The Columbian just hates unions, period. Always has.
Not sure why it’s okay for business interests to aggressively pursue what they want, but not unions who represent mostly regular folks. Just because some regular folks’ job is teaching your kids, clearing your streets or making sure your drinking water is not fouled doesn’t mean they deserve special enmity. And it wasn’t the WEA or AFSCME that caused this economy from hell, it was the smarty-pants neo-liberal bidness guys and gals who fight tooth and nail against most regulations. And The Columbian is calling unions greedy? Talk about chutzpah.
If you follow The Columbian’s logic, contracts don’t actually count if one of the parties is workers who collectively bargain. It continues the newspaper’s long running attack on unions. In the end, essentially, they’re saying unions have no right to exist and are somehow illegitimate. Of course unions aren’t perfect, and one would imagine there will be a great deal of discussion in Olympia about what to do.
But it’s unwarranted and counter-productive for newspaper editorial boards to issue such virulent attacks against unions, and frankly makes the newspaper look silly. But since sacrifice is the order of the day, maybe legislators should start here. It’s time greedy newspaper owners start pulling their weight.
Why do government employees need unions?
Is the government really that bad of an employer?
Attacks on unions are usually made by wealthy business owners who get obscene amounts of money for doing very little work and who’s jobs are mostly free from being held accountable for their incompetence.
Ironically, they complain that unions shouldn’t exist because (they assert) union members are overpaid, don’t work hard enough, and can’t be fired unless they really screw up.
In other words, the business owner’s biggest complaint is that the union members have the same detriments that those same business owners have, yet at a much lower hourly rate.
Then, of course, you have the “me-too” union haters, who are jealous because they couldn’t get into the unions. They believe it’s because you have to “know someone” to get in. It’s more likely that they couldn’t pass the mustard to get in, and are trying to blame someone else for their deficiencies. Adolf Hitler couldn’t get into art school either, and he blamed the Jews for keeping him out. His lack of talent as an artist (he could draw buildings, but not people) wasn’t something he would ever acknowledge.
In the case of Metro, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 587 came with the company when Metro took over Seattle Transit and Metropolitan Transit Co. They have taken some criticism on blogs for the problems Metro has been having in this storm, when the Drivers are probably worse off, but earning every penny of their pay trying to drive a bus that is overloaded and tires bursting at their seems.
THe ATU has some locals that really give unions a good name. In the case of the local that represents Greyhound Canada Drivers, they were more proactive than management on security in th wake of the stabbing and beheading of a passenger on a Greyhound Bus in Manitoba. Searching carry-ons, on their own initiative, and demanding the company increase security. Greyhound Canada did not put carry-on restrictions into place until this month. The fatal attack happened in August.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manit.....ml?ref=rss
By the way, I’ve never been a member of a union myself. In my various positions, I’ve worked with both union people and non-union workers. On the average, I can’t say that I’ve seen any difference in their work ethic, whether union or non-union. The biggest difference between them is pay and job security against arbitrary layoff or firing.
The union workers get paid more, and know that in any layoffs the newer, less experienced workers will be the first to go. The non-union workers make less money, and suspect that in any layoffs, the older, higher-paid workers will be the first to go. In union shops you might see a lot of gray hair, but in non-union shops you often can’t find a gray hair among the workers. This leaves older workers in serious difficulty – age 55 or up, too young to retire but too old to easily find a new job or start a new career.
And without the investment to start the business.
And without the hassles of being a business owner and complying with all the laws/regulations.
And without the balls to be an owner instead of a worker.
When things go bad, do the workers face bankruptcy?
Do the union workers take out loans to start the business?
And being paid for every minute they work.
The employees with less value to the company will be the first to go. How tough is it to replace a dishwasher compared to a head chef? A doctor compared to the receptionist?
Doesn’t this prove how little value they have to offer an employer?
Marvin @ 5: Your questions assume that the business owner works hard, earned or borrowed his initial investment, and face personal bankruptcy if the business fails.
