Shifterknob
The Last Wordslinger
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I think Underestimated said it for all of us. Most of us view the union as what it is: it is not a solution for every problem, nor is it incapable of making mistakes. It is a tool we, the members, use to improve our lives and those of our family members.
Those that seek to tear us down do so from their misguided or perhaps downright evil viewpoints that an unobstructed ability to "reign" over their employees results in a better, more profitable business or more happy employees (or at least less troublesome).
Those non-union workers that ridicule us do so from a perspective of ignorance or perhaps jealousy; unsure how to take employees who do not simply knuckle under to imperious and overbearing management. Most never spent any or much time in a union, and those few who did, often were uninvolved or ignorant. They often come from a simplistic viewpoint thatt management always knows best, and that anyone who stands up for his or her rights or who seeks to improve themselves in a collective fashion are whiners, complainers, lazy or simply socialists in the making.
How do you combat such ignorance? By educating them. By showing example after example of how unionism and collective bargaining, when practiced on a level playing field (Of course, the playing field is not level, and has been tilted towards the side of the employers for a very long time), is not only beneficial to the workers, but often just as beneficial to the employer.
How? Happier workers with better pay and benefits leads to higher employee satisfaction levels, increased customer service satisfaction, and a consequent drop in on-the-job injuries, downtime due to illness, and employee turnover.
We are the union. The union is us. That is our strength, and the one thing every employer who chooses to take us on seems to forget. The saying we live by, "UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE BEG" is simple, logical, and so very, very true.
David and Ed will not be the first to learn a very hard lesson, but we will be happy to teach it to them in a way they will unlikely ever forget...
Those that seek to tear us down do so from their misguided or perhaps downright evil viewpoints that an unobstructed ability to "reign" over their employees results in a better, more profitable business or more happy employees (or at least less troublesome).
Those non-union workers that ridicule us do so from a perspective of ignorance or perhaps jealousy; unsure how to take employees who do not simply knuckle under to imperious and overbearing management. Most never spent any or much time in a union, and those few who did, often were uninvolved or ignorant. They often come from a simplistic viewpoint thatt management always knows best, and that anyone who stands up for his or her rights or who seeks to improve themselves in a collective fashion are whiners, complainers, lazy or simply socialists in the making.
How do you combat such ignorance? By educating them. By showing example after example of how unionism and collective bargaining, when practiced on a level playing field (Of course, the playing field is not level, and has been tilted towards the side of the employers for a very long time), is not only beneficial to the workers, but often just as beneficial to the employer.
How? Happier workers with better pay and benefits leads to higher employee satisfaction levels, increased customer service satisfaction, and a consequent drop in on-the-job injuries, downtime due to illness, and employee turnover.
We are the union. The union is us. That is our strength, and the one thing every employer who chooses to take us on seems to forget. The saying we live by, "UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE BEG" is simple, logical, and so very, very true.
David and Ed will not be the first to learn a very hard lesson, but we will be happy to teach it to them in a way they will unlikely ever forget...