So it begins...or is it the calm before the storm? The lines are being drawn now in the company I work for. I more I hear, the more uncomfortable I am being at my workplace. The union talk has stirred up a hornet's nest. I'm waiting for someone to get stung...Here are the latest news:
The company DOES NOT want the union. Well, duh! I heard that my company spent $50,000 on a weekend boat trip wooing a possible customer...Kinda sounds like AIG to me.
Several employees, including me, were individually pulled into the office for a chat about the union. All I told them that I was skeptical and wasn't sure about the union. Which is true. If anything sounds too good, there HAS to be a catch.
I also heard the union is full of empty promises. One story told to me was about a company they represented in Fond du Lac. Instead of better wages, the pay was cut and frozen for seven years! Not the kind of thing I'd want to be working for....
Now some of our employees are acting REALLY stupid! Someone hacked into our computer system software and obtained information on the employees' wages! My company is PISSED OFF about this! This is illegally obtained info! No doubt that this is going to the union for negotiations. My company has offered a hefty reward for catching the person responsible for this incident.
Here I am, chasing the American Dream. Yeah, I'd love to exchange my apartment for a house, trade my clunker for a decent car and maybe hang a plasma TV on the wall. After 23 years there, something would be nice... Reality wise, I'm just glad that I have a somewhat decent job.
I plan to to keep my eyes and ears open, and my mouth shut. Just move along with my day to day stuff at work. Just keeping my heads up above this maelstrom...
2 comments:
Unions are good in theory, but many times in practice Unions cloud and complicate matters and inevitably make things worse for employees and serve only to fatten the wallets of the Union delegates/officers.
Many Unions are also at least partially responsible for US companies laying off workers and relocating overseas. The Union demands over time grow to be counter-intuitive to turning a profit. The companies end up spending what profit they're making on paying for the retirements of their employees. Part of the reason GM & Chrysler needed a bailout is that they spend more money providing pensions and retirement funds for their employees than they do on building and developing new vehicles.
I'm not against Unions, per se. They've done a lot of good to achieve fair working conditions and pay for American workers. But they're as guilty as politicans when it comes to the old adage, "Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely."
Perplexo, I'm divided on this. I admit that I would like to move up the pay scale, but then again, who wouldn't? When I first started there, my company was owned by a very generous and well respected man. When he retired years ago, he sold the company to group of investors. Since then I've been feeling more like number than a name....
I value teamwork within a company. What I'm starting to see is rifts among the workers there. To me, this is not good...
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