Raw Think Tank
New member
Let me start out by saying that I believe unions have been and still are a necessity in the US.
Now that that's out of the way, I'll go ahead and discuss the problems with unions. The major problem with unions in the US is that they focus on themselves rather than what's actually best for the companies and, by association, the workers they supposedly represent. We'll leave the obvious fact that if the union bankrupts the company then the workers won't have jobs alone for now and concentrate on the actual problem...
Unions have evolved to the point where they consider seniority to be the main, if not only, consideration. Merit seems to matter little or nothing to them. This has lead to serious problems that should be obvious to pretty much everyone. For example, lets say we have a cushy job on the assembly line and you have one worker that can produce 200 units an hour and has been a member of the union for 5 years, and another worker that can produce only 100 units an hour but has been a member of the union for 15 years... Guess who gets the job? Seniority over merit.
This mindset has led to some exasperating problems, not the least of which is the ability of the unions to shift focus when it suits their needs. I'll use teachers as an example because I have had this argument probably more than any other... The unions have somehow shifted the focus on the lack of education in schools to class size. Let me make one thing perfectly clear here... It doesn't matter how few students a bad teacher has, he's still going to be a bad teacher... And for a great teacher class size really isn't an issue. I had an Ancient History class with over 100 students, and the teacher was exceptional and engaging with the material and everyone loved his class and learned a lot.... I also had a Chemistry class with 12 students and a teacher so bad almost none of us could stay awake the entire time.
With that kind of experience behind me, I fail to see how limiting class sizes to 30 students without addressing the ability of the individual teachers to actually teach the material is going to help at all. Instead of throwing a fit because a class has 31 students, we need to focus our attention on whether or not the teacher can actually teach.
Still on teachers, were you aware that the vast majority of teachers in the US leave the profession within the first three years? Why do you think that is? Guess what, I've actually gone out and asked teachers that decided to leave the profession and found the answer. What was their number one complaint? That the way the system was set up prevented them from doing the job in a manner they felt was adequate... ADEQUATE! In plainer language this means that the system set up by the teachers' unions prevented them from teaching their students.
Think about that for a second. If the teachers' unions are un-apologetically preventing teachers from educating our children, what are the other unions doing? Perhaps it's not a coincidence after all that ONLY those auto manufacturers that exclusively utilized UAW workers had to be bailed out by the US government? Perhaps it's not a coincidence that ONLY states with union civil servants are facing extreme budget crises. Perhaps the fact that even the most pro-union president in US history has refused to even consider allowing out military to unionize should clue us in on something.
Yes... Unions ARE an important part of life in the US... But unless the unions dramatically shift their focus their time is running out. Already the UAW has stated that unless Japanese auto manufacturers in the US unionize (fat chance) the UAW will become a defunct organization within 15 years.
Now that that's out of the way, I'll go ahead and discuss the problems with unions. The major problem with unions in the US is that they focus on themselves rather than what's actually best for the companies and, by association, the workers they supposedly represent. We'll leave the obvious fact that if the union bankrupts the company then the workers won't have jobs alone for now and concentrate on the actual problem...
Unions have evolved to the point where they consider seniority to be the main, if not only, consideration. Merit seems to matter little or nothing to them. This has lead to serious problems that should be obvious to pretty much everyone. For example, lets say we have a cushy job on the assembly line and you have one worker that can produce 200 units an hour and has been a member of the union for 5 years, and another worker that can produce only 100 units an hour but has been a member of the union for 15 years... Guess who gets the job? Seniority over merit.
This mindset has led to some exasperating problems, not the least of which is the ability of the unions to shift focus when it suits their needs. I'll use teachers as an example because I have had this argument probably more than any other... The unions have somehow shifted the focus on the lack of education in schools to class size. Let me make one thing perfectly clear here... It doesn't matter how few students a bad teacher has, he's still going to be a bad teacher... And for a great teacher class size really isn't an issue. I had an Ancient History class with over 100 students, and the teacher was exceptional and engaging with the material and everyone loved his class and learned a lot.... I also had a Chemistry class with 12 students and a teacher so bad almost none of us could stay awake the entire time.
With that kind of experience behind me, I fail to see how limiting class sizes to 30 students without addressing the ability of the individual teachers to actually teach the material is going to help at all. Instead of throwing a fit because a class has 31 students, we need to focus our attention on whether or not the teacher can actually teach.
Still on teachers, were you aware that the vast majority of teachers in the US leave the profession within the first three years? Why do you think that is? Guess what, I've actually gone out and asked teachers that decided to leave the profession and found the answer. What was their number one complaint? That the way the system was set up prevented them from doing the job in a manner they felt was adequate... ADEQUATE! In plainer language this means that the system set up by the teachers' unions prevented them from teaching their students.
Think about that for a second. If the teachers' unions are un-apologetically preventing teachers from educating our children, what are the other unions doing? Perhaps it's not a coincidence after all that ONLY those auto manufacturers that exclusively utilized UAW workers had to be bailed out by the US government? Perhaps it's not a coincidence that ONLY states with union civil servants are facing extreme budget crises. Perhaps the fact that even the most pro-union president in US history has refused to even consider allowing out military to unionize should clue us in on something.
Yes... Unions ARE an important part of life in the US... But unless the unions dramatically shift their focus their time is running out. Already the UAW has stated that unless Japanese auto manufacturers in the US unionize (fat chance) the UAW will become a defunct organization within 15 years.