Are Unions Really Good For America? July 26, 2006

Unions Good For America? I don’t think so!!! I learned that lesson early on in life. I learned what unions and “some” union members are all about during my senior year of high school. As a 17-18 year old high school senior, I worked at a unionized Kroger Supermarket as a “courtesy clerk.” Before beginning work I told them that I was only there through the summer to earn money for school in the fall and they were fine with that. There was also talk of a potential strike during the summer. I told them that because of my situation that I would not honor a picket line should the strike occur. I was there for the money I could earn over a short period of time and had no intention of making retail a career. Oddly enough, they “said” they were ok with that too, but I still had to become a union member. I took them at their word and boy was that a mistake! When the strike came, I crossed, I received threats, and I witnessed so called upstanding unionized Kroger employees threaten and intimidate customers and others who dared to cross them and their picket line. Real upstanding people let me tell you! Needless to say, these people (some which I had known since childhood) are no longer in my address book. Later I would learn that this is typical behavior from union members who try to bully their way through life. It didn’t always used to be that way though. In fact, in their early years, unions proved to be very worthy of the common mans support. Somewhere along the way though, something caused the union focus to change. Today, they still claim to be working on behalf of working families but in fact, the truth is that they are working against the values and welfare of working families.

Why am I bringing this up with all the other stuff going on in the world today? Well, I just learned that the union representing supermarket workers (including Safeway employees) in Northern California told those employees that they would face termination if they are caught shopping at non union facilities. This is just one more example of union’s total disregard for their membership, which they stopped truly serving several decades ago. It’s not just the food workers unions either. Take a look at the airline industry. Take a look at Ford and General Motors. Both the airline and automotive industries are full of stories of unreasonable demands that, in the worst cases, have driven many companies to the brink of bankruptcy. In others, those demands not only cost companies unnecessary expenditures, but also raises prices for consumers as much as 100 percent in some instances. Yes unions are bad for business and consumers. But they are bad for the employees too. They lie consistently to their memberships about a variety of issues. They make it impossible to work for some companies in certain industries unless you succumb to their extortion. They steal money from their membership under the guise of “union dues” and then use that money to forward political agendas that the majority of the membership would never support in this lifetime or any other lifetime. Anyone who dares to stand up to the unions is systematically slandered and defamed unmercifully. The old saying that “If you tell a lie often enough and loud enough, eventually it becomes the truth,” really is true. Just ask California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Last fall he tried to take them on in a special election, hoping to change some of their more unscrupulous practices. He failed though after the unions ran a multi-million dollar campaign against him based on fear, lies, and slander. And now the unions are intruding into the personal lives of their membership by threatening them with termination if they are caught shopping at non-union stores. Now, I don’t know about you, but where I come from that’s called extortion. And the last time I checked, extortion was illegal.

In closing, I’m not saying you shouldn’t shop at a unionized store. That is a matter of personal choice that is nobody’s business but yours. But it is important to know precisely what type of organization you are supporting if you choose to do so. While it is true that some union organizations do have some beneficial aspects to them, the negative, intrusive, deceitful aspects far outweigh the positive when looked at with an objective eye. In the end it’s all about choice for the both consumers AND the employees. Any organization deceives its membership & the public and takes choice away from it constituency, whether it be big business, the government, or a union, is an organization that is not to be trusted and one that should be held accountable by all.

Are you......(closed poll)

pro union? 3

anti union? 5

indifferent? 0

(Originally posted 7-26-06 on Yahoo 360)