--- Dennis Tester <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I remember as a 16-year old bag boy at Del Farm
> Foods on Selby and Western a hundred years ago, how
> the union rep would have to chase me around the
> store to get me to pay my monthly union dues so I
> could benefit from my $3.25/hr, 20 hour/week
> miserable job.
>
> Let me ask a naive question, as someone who has
> resisted mandatory collectivism since I was a young
> teen: If the union deal is such a good one, how can
> Wal-Mart or Target succeed in hiring anybody?
I'll take this one. Like you at 16, many employees
today have lapsed on the benefits of organized
labor.(I worked at a Home Improvement store for
3.35/hr at 16 in Chicago and not only paid my
Teamsters dues, but attended meetings as well).
Without unions, you could have been working a lot more
hours for 1.25/hr and replaced at will. Or, the store
owner could have hired someone else who negotiated to
work 35 hours for 2.95/hr.
The store was in business to make money, fairness in
pay is not exactly high on the cost benefit analysis.
Unions are there to ensure fairness. There is strength
in numbers, an individual cannot protect themselves
like a group can. Especially one who is only 16. SO
you pay your dues and in turn you belong to an
organization that because of the size (and like job
skills among its members) can leverage itself against
your employer much better than you. You made at least
3.25/hr (1982) and they couldn't take it any lower.
That's one.
Eric Mitchell
Payne-Phalen
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