Unions are not necessary these days

Taken from Monday’s edition of The Jason Rantz Show.

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers is asking a federal agency to set an election so more than 2,400 Boeing production workers in South Carolina can vote on whether to form a union, according to the Associated Press.

Mike Evans with the union described the stakes for the South Carolina workers in a union video.

“It is about wages. It is about hours and it is about working conditions. Those three things are probably all equal in value to the workers here. It’s not just strictly about wages and a lot of it boils right down to just dignity on the job,” said Evans. “They’re adults. They’re going out to make a living. They’re about to provide Boeing the best years of their working lives, help Boeing remain a successful company.

“But at the same time there’s just some things you expect when you get up in the morning and you make that dedication and you display that loyalty, that you expect in return.”

Related: Machinists, Boeing release dueling videos in the face of union vote

Jerry Guerena, a Boeing worker in South Carolina, wants to see the workers there form a union.

“You’re fighting for a better life for yourself, for your family, for your coworkers and you just have to stand up. Boeing keeps preaching, don’t let them take your voice. Who is going to be listened to, one person or a thousand people?” said Guerena.

Even in the union’s own video on the subject, they acknowledged that this is will be an uphill battle.

“The problem in South Carolina is we’re taught from a very young age in South Carolina, in the churches and our schools that unions are evil,” said Joe Shelley, a union representative, in the video. “It’s one of those things that people have this whole concept that unions have destroyed our middle class. What they have forgotten is how the middle class was developed by the unions to work with the unions. Now we’ve got jobs going overseas because of bad trade laws and everything and the only ones we have really fighting to stop that is the union.”

Boeing released a response video on YouTube on the “We are Boeing SC” page. The video points out that the IAM didn’t even want South Carolina workers to get the jobs they have now.

“For years, the IAM had nothing good to say about Boeing South Carolina and our teammates. They said it was a mistake for Boeing to build airplanes here. They called us a proven loser and said our work would only make union machinists look good. They called the beautiful low country where we live a swamp. They even brought legal claims that sought to mothball our facility and shut Boeing South Carolina down. But we have proved them wrong. Together, as one team, we’ve accomplished exactly what the IAM said we couldn’t.”

The worker in the video balks at the union wanting the South Carolina workers to join up.

“Now the IAM has changed its tune. Despite everything they said about us before. Now they say they want to represent us and be our voice. They have filed for an election with the National Labor Relations Board. Are you kidding me? You are about to make a critical decision for you and your family. Do you want to turn over your voice and your rights to a union that will make decisions for you, the same union that just a few years ago tried to shut Boeing South Carolina down or do you want to continue to control your own future.”

Look, I’m not a fan of unions in general because of how they operate. They’ve become businesses that take from the workers, intimidate those who disagree with them, and use their funding to push certain ideologies. And many times, the ideological stances they take is bad for the workers they say they want to help.

The truth is, the union, in the way we know them to be right now, is not necessary. Certainly not to the extent it once was necessary. They’re not fighting for better work conditions in most cases because there are already avenues to take if you’re in a bad situation.

The union fights to give all the power to the worker, power they don’t necessarily deserve. In an ideal world, the power should be near even, where both the company and the employee gets something out of the work. The employer gets the worker to do the job efficiently which leads to the company making money and reinvesting. The employee does the work in reasonable conditions and they are rewarded with a paycheck and advancement.

But what the union wants is to make it uneven, put the power solely in the hands of the employee, and that seems fundamentally wrong to me.

The truth is the employee already has the advantage because they can choose whether or not they want to work for a business. A business can’t force someone to work for them under conditions in which a normal person wouldn’t work. You have to offer something that someone will take and that offer has to keep someone there for a time worth the resources a company spends recruiting the worker. And that’s true of all businesses.

Now it’s true that some companies can choose to just not employ big masses of employees and come up with some technology to do the work without the human need. That’s possible, though it’s not happening on a huge scale just yet at companies like Boeing.

But right now, the employee has more of the power in all of this. Getting the union involved just ends up pitting the worker even more against the business, and that isn’t the best dynamic for good working conditions or a business that will stay in business for the long term.

Taken from Monday’s edition of The Jason Rantz Show.

JS