While this might be true of many small and medium-sized businesses, it is rarely true of businesses which are unionized. In the latter cases the business is usually a larger and mature business, and the owner/management usually inherits the business or is a hired manager who has no personal investment, other than what is given him in stock options in order to “motivate” him.
Marvin @ 6: Your questions assume that the owner/managers will make layoff decisions based upon the long-term interests of the company.
Unfortunately, history over the past couple of decades have shown this is usually not the case. Managers of large (unionized) firms have been managing for the next quarter’s earnings statements, in part because of the impact it has on their own bonuses and stock options. The long-term benefit of retainer older, better trained, and also better-paid employees in the long term is subordinated to the temporary boost in quarterly earnings if those higher-paid workers are laid off and younger, less experienced workers are told to peform their tasks (as well as their own). This works for a little while, but over time problems arise due to the lack of experienced workers who could foresee and forestall those problems – but the manager is rarely around to feel the impact, having moved on to another position (in that company, or another one).
Workers now know that their value to the company has littel relationship to whether they will be retained in a layoff. The mangers believe that they are easily interchangeable with unskilled labor. The fact that this is an erronious assumption hasn’t changed their belief, and as a result owner/managers make a lot of stupid decisions.
In smaller companies, where the owner/managers know how to do the work themselves, and know the workers individually, and plan to keep the company ownership in their family for generations, the motivations are different, as are the management styles. They still may make mistakes, but it’s not because of indifference or false motivation.
DeVore,
Empty, knee-jerk rhetoric…
While the gov’s office, via the Office of Financial Management, negotiates collective bargaining agreements for state employees represented by unions, the deal isn’t done until the legislature funds them.
The gov has both a legal and ethical duty to put taxpayer and citizen interests ahead of unions when she submits her budget proposal. By not including funding for wage increases, she’s actually doing that.
In some cases, those increases go as high as 21.4 percent (in one bargaining unit at Washington State Ferries), and in tough economic times such as these, how do you rationalize wage/benefit increases for the 189 WSF bargaining unit employees who already make in excess of $100 thousand per year?
For the Washington Federation of State Employees to allege bargaining in bad faith and demanding their members skate through the budget while others suffer is grasping and greedy.
The public, who regard public sector unions with suspicion anyway, now have additional data to sustain those suspicions.
Whoever gives PR advice to WFSE is an idiot – this is the most moronic stunt in a long time in a state that has a history of monumental moronic stunts. Go figure!
State workers have it pretty good. Instead of picking the public’s pockets, they ought to count their blessings.
The Piper
A Vancouver friend informs me that Scott Campbell, the owner of the Columbian newspaper made a serious error in judgement. Scott had a new building built for the paper’s headquarters in downtown Vancouver. Part of the building was to be used for the paper and part leased out. Well the market turned sour and things went down hill, or to hell. Now the paper is moving back into the old location and leaving their spanking new building. Interesting thing has happened though. The city of Vancouver is looking at buying the building and using it to consolidate some of their offices. Apparently some feel this is more of a bailout for Scott Campbell then anything else. So the guy makes a bad decision and now the government is going to bail him out. Where have we heard that recently?
@10: Looks like the Columbian and it’s union hating business/fish wrapper is going down the tubes – so (NOT) sorry to see you go. Don’t ask for a bailout and don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
Yup, the hypocrite is only against bailouts for OTHER people.
When right wing idiots who got their ass kicked Nov 4 spew their opinion on things like unions, and the Governor’s duties, remember this. The right wing idiots sent that piece of shit Dino Rossi into battle against our Governor and Dino Rossi, like almost every other foolish republican in America was R E J E C T E D!
The good people of Washington are educated, intelligent and patriotic. They denied the attempt by the right wing fools to place an idiot like Rossi in office. They instead said, “We approve of the Democrat!”
So it doesn’t matter one tiny bit what the right thinks about the Governor’s handling of the unions. They had their chance and their say and Washington yawned. Democrats WON! Democrats WON! Democrats WON!
The GOP is defeated, worthless and irrelevant. And so are the bent over in the ass and fucked punks on the right who bother to come in here so they can be reminded about the simple fact that they got beaten like a drum!