I know this is anecdotal, at best, but I think that it is a pretty good example of the reality of some unions (as I have heard similar stories about other unions).
Shortly after I left the company I started as a web developer (and the same company where I spent 14 years as a paramedic) the employees voted in a union. At the time, the employees biggest 'gripe' was that they had to pay too much for health insurance. When I left, full time employees paid about $150 per month for family coverage (no that is not a typo....$150 per month for family coverage) but employees with 10+ years at the company paid $0. And I must say, the plan we had was pretty damn good - and I say this after having 2 children and one of them with special needs - we paid very little out of pocket. Well, in comes the union with promises of better benefits, blah, blah, blah...and after the first negotiation with the union, the healthcare costs were lowered a bit, but (you had to know there was a 'but' coming) the plan was not nearly as comprehensive. The average family would wind up paying more per year for all their healthcare needs, but, as promised, the union got them lower monthly premiums. However, when you factor in the union dues, the employees wound up paying more per month for an inferior healthcare plan. I am still close to a few managers and a few employees and from what I have been told by both groups, the union has not done much else - who knows..maybe that is a good thing. One close friend of mine was one of the employees spearheading the campaign to get vote the union in and after about 2 years he told me he regrets that decision. On Wed, Mar 2, 2011 at 5:00 PM, Judah McAuley <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Wed, Mar 2, 2011 at 1:33 PM, Gruss Gott <[email protected]> wrote: >> I agree with union proponents that unions guaranteed the middle class a >> living wage and that had positive effects for all of us but, like any >> institution, they grew out of all proportion with what they actually did. >> >> Outcome-wise, unions pretty much miss the mark these days. >> >> We need a new mechanism to bring equality back to wage distribution, but it >> ain't gonna be unions so we should just let them die so we can get on with >> it. > > I'm more interested in the outcome than the mechanism. I don't think > that there is anything magical about Unions but at the same time, I > still think they serve a purpose and I am loathe to get rid of them > until we have something better in place. If we can come up with a > better mechanism to bring back equality to wage distribution and > ensure a relative fairness of power between workers and corporations > (and workers and government in the public sector) then that's great. > I'm just not willing to toss out something, admittedly imperfect, that > has had some success until such time as we do come up with something > better. > > Judah > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:334837 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
