'Over Unionized'

Friday, June 24, In the year of our Lord 2011

Distance Learning Office, Briercrest College

Caronport Saskatchewan

Remembering to post this blog entry, 3:56 PM

Weather = Fantastic! (warm, sunny, not too hot, glorious summer time)

I have been working on and off composing my thoughts on this one. It was ready to post yesterday but I just forgot about it. :p

Unions

Let me begin by saying that I live in an over-unionized province. I think unions can be a very good thing I even think that they should be a very good thing. The logic behind them usually makes sense given the context of their beginnings and that there are very real and serious injustices that they protect against. They can be a very real boon to the economy and culture of a region when done well.

But, as I stated, I live in an over-unionized province and so I face the constant frustration of over-unionization. When is something ‘over-unionized’? When the unions become a detriment more than a help. When the unions firmly fortify division and problems instead of honest hard working people. When unions become too powerful and make outrageous grabs for power and money at the expense of the very people they claim to serve. When unions turn authentic caring people into hardened uncaring economic sink-holes.

If you have ever dealt with or at least talked to anyone who has dealt with a union you will know that the union vs privatization debate can be a very hot and venomous topic. I do not have the experience or wisdom necessary to take a solid stand on either side. Instead I want to voice some of my frustration with over-unionization, not necessarily as a slam against unions, but always in a way to at least make them healthy again. What I see is the pendulum swinging too far one way and I do not want to see it swing too far the other way in response.

So let’s begin.

Note: I don’t claim to know all the issues for particular union actions sited below. I am writing about what I have heard and that information may or may not be accurate.

The first point of frustration I have with over-unionization is that unions will tell their members to go on strike when the members are perfectly happy with the recent offer for better wages / pensions / hours / what have you. Just this last week Canada Post workers went on strike, even though most the members were happy with the deal that the union rejected. The union is making a grab for more money even though the members don’t want to. If the members don’t want to strike and are happy with what they are getting then why has the union called for a strike and would they have called the strike if they didn’t have such a powerful sway over all postal workers for the nation? If the objective becomes to become powerful enough to force companies to give outrageous wages / benefits, more than they can without needing to cut staff, then this is fortifying a problem and just plain irresponsible.

The second point of frustration I have has to do with the crop insurance strike that SGEU decided to pull during the worst flood season in decades. This is very frustrating because it shows that this particular union only cares about its members to the detriment of the society and economy around them and even the public who their members serve. It’s a potent bid for power trying to blackmail companies into a new agreement during a time of crisis. Is the reason for this strike to hammer out much needed reform that has been heading up to a peak over the years or is it what it looks like at face value, a nasty bid for power and money during a time of crisis? Either way, I know a lot of farmers who need that crop insurance, who paid for insurance in good faith, and now there will be none for them. Once again I have also heard that most members didn’t want a strike, but the union called one anyway. Nuff said.

The Third point of frustration I have is best illustrated by the health workers and teachers unions, namely, damaging the field that they dominate. Let’s start with teacher unions. My parents are both teachers so this situation hits close to home. The issue is two pronged, first over-unionization keeps bad teachers teaching and second it makes it extremely difficult for potentially good teachers to enter the system. Since unions are about seniority instead of competence or excellence there are always going to be old teachers (and nurses) who should not hold their profession but always will until they retire. I could write a long section on the horror stories of terrible teachers / nurses who don’t care, who do more damage than good, who are lazy and incompetent, and who get the best position by the sole virtue that they have been their longer than everyone else. You can’t get rid of them, the unions forbid it. When I worked for SGEU as a flag person on the highway I occasionally worked with a man who was lawfully convicted of raping an under-aged girl and had a history of violence. Another fellow showed up for work late, left work early, and depending on the day, didn’t do much work while he was at work or was just plain dangerous to be around because he was drunk with a temper. These people who don’t give a damn about their profession are taking up slots and times for people who want to enter into that occupation who are potentially really good at what they do and could add new life to some stagnant schools / hospitals / businesses / what have you.

Now add to this the fact that the baby boomer generation is retiring. Business is slowing down, which means nobody needs as many workers, which means over populated unions will not be getting new people, which means they are becoming stagnant.

