If you figure unions have had their days and come and gone, well, think again. Every single day you work, you're going to experience at least two benefits (and probably more) that you got thanks to a union.
If you like getting a half-hour for lunch every day, thank a union.
If you're glad your employer can't make you work 10 to 16 hour days, 6 days a week, thank a union.
If you like getting time-and-a-half when you do have to work overtime, thank a union.
If you're under 16 and don't like the idea of being worked until you literally pass out, thank a union.
If you're black and appreciate getting the same pay a white person would get doing the same job, thank a union.
If you're a woman and appreciate getting the same pay a man would get doing the same job, thank a union.
If you're hispanic and appreciate getting the same pay a white person would get doing the same job, thank a union.
If you're over 40 and glad that a company can't deny you health benefits because of your age, thank a union.
If you attended a public secondary school, thank a union.
If you think 8 hours daily, 5 days weekly, is a sane and manageable work-week (and enjoy having the weekend off), thank a union.
If you're over 40 and it matters to you that you be offered the same training options and advancement as younger employees, thank a union.
If it matters to you that your employer can't pay you $1.50 an hour or some equally unlivable low wage, thank a union.
If you like having the option for sick days, thank a union.
If you work on your feet and like those quick breaks you get, thank a union.
If it matters to you that your work environment is as safe as possible, thank a union.
If it's important to you that if you're injured or killed on the job that your employer is liable for negligence, thank a union.
If you like knowing that if your employer doesn't pay you, that you have the right to sue him to pay what you're owed, thank a union.
If it matters to you that if you have to temporarily leave work for a illness in the family that your job is protected until you return, thank a union.
If it's important to you that you can protest harassment or abuse by employers, thank a union.
If you've gotten pregnant and taken leave from work to have the kid and liked that you were able to go back to your job, thank a union.
If it's important to you that your employer can't expose you to toxic chemicals, turn off the heat in winter, or turn off the A/C (or fans) in summer, thank a union.
If it matters to you that if your company lays you off, that you have the option of unemployment benefits, thank a union.
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I recently read Mitt Romney's economic proposal and noticed that two paragraphs tacked on the end were the standard obligatory potshots. I've hit the point where I've pretty much come to the conclusion that to be considered a card-carrying Republican, you absolutely have to throw in two statements regardless of the actual topic: omg social security is bad! and unions are evulll!
Now, both the ex and the current were union. And somewhere in there, I was always lukewarm to unions (though perhaps due to lack of interaction, being military so never having parents who relied on them, despite having grandparents who did). Along with that, my first interaction was in my early 20s, and neither the ex nor I were all that hyped about the unions, but I think in hindsight that's for reasons that have more to do with our ignorance of the benefits and our general antipathy (at that age) to the institutional structures of working in/with a union.
However, CP (the current OH) was a union guy for a number of years, so I figured if anyone might know what this card-check stuff is, he'd know, right? Uhm, no. It's been awhile & he's not been following it, and what I've been reading rather casually has had me baffled because it's a lot of hype thrown around and not too many really clear points.
But what is pretty clear to me is that -- and this is the blunt reaction -- when a business owner or a Republican starts concern-trolling about how something will be oh-noes-bad-for-workers, I sit up and take notice because without single exception in my lifetime, those two parties only concern-troll for workers when the reality is that if workers get that and/or do that, it will somehow make the business owners' life harder (read: profits lower).
That's not cynicism. That's a simple acceptance of the fact that Republicans & business owners share the same priorities, so they want business owners (not workers) to get the goodies. But when the fox starts bemoaning just how hard something is going to make life for the chickens, let's just say I find him less than credible. I'm not saying Mr. Fox is a bad guy; I'm just saying his objective doesn't necessarily match the chickens' objective, even if Mr. Fox is quite the expert about chicken coops.
So I went looking, and the most comprehensive/clear explanations I've found are Nathan Newman's an excellent diary about the process, and front-line union organizing insight from VikingKing and TomP's way-awesome in-depth explanation. Read those to understand what's involved; short version would be the Wiki entry on card checks.
The problem is that for all what seems so straight-forward, there's an awful lot of hype floating around pushing this omg-unions-evul line. A lot of people out there are anti-union, aren't in a unionized industry, or choose to sit out the union in a unionized industry but in an open-shop state, so don't get the exposure and thus figure it's got nothing to do with them. It does.
If you're thinking, as I did for a long time, that unions are just leeches, some kind of disembodied entity that hangs out, then you're as wrong as I was. The unions are the workers. Even those "union bosses" are quite often fellow employees, doing a job right alongside the union members. And if you're thinking unions just haven't done all that much for you, so why support union organizing... Well, see the twenty-two reasons your career is probably very different -- much healthier, saner, less abused, more respected, and even more equitably paid -- thanks to a union.
Unions are the workers, and if we as worker bees can be productive, safe, well-treated, respected, and paid a fair and livable wage, this will benefit the companies in the end, just as much: because we are the companies, too.
So the next time someone spouts Mr. Fox's line about chickens and proper coop organization, I thought folks might like to have handy twenty-two reasons to remind Mr. Fox that he, too, has reasons to be thanking a union -- as do we all.