Originally Posted by
Fiordland
I have never been a fan of unions but have worked in unionized environments (on the management side). You come to accept them as being part of the process. That said at the end of the day management ends up getting the union it deserves. The fact they even need to hold a strike vote is as much an indication of managements inability to respond to the needs of their staff as anything.
I also worked in management for many years in an environment where a small contingent of a much larger employee group belonged to a large international union. My observation was that when it came to negotiating a contract there were three parties: the company, the union and the employees. The union and the employees were rarely aligned in their objectives. The company was in it for economy and flexibility. The employees were in it for fairness and reasonable compensation, which they saw all the other non-union employees getting. The union was in it to "win", usually with little regard to what the members wanted, and in so doing strove do turn it into an adversarial process, which invariably put their own members off side.
Eventually the union guys decertified, but it took many years because none of them had the courage to stand up to the union. What tipped the scale was when they finally realized that over a ten year period the non-union employees got a slightly higher aggregate wage increase. By turning it into an adversarial process the union caused the company to push back, and they ended up with less.