Past Its Prime?

Hi Everyone:

Today's topic is definitely a "hot button" issue. A long, long time ago, during the beginning of the 20th century, business owners did whatever they wanted to their employees to be able to maximize profits. Employers locked their employees in rooms even without proper ventilation and restrooms. That worked until sometime after the 1911 New York City Triangle Shirt Company fire where every single sweatshop employee either jumped to their deaths or were burned alive. Employees were unable to escape because the doors were locked from outside of the room where they worked. There were also no fire escapes. Employers also worked their employees long hours without breaks and paid the employees as little as they could. That is just a few items of a very long laundry list on how employers abused their employees.

Employees began to take notice and became mad as hell and they weren't going to take it anymore. Rightfully so, employees organized themselves and voila, unions were born. Employers had nobody to blame except themselves. Being a member of a union, meant being guaranteed protected workers rights, fair wages, hours worked, overtime and a pension etc. Then later, a benefit package was negotiated and added to the contract that included medical, dental and life insurance etc. Again, since the employees were so mad at the employers that all of the above rights and benefits were and still are be paid solely by the employers.

As the decades rolled on by, the costs of the benefit packages, including retirement plans, were crippling huge companies; think GM etc. It is not just manufacturing companies, now police, fire and teachers benefit plans are killing taxpayers due to the exorbitant costs. In New York State Teacher contracts also give them tenure after only 3 years. After a teacher receives tenure, it is very hard to fire a teacher. I have read articles where teachers are placed in rooms where they sit all day and do not teach, while their case lingers on to a conclusion, sometimes it takes years to resolve the case. Who wants bad teachers in their schools? It shouldn't take so long to terminate a poor performing teacher.

Now another contract that I am well versed in is the union contract that protects hotel employees in New York City. With this contract if an employee is fired for theft, the hotel must cough up a 3 - 4 week severance pay. For an employee who stole? Outrageous!!! But wait; the union receives 1 day for each week of the severance. Why should the union benefit for an employee who stole? Additionally, if an employee is called in to work, on their day off, they are given a 1 1/2 hour travel time that when added to the hours worked on their day off becomes overtime. Who gets paid travel time to get to work?

The point that I am trying to make is that union contracts were once a necessity and not so much now since their is a federal law that covers almost every item in a contract. Employees can sue under NLRB, EEOC, Title VII, Human Rights and for whatever other reason they see fit. If their charges are found to be true, employees win their case and are paid. It is unreasonable to think that unions will just go away. Instead, it seems to me a lot of common sense is urgently and desperately needed to renegotiate all of the above contracts and more. For a start, new contracts have to include having all union employees pay their "fair" share of all benefit programs just like all non-union employees (who have benefit plans available) do right now. This must include medical, dental, life insurance and pension plans etc. Second, perks like severance for stealing and travel time, etc., etc. must be eliminated from contracts.

Common sense must prevail in all future union contract negotiations because taxpayers and companies can no longer afford them.

Til next week.