Why are so many people anti-union, but are so willing to work for a sub-standard wage and accept food stamps?

Question

Don't people understand the advantages and benefits of unionized labor, or are they just complacent and willing to accept being told what their time and effort are worth?

I have never seen the cost of goods sold go down after a union is broken, only wages and benefits. Why should the taxpayers have to pay the extra benefits that the companies could have paid? Why should I have to pay for some brain-washed rednecks family to eat when they are "so capable" of working?

Answer 1

It does seem ironic that so many in the lower class work so hard to support political parties that do NOT have their best interests at heart. Many among the uneducated are easily swayed by slogans and by displays of fervent nationalism. Many also believe that supporting an anti-union party will directly benefit them, by lowering their taxes for example. Never mind that most tax cuts tend to benefit the only the most wealthy individuals and corporations.

Answer 2

I think you have two questions there.

First the people that are against Unions. Most everyone will agree that when the unions were formed they were needed. The management of large companies did not treat their employees very well and took advantage of them. But as time went on the Unions became more powerful and had enough control that they demanded more and more until the companies could no loner compete with overseas manufacturers. The unionized companies could not demand the productivity from their employees. The companies no longer hire employees, they hire the Union and the workers work for the Union.
If you go into a store and two TVs are side by side and one is $150 cheaper with a better picture, but made overseas, which one do you buy? By purchasing the one made overseas your are supporting the decision to "out source" or abolish the Unions.
(But you are also supporting the American way of buying the best at the cheapest price. No one wants to throw away money.)

Question #2.
People work for sub-standard wages because that's the best they can find. Ask any one if they want more money? Companies can't afford to hire more people at Union wages with benifits because no one will buy their TVs at $150 more.
They accept food stamps because, in some cases, that's the only way they have to feed their family. In other cases it's because they are too lazy and feel it's OK to cheat the taxpayer of the United States.

Answer 3

Many people are anti-union must be true in the United States or other industrial country not all over the world, For example in my country there are many people that are pro-union, and i would say they are the majority, but still to answer your question, i'm gonna break the anti-union felling from two points of view, the employer and the employee, some, or must, employees are anti-union because of the corruption, from the very start of the unions (with Hoffa) they accept bribes, and going back to my country again, the negociate with the employers reaching a settlement that's good for the union directive but not necesarilly good for all the workers. As for the point of view of the employer, unions are never good for your bussiness, this is because they protect the unefficient employee making the bussiness less competetive, this at the end of the day not only is bad for the investors but also bad for the employees because the bussiness could close down if not competetive enough to stay in the market, furthermore if the bussiness is not competetive enough is less likely to generate new jobs, affecting would be employees also.
So it's true, unions protect de employee from abuses, but at the end, most of them end up harming the very ones they intend to protect.

Answer 4

Unions for the most part are antiquated organizations struggling to stay in existance. They were needed in some form(not their current form) back at the begining of the industrial revolution, when work conditions were very exploitive and dangerous. In curernt times Unions seem to spen all their time helping people and mainly union leadership get things they do not deserve. Currently with the ability to exchange info rapidly and the proliferation of the modern media you hear about unfair worker conditions very quickly so unions are not really needed to poliece employers. Not to metion look how poorly company's which worked with unions have done, the auto industry and airlines cant turn a profit ever,and one of the many reasons is they pay people too much and offer too many stupid benefits and concessions. Unions are a thing of the past and in the past 15yrs or so they have just been a tool and pipe dream of the lazty worker whodoes not have the brains to move themself up the ladder and get a better paying job. Just think about all those guys whop you see at bars at like 3pm happy hours they are usually some sort of union tradesman.

Answer 5

People who are anti-union do not want to work for low wages any more than anybody else. It is just that unions create a monopoly on the better paid jobs and non-unionized people cannot get into these jobs unless they were once working there, got laid off and are on some recall list.

Unionization increases the price of the consumer goods or products produced by that workforce and we all have to pay this price, whether we are working in a high wage job or not. In communities where there are a significant number of unionized workplaces (e.g. manufacturing jobs), the community's prices rise accordingly and even if you are not working for a high wage, you are still stuck paying the high costs.

