Unions Fairshare

A rally of the trade union UNISON in Oxford during a strike on March 28, 2006, with members carrying picket signs. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Unions

I took a job that was unionized.  I had the choice to not be in the union, but pay some money towards it.  It is called fairshare.  That term meant that you had to pay for them bargaining on your behalf and making better money, because you go to the boss as a collective.  Now people can not be in a union, but if other people are in the union and paying the dues.  The nonunion person will reap the benefits without doing their fairshare.

It is simply unfairs to frame things as the person is no longer forced to be in a union.  They were never forced.  They did not have to work for that company.  They could have went elsewhere.  The right to work is simply trying to capitalize on people that want to get out of paying dues.  To weaken the unions. 

Good companies may not need unions.  They see the value in a properly compensated workforce.  And I think the auto workers may have hurt their own industry by not allowing the companies to do what they needed.  However, most unions function as agents.  Like the agent for an actor.  Take for example, Bryan Cranston.  Cranston does not negotiate how much he gets paid.  The agent does and that agent gets compensated for it.  That agent is not the one acting.  But he is the one negotiating wages, protecting the actor from bad contracts, and using the power of his reputation and his company to get the best deal for the actor.  The 10 % he pays to the agent results in more than a 10% increase in his compensation.

Movies studios benefit from the agents, but I think they would love for their not to be agents.  For them to go back to paying people what they want.  They would hold the power.  Maybe the Bryan Cranston could get by without an agent, but most could not.

Let see what happens without unions.  Let me rephrase that.  We are going to find out what happens without unions.  Let me rephrase that again.  We know what will happen.  We will go back to the time of the Rockefellers and the Carnegies.