Now, looking specifically at the nurses union, we have a really big problem. Old nurses with lots of seniority get the best shifts, so full hours for them. There is also a nursing shortage, so the demand for nurses is really high. Unfortunately new nurses can only get part time hours because that is all that is available since the old nurses get all the good shifts. So nobody wants to become a nurse here because the hours suck and it won’t pay the bills. The solution that the union came up with was to go on strike and demand a 22% increase. Do I even need to explain how ridiculous and unhelpful this is? Old nurses already make lots and lots of money and they are overworked only because the union demands that they work insane hours to the detriment of their members and of the health care system in general. This is one of the occasions that I will take a stand and saying that I think that the nursing unions need to be broken on this issue because their drive for power (and they are very powerful) and money is damaging health care now and health care in the future. They should not be dissolved, just broken on this issue and reformed to better serve with a human heart instead of a money crank.

Now going back to teachers. Teaching is a noble profession and is absolutely critical for our future. I think teachers (and nurses) should get paid well for what they do. The problem I have was embodied on one of the teacher strike signs that said “better wages = better education.” This is a flat out bold faced fallacy. High wages is proven to encourage laziness and takes away from motivation. The very worst thing that could happen to our education is to have our teachers run on money. I cannot stress this enough. A union of teachers that is cold to the ideals of teaching and the betterment of their students would be the death toll of our nation as we know it. This sort of model is already present in some parts of the States and it is a travesty. Money crank should not be the motivation of teachers unless you want a really really bad education system. I look at other over-unionized teachers unions and I see them shrinking because as the school boards have to pay more and more to teachers the class room sizes get larger and larger and they cannot afford to hire the amount of teachers necessary to keep up. The ideal ratio is somewhere between 7-14 students per 1 teacher… but many teachers are forced to teach classes of 50+. Then they demand higher wages because their job is really hard which ensures that things will always stay the way they are since they can’t afford new teachers. This leads to a host of other issues, an entire other rant all on its own.

I think that this is one instance where unions should either not exist, or at least have much less power. Teaching is not like manual labor where you can outsource it to sweat shops in China or India for really cheap. Teachers should be valued for their skill, not for how many years they’ve put in. The downfall of this method would be when teacher skill is defined by systematized economic results. Sigh… yet another rant on its own. Moving on.

My fourth point of contention has to do with the amount over-unionized workers get paid. This is embodied by the economic recession that really nailed the auto industry in Ontario. I know that losing your job in an economic recession is a really unfortunate situation. These people put in hard work, but I don’t think the amount of money for services rendered is proportionate to the task. (they got paid too much) I don’t think auto-workers should get paid $60 an hour for something that a well-trained monkey could do for bananas. That’s some serious money and it’s no wonder they had to lay off scores of laborers when production fell. Then they have the gall to demand that the government bail them out and the audacity to blame the government for the fall of the industry when they were told to sleep in the bed that they had made for themselves. I know what I would do if I were making $60 an hour in a job that was dependent on the economy and was over unionized… save up for when it all comes crashing down.

Personally, I think the unions have started fighting to retain their territory despite the natural flow of several factors. First of all the Baby Boomers are retiring which has a huge effect on the economy and also raises suspicions about how the unions plan to pay all their pensions. Secondly we have a conservative provincial government and a conservative national government which encourage private business and privatization. Thirdly the effects of being over-unionized for too long erodes public trust to the point where people are more inclined to want privatization. Fourthly, we are already seeing previously unionized territory going out to privatization (thinking specifically of my time working as road crew) because the unions are having trouble supporting themselves. The whole thing is nasty, lots of back stabbing, biting, and visceral going around. Such is the natural way of things, one economic idealist era succeeding another.

There is a war going on in this province. I can see it in the strikes and in the anti-Wall advertisements to stop privatization of information and public parks. I can’t help but think that the unions brought this on themselves for trying to abuse the economy and by not resolving their problems. They are essentially forcing everyone else to not only live with the problems they fortify but also pay for the expensive financial Band-Aid they apply to these problems (higher and higher wages). It seems now that they are even turning against their own members by forcing them to strike when they don’t want to in a vicious bid to stay dominant in a changing economic and political tide. Self-perpetuating problems that only get worse and worse and bigger and bigger. Such a system cannot go on. I think that in order to solve these problems many of the unions will need to break on several issues. Fair isn’t always equal and justice isn’t always fair. In principle most people want fairness and justice, but in practice over-unionized unions want neither.