Unions - Competitiveness and Intimidation Tactics

History:  Have always looked upon unions both positively and negatively.  From the perspective of the late 1800's, and early 1900's, unions were one of the best things that ever happened to this country.  In those days, people worked extremely long hours, under atrocious working conditions, and for pitiful wages.  Unions formed, and helped fix a lot of these problems for many people in this country.

Greed:  However, as time went on, human nature being what it is, unions got greedy, and struck/bargained their way into better and better wage/benefit packages - packages that the companies/industries they worked for could often not afford.  In so doing, they often wrecked those companies/industries by making them uncompetitive.  Companies - and whole industries, went out of business due to the excessive demands of unions, and the people who the unions were supposed to be representing the best interests of, ended up losing their jobs.  NOTE:  Recently heard on the news that Hostess bakeries is going out of business - a perfect example of the above.

Marginal Employees:  The practice of unions protecting and preserving the jobs of marginal employees is a disservice to not just the entire business (through decreased production) but puts added pressure on coworkers who try and cover for the underperforming employees.  In particular, unions protecting marginal teachers is an extreme disservice to our children and one of the main reasons why this country is falling behind other countries in education.

Intimidation Tactics:  While intimidation tactics (some call this "union thuggery") may sometimes help to achieve short-term union goals, they are borderline illegal (at best), and often serve to engender negative sentiments from what would have otherwise been potentially sympathetic third parties.  Images of union employees involved in inappropriate activities are not conducive to the garnering of public support.

Comments: 

     1.  Unionization in general is fine, but union members, and specifically union management, needs to keep in mind that excessive demands, that make the companies/industries that their union members work for uncompetitive, is totally counterproductive - i.e., not in the best interests of,  the union members that they are representing.  Simply put, market place forces of supply and demand - factors which determine whether business are going to be competitive both domestically and internationally,  should be the key factors in the determination of wages and benefits. 

     2.  Kneejerk support by Democrats of unreasonable union demands is NOT in the best long term interests of anyone.

     3.  With all of the labor laws currently on the books relating to employee safety, working conditions and hiring/firing practices, it leads one to wonder whether we really need unions at all these days.

     4.  If you'd like to read my article on "Right to Work States vs Forced Unionization States", at "onemanandhisview"