Comments on: 5 mistakes that can give unions a foothold in your company

By: Rick

Rick — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 17:07:32 +0000

Unions protect the incompetent and keep work standards and achievement low. Actual examples:
Employee sleeping on the job in front of a heat treat furnace could not be fired – Union standard
Employee threatened by the Union for doing more than others, becasue it sets the standard too high.
Employees laid off and notified by a list on the board, because that is how the Union wanted it.
Union tells employees they work for the UAW (not the company)
Changes are stopped by the Union, which ended up with part of the work outsourced to Mexico
Union leaders bring 45 cal pistols to a private meeting with management and put them on the table.
Why do you think GM is now Government Motors? Primarily because of the UAW.

I am not sure what else I can say. The evidence speaks for itself, don’t you think?

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 04:56:44 +0000

It does seem like the 5 reasons listed above are covered by other laws – OSHA, EEOC, etc… I think that unions have outlived their original purpose and are now just making it more difficult for managers to manage according to company need and ability. Companies shouldn’t be forced to raise pay if it will put the company out of business – especially in these economic times. Companies also shouldn’t have to keep underperforming staff just because they are union members – where’s the personal accountability there?

By: Dennis

Dennis — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:55:06 +0000

My personal opinion on Unions. They suck! Unions makes the job for management more difficult. Unions only promote underserving employees because of senority. Promotions in the company should be giving to employees that work hard and not because they are more senior. The union only makes it more difficult to get rid of bad employees without a long drag out process. Unions most definately drives the business costs up for companies.

By: h.a. urbina

h.a. urbina — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:05:56 +0000

I strongly agree with V.T. Hudson on this. I have also worked with Union and Non companies and can echo the sentiment. As of ten years ago I decided to not work wherever there is a union presence.
hau

By: V.T. Hudson

V.T. Hudson — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 02:50:06 +0000

I would have to disagree strongly with Gary. Any business that wants to recruit, hire and retain the top talent in their industry would not want to adhere to the “5″ mistakes, because good employees will leave, because they can and poor employees will stay because they cannot leave. I have worked in both union and non-union enviroments and I can say, unions exist to protect the employees that are not worth keeping. While top performers, individuals that are not absenteeism problems, not productivity problems and great quality are forced to pick up the slack for the other, often times “senior” members that don’t value their job and do the bare minimum to remain employed. Oh, and both members make the same pay scale, sometimes the junior higher performing employee makes less. At the turn of the century, unions definately had a place now, they only serve to drive business costs up and companies overseas.

By: Gary Sanchez

Gary Sanchez — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:08:53 +0000

The practices that you decribe as “5 mistakes” are, unfortunately, the primary practices that most employers want to be able to establish and stick with. That is why unions exist and need to exist. If employers always avoided your “5 mistakes,” there would be very little need for unions.