It sounds as if many think that union membership exempts you from normal business practices. If a plant making rivets has union employees, and that plant loses a maijor account there is going to be need for lay-offs. Union or not. But heres the difference. When its time to sit down and discuss how the lay offs will happen, when you have a union you are involved in the process and your interest is being looked after.
Now a lay-off is a lay-off, but when your union is involved they can work with the company to come up with different and better options. Example the union may negotiate a deal where instead of laying off they get the company to offer an enhanced retirment package and maybe get a few of the more senior people go off payroll and save a few jobs for the less senior people. And maybe they go in and negotiate a deal where the people who will be laid off can hold on to their benefits longer, and maybe even work out a way for them to recieve training and education to help them get a new job These are things you most likely wont get without someone there to represent you. You will likely get the treatment we got when the msp came about. What did everyone get, 1 weeks notice. Werent people asking them before hand were they going to do this, and they didnt tell them. This is how people are treated when they have no one, or no process, that looks out for their interest. It seems as if this industry embraces the process of back-room dealings and things like that. It seems that many of us have no problem with companies having the oppurtunity to do things with our interest considered, but diecide not to. If thats the case, you probably shouldnt look to join. And I ,for one, am ok with that, its your choice.
My point is that union membership does not give exemptions from things that cant be helped. But it does give you a chance to make sure your interest are considered during the roughest of times. So if they are considedred during the rough times, you can be pretty sure that when times are good your interest will be looked after also. You probably wont have a situation where your industry is steadily growing, but your paycheck is constantly shrinking. Sound familiar?
Re: Feelings on Union
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