Answer 6

I used to be very pro union, and in a way I still am, but my wife joined a union, The AFL-CIO as a matter of fact, they systematically raid her check, have given away all her strike powers, and do very little to help, her wage and benefits aren't any higher and the union has systematically given her rights away, she now has the right of negotiation, however this is only based on her group of union members not her individual performance.
At my job, we are not union, I personally, without a union, negotiated better hours, better pay, and better benefits, and anytime i want i could organize a protest or strike. Unions seem to me to have changed from representing their members to representing those who run the union. Take responsibility own job, always be looking for a better one with better wages and benefits. Work hard and you can negotiate whenever and whatever you want. You're more powerful than you think and you know what you need, not some mismanaged overpaid union boss who could give less than a rats *** about you.

Answer 7

Yes, unions did. have corruption, and the people threw the baby out with the bathwater. There were those who sacrified, fought and died to establish unions.
Now, the very people who sneer don't realize that the UNIONS enabled them, through their grandparents and great- grandparents union benefits . Unions raised the standard of living for more people in the history of the United States. Unions, Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman.

Those who sneer should be ready to return their Social Security and Medicare benefits. Those who sneer should thank God for the free educations on the Truman administration's GI BIll that raised them to middle class complacency . How sad that that the generations that most benefits are now either too well-to-do, or poor ignorant and brain-washed, to realize they threw away the best thing that ever happened for the workers of our country.

As for corruption, I don't think we would allow our Government to be destroyed because it is the most corrupt in history, benefit ting huge corporations, party favors for elected reps, driving the US further into debt and dividing the citizens. We can hope the transgressors are dealt with, but we would never destroy the best system of government in the world because of them.

Food stamps go hand-in-hand with the lack of decent minimum wage and indifference, but the powers that be have worked for years to make a huge boogy man out of unions.
The answer is, no one has the courage and we'd have to have
another great depression , a knock to the knees desperation that would make people realize that only unionizing could get us to our feet again.

Answer 8

Labor Unions hold back the best employees and insure that incompetent ones get more than they're worth.
I've always made more money at non-union shops.
The two union shops I worked at had corrupt local unions and they stole all the money that was supposed to help members if they went on strike.
When I got promoted to a better job they backed a guy with more seniority and no intelligence and he got my job. I quit that job and never considered working in a Union shop again.
If you are stupid and have no skills then you will benefit from joining the union.
There are companies that mistreat employees and maybe should be unionized even if it puts them out of business.

Answer 9

The perception of unions is not the same as union benefits. Theory (and propaganda) tell us that unions bring better pay, benefits, and empowerment to workers. But if experience shows union workers as being violent, anathemic to change, anti-business and anti-non union workers, well, those benefits don't matter much.

I'd like to have a positive perception, but I've not had good experiences. My grandfather was fired (and our family harassed) because he voted Republican in an election but belonged to a union that supported Democrats. Gotta love Chicago and the Daley machine.

I've crossed picket lines twice. The first was during a SAG strike against AT&T, which was inconvenient for the more than 90 OTHER businesses in the office building where I worked. I had an overseas shipment due from Germany that day and I had the UPS guy drop it off three blocks from the building so that he wouldn't be seen as a scag. It almost became a physical confrontation at the door. I was content to let the striker see my office identification, but when he took it off my shirt and threatened to report me to my boss, well, it would have been ugly. Fortunately the police kept order and told them to let me in.

The second time was at a hotel where I worked in the business office. One of the culinary unions (the same one that organized most of the Vegas casinos and hotels in the 1990s) tried unsuccessfully to organize our housekeepers. I was at the meeting where they made their pitch - starting pay of $7.90 - which was laughed out of the room since housekeepers already started at $9.00. The union then picketed in front of our building, distributing flyers to guests charging us with fixing prices and bribing the county department of health to give us an "A" rating. The last straw was when a pregnant front desk attendant walked by. They called her a "whore", and she shouted back they followed her onto the property. The lot of them were arrested for trespassing.

I'd like to have a positive idea of unions, but they haven't lived up to expectations, at least in my experience.

Answer 10

Its not always the people who are anti union, most are afraid to unionize because just about all companies will fire those who begin unions.

Places like mcdonalds and other entry level companies are in such high demand that firing a few thousand people and rehiring means nothing, especially if it keeps wages down for the company and keeps them in power.

Unions are very costly to companies, and avoid them at all costs when possible.