Unions – saving America or Hurting America
Unions – it would seem you either love them or hate them, well that is unless your me. I can’t figure out if Union’s are good or bad. One thing is for sure, they’ve been in the news a bunch lately. From Wisconsin to the NFL, it would seem that Unions are the talk of the town.
Unions were formed because there is strength in numbers. They came about because the worker was being abused and the only way to stop that abuse was to ban together and rise up against the abuser. If you have everybody that works for the “man” stand against the “man” then you, as the “man” have to take notice. Pretty simple concept, of course a simpler concept would have been to not mistreat your fellow human in the first place, but – different column, different day. So Unions were formed, and let’s face it, for the most part Unions are protecting what’s left of our middle class. They ensure that your job will be protected, the ensure that you can’t be signaled out and best of all they guarantee a livable wage. So how can it be all bad?
Let’s start with the NFL and the players union or as I like to call it millionaires fighting with billionaires. So right out of the gate we have a hard time feeling bad for anyone in this situation. Well, let’s peel back a few layers of the onion. They have effectively canceled the NFL season at this point. So the billionaires will sit on their yachts and the millionaires will… well, sit on their yachts. But what about the thousands employed at the stadiums? Where’s there union to protect them? What! They don’t have a union! They’re effectively are left sitting on their hands hoping that some agreement can be reached. So there you have it, Unions stink! The only protect the people that know their secret hand shake, and forsake those that don’t.
et’s stay in the sports arena for a moment and turn the clock back to the 50’s and 60’s. That would be the owner’s age. When the owners ruled the roost and you as a player were lucky to be able to play professional sports. But back then; while owners were the wealthiest folks in the kingdom, their front line players were traded like meat, payed salaries that got them through the season (as long as they weren’t hurt). Let’s face it, unions moved in and gave the players a say, they protected the mistreated and gave them a strong voice against their “oppressor”. Unions don’t stink – they’re the best thing ever!
So it would seem that Unions protect the common man against the not so common man. But I’ll say it again, if people would just be decent to one another, there probably wouldn’t be a need for unions at all. But alas, people are not decent, they’re not fair, they take as much as they can without giving anything back. This is precisely where Reganomics failed! President Reagan development trickle down economics – give the wealthy tax breaks and incentives and they will in turn create better paying jobs and give back to the worker. One thing Ronny forgot about, greed! Greed took over and it failed. It was a brilliant concept, but it relied on people to execute it – and that’s where it fails.
Again, when it comes to unions I’m sitting on the fence. I see the need, but when the unions get control they begin to develop that swagger that says you can’t touch me. Obviously I’m not talking about all Unions, not all unions operate that way, but the ones that do… well let’s just say it only takes one bad apple. But how many bad apples hide behind the shield of American Capitalism? Plenty – and they continue to do so and will continue to so. So until folks realize they’re dealing with folks then there will always be a need for unions. So I sit here fence sitting, It all boils down to something Martin Luther King, Jr. said – “we must all learn to live together as brothers, or we will perish as fools”. What the Hell is up with that?
