Unions exist to
give workers greater leverage in negotiating over compensation and working
conditions, and to give them some protection from unfair treatment at the hands
of management. If union officials are doing their jobs well, workers should be
receiving better wages and benefits, and should be more secure in their
jobs.
But that’s not always what workers get.
People
and institutions change. Old strategies and alliances do not always match up
with new
challenges or goals.
The same is true for labor unions.
A
string of mass layoffs has given rank-and-file union members reason to question
their blind faith in union bosses — and the movement behind big labor in
general.
So what are
rank-and-file workers getting for their thousands in annual union
dues?
At best, unions have proved incapable of providing job protection
for thousands of workers throughout the country, Illinois included. The last 10
years indicate that unionization puts members’ jobs at
risk.
Over the last
year, 760 workers represented by the United Auto Workers were laid off at one
Caterpillar Inc. facility in Peoria. Hostess Inc., the iconic snack maker, was
forced to shut its bakeries, including one in Schiller Park that employed 1,400
Illinoisans represented by several unions, among them the Bakers, Confectionary,
Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers union, and the International Brotherhood of
Teamsters. (That plant was reopened
when new owners took over Hostess, but most of the workforce was replaced —
those jobs are now non-union.) And when Chicago Public Schools started the new
school year, they did so with about 3,000 fewer Chicago Teachers Union
members.
While rank-and-file workers are facing pink slips, union bosses
are raking in big salaries.
No comments:
Post a Comment