When The Levee Breaks

When it rains, it pours, and I am no exception. Sometimes I am frustrated by more things than there are blogs to cover. We picked up the "Sunday Early Edition" of our local paper (I guess Saturday would be early Sunday) and the headline was how our local Governor had repealed an '04 law allowing collective bargaining. So that's Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and Oklahoma now. To be honest, I never thought Oklahoma HAD collective bargaining as red as this state is.

Ok, the first thing we need to do is define what collective bargaining is. Collective bargaining is where employers and employees (or employees representatives .i.e. union rep) come together to decide company policy as it pertains to employment and employment benefits. I know most of you reading already know this, but humor me. In today's America, this is a BAD thing it seems. Well, all I can say is that before the NFL owners got so greedy, the NFL was the most profitable sports organization around and the reason for it was collective bargaining. Collective bargaining allowed them to put the best product forward and money into everyone's pocket. Prosperity for ALL. Now the owners want collective bargaining gone...look where that has 'em.

Now scale this work stoppage back and put it in place in every corner where local government has repealed collective bargaining rights. Do you get the picture now? There is only one reason to undo collective bargaining: to increase the profit margin and cost-cutting of the employer. This includes government agencies. Most of the entities that want collective bargaining gone are the ones that are trying to undo health care coverage to save money.

Now government agencies will appeal to to us saying that without the destruction of collective bargaining, the funding of the budget is impossible. Um, no, the answer is if you hadn't lacked any sense of foresight you would have built ALL of your state programs soundly and wouldn't be looking to screw over state employees to cover your losses. I mean teachers are already at the lower-income rung on the ladder, yet face daily scrutiny on every move they make because they teach our children. What possible good can come from ripping the floor out from under our teachers...not to mention firefighters and policemen? Even lower tests scores, longer response times? Is that improvement?

This fight isn't limited to public service employees. A bill repealing collective bargaining rights affects EVERY union. The governments like to cite the auto companies as proof that unions destroy corporations. WRONG. Failure to adapt to quality, fuel efficiency and customer desires killed Detroit. Look at Walmart: the poster-child for conservative business actively hunts down and kills all thoughts of a union. Good thing since they treat their employees like crap and have special disdain for the females and minorities in their employ (they currently have the largest class-action lawsuit in history filed against them by their female employees). When a company fails, it is do to mismanagement, bad business practices and greed...either that or a Walmart opened up near you and you couldn't compete with their volume discount.

Unions are not bad. There are some unions who have had some shady dealings, but they are not the norm. The next time you wake up and are getting ready for work, as yourself if you would like a say-so in the way your employer treated you or if you were happy simply sitting at the grinding stone. If you would like a say-so, then collective bargaining is your avenue of choice.