taylor Swift. That those two people are obviously in love in wonderful. This isn’t about money, football, or lust. Leave them be. Maybe it will work out, maybe it won’t. Media needs to get its cameras back and let them figure life out.
And MAGAdonians-I don’t give a rip about who wins the Super Bowl ordinarily, but this year, I have to cheer for the Chiefs just because of YOU.
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P.O. Box 3816, LaGrange, GA 30241 http://www.wright4georgia.com ellen@wright4georiga.com
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