Union Membership is Like a Job Warrantee

I consider myself as neither pro or anti union.  I appreciate what unions did in helping to get employment laws establish which vastly improved the lives of the common worker.  Unfortunately, the establishment of the employment laws removed many of the reasons unions were once needed.  Although, I do still believe there are still places that unions are still needed.  With the primary reasons for unions removed, unions took on a more business like role.

One of the largest unions is the United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW).   The new UAW president Bob King said in his acceptance speech that the UAW will “pound on Toyota until they recognized the first-amendment right to come into the UAW”.  Mr. King goes on to say that “We’re going to do whatever is necessary to insure that Toyota abandons its anti-union efforts,” This includes picketing Toyota dealers.  Mr. King wants to show the value of having UAW members as the workers by doing everything in his power to prevent Toyota from selling cars.   It is not like Toyota is moving production back to Japan.  Toyota is moving production to Mississippi.  The problem is that the jobs are not union jobs. 

It is not that the UAW has not tried to unionize works at Toyota, and other Asian manufacturer’s plant. In an article from 2007, UAW And Why Honda And Toyota Workers Are Not Interested, covered why workers at the non-unionized plants rejected the union.  In the case of the Toyota plant in Georgetown, Kentucky, it turns out that the workers are paid more and get better benefits then the average UAW automobile plant worker.  If higher pay and better benefits is Toyota’s strategy for keeping unions out of their plants, more power to them. 

The UAW has a product called union membership and it has a cost called union dues.  The product is designed to get the buyer, union member, higher pay and better benefits. In effect, union membership is like a job warrantee, and unfortunately for unions, more and more people do not think that they need the product.