As organized labor loses leverage in a race-to-the-bottom global market, some workers are becoming so disillusioned by what their unions can, or rather can’t, do for them that they want out. The disaffected include dozens of machinists at Caterpillar Inc.’s plant in Joliet who crossed the picket line during a strike last summer and are planning unfair labor practices complaints against the union.
Organized labor’s slippage is most acute in the manufacturing sector, which has lost 4.7 million jobs and seen membership shrink by almost a third since 2001, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Overall, private-sector union membership stands at just 6.9 percent nationally and 10.6 percent in Illinois. …
Many rank-and-file employees have opposed unions all along, of course. Despite organizing drives, workers have turned down collective bargaining at automobile plants across the South. Legislatures in 23 states have enacted “right-to-work” laws that allow employees to opt out of dues-paying membership at union shops; Indiana joined this camp early this year.Now some workers in union-friendly states are turning on their brethren over strikes.
These are good jobs that pay well. Most people really want to work. Yet the unions get in they way somtimes… and yes, sometimes it’s the companies that get in the way. The big difference however is that the company is the one taking the risk. The shareholder or owner is placing his or her money on the line. The union is not.
Successful risks should be rewarded. Bad risks are punished. That’s how people learn; how the cream rises to the top.
You can take all the money in this country and redistribute it equally to each person. In ten or fifteen years those who are “rich” will be rich again. Those who are “poor” today will be poor again.
It’s very much like the story of the talents; Matthew 25:14-30.