1. You Have the required skills to perform repetitive tasks in a particular field of work. Do you:
a. Sit around doing nothing, because that is what you are trained to do?
b. Sit around doing nothing because your union determined it is “the principle of the matter,” to let your union bust a for-profit company into oblivion.
c. Sit around doing nothing because you can. Because the safety net has been spread so wide you don’t need to?
d. Find a position in a firm which needs your skills, where you are paid based on your abilities.
2. You have had a well paying job for many years, and the company has treated you and your dependents decently, but the company you work for is experiencing financial difficulty due to rising costs and competition. Do You:
a. Ask for a raise.
b. Form a union to ensure job security, and walk out in the middle of the company’s crisis.
c. Start stealing office supplies.
d. work with management to find solutions, some of them being a belt tightening of your own
3. Your relative or friend wants a Job that is available in the facility you are at. He/She is a competent and skilled laborer, yet does not wish to support the political action donations it “seems” will need to be made for acceptance in the union, and subsequent employment. They also imply they “dislike” union requirement as a prerequisite for the employment. You are a steward, have seniority, and are an active in the union, with “connections” and could get them the position. Do You:
a. Tell your relative or friend they cannot join unless they pay for the political activities of the union, even if they do not support them?
b. Tell your relative or friend they shouldn’t plan on steak dinners for a while.
c. Lie to your relative or friend, to avoid “issues” and say the job opening has been filled.
d. Pull whatever strings you must to help your relative or friend find the employment they desire.
4. A manufacturing firm arrives in town proposing the re-opening of a closed plant, creating 300-400 jobs. Unemployment is high, and the local economy could use the boost. The firm however, insists they cannot afford to pay “union scale” as it was, and would oppose formation of a union, but will try to offer decent benefits packages to make the positions more attractive. Do you as townsfolk:
a. Tell them scab loving SOBs to hit the road. Union or else no way.
b. Appeal to their sense of social conscience, and insist they pay wages they cannot afford.
c. Have someone burn the proposed factory down so they can’t put them damn scab jobs in our town!
d. Welcome the opportunity for employment, and encourage with whatever means possible the speedy development of the project.
If you answered anything but “d.” on any of these questions, you are probably one of those who support this strike. which is essentially a suicide pact for workers who apparently “for the principle of it” decide to end a business which has provided for them over the years. Sadly there will be many who have paid their dues, and now will pay again as the company which has been struggling with higher fuel and equipment costs, ceases to exist.
Union requirements for employment prevent those who wish to be gainfully employed, from becoming so. Arguably, the union requirements in states such as Michigan gives the Unions better “bargaining power” for it’s members, yet the power is always concentrated in the hands of a few in union leadership. Those in leadership SELDOM lose their jobs as the result of their innate misunderstanding of economics, so why should they do anything but mislead their members?
OPEN employment for those who wish to work should be a given. Michigan MUST become a “right to work” state if it is going to be able to compete with the rest of the developing world. Michigan employers need to be able to select based on ability, and employees should not have to support an institution they disagree with in order to secure employment.
Our governor will not sign right to work legislation however. The unions are so deep in her pockets, that the story of Michigan has become X rated. Sadly we must wait until (hopefully, if Michiganders have learned their lesson) next term, with the election of a principled conservative governor, before the possibility can become reality.