Union workers who hate unions. I don't get it.

[IdaBriggs]

17. I can explain: THE CORRUPTION.

I live in Michigan. My father (rest his soul) was salary at GM as an investigator. My FIL is a retired Teamster.

Both HATE(d) the unions.

It isn't how good you are as to whether you will be "protected" - it is "who you know." My father dealt with workers who were thieves (stealing parts from the factory for fun and profit); they would catch them, get them convicted in court, and they would be back on the factory floor (usually stealing again) within days. Then there were the guys who came to work drunk or drugged out; people get hurt when that happens, but the union always managed to "protect" the "chosen ones" - you know, the ones with relatives in power.

One of the cases I remember as a child that had my father livid furious involved a "union rep" who had other people punch his time card in, and then didn't actually bother to come to work. Video cameras were still pretty new back then, so my father was tickled pink because they got a camera, and then video taped the guy mowing his lawn, working around his yard, etc. FOR TWO WEEKS while his time card showed him "at work collecting overtime pay." Evidence presented, but guy not fired -why? Because the union traded PARKING LOT LIGHTS (a safety issue for all the people who worked there) in return for this guy getting to keep his job.

My FIL was a "proud Teamster" guy, until he was chosen to represent one of the fellow workers in a negotiation situation where the worker had been "wronged" by a management/supervisor person. FIL is a dedicated volunteer guy, and he knew the worker had gotten screwed. He worked a double shift (to make sure the family got paid for him taking time off to do his union duty), and then on less than two hours of sleep drove the distance to get to wherever the heck the negotiation was going on, arriving between three and four in the morning at the hotel. He expected everyone to be asleep, but found a party in full swing. He tracked down the guy he knew who was going to tell him where he was supposed to be when (and keep in mind my FIL had been fretting over this for days because he isn't a public speaker, and he really wanted to make sure he did a good job presenting the facts of the case), who quickly told him he didn't have anything to worry about - this guy had already been "back room dealt with", everybody had already decided he was going to lose in exchange for somebody else winning, and the whole process (which my FIL had believed in) was simply for show. The injustice of the situation still rankles him nearly twenty years later.

Then there is my husband's uncle; his stories are nearly as annoyed. Because the unions "protected" people once they hit a certain seniority position, three guys would be assigned to do a job that one working man could easily do. How did Uncle know this? Well, he was the guy who did it, while the other two would go play cards, take a nap, or watch the little televisions hidden all over the place. Fortunately for the company, my uncle doesn't like being bored, so he would actually DO THE JOB, but watching people NOT WORK and still get paid, while he worked his butt off, with everyone getting paid the same amount - well, it wasn't like the union was going to go after the lazy ones who DIDN'T work, right? Especially if they had "connections." It made him feel stupid, and no man likes to feel like a fool. He told me (the last time we talked about it a few holidays ago) that he finally came to terms with it because he knew he had earned his money, and they had to live with themselves. Didn't mean he respected the union, but he knew the score, and a man does what he needs to do to pay the bills.

The last story I will tell is from my husband's perspective. He is a finance guy, and one of his first "Controller" jobs was an eye opener for him. The company was in dire financial straights (this was my husband's third turn-around situation), and as Finance Guy he noticed that the overtime for maintenance guys was killing the budget, especially because it was causing a huge increase in unnecessary overtime for the rest of the plant -- the equipment wasn't that old, but invariably one of the machines would go down, the line would get shut down, the maintenance department would get called in for emergency repair (usually requiring hours), and then the next shift would end up getting overtime to make up for the fact that the previous one had to sit around because they couldn't work with the line shut down. This kept happening, which was really throwing off the company's financial recovery, and it didn't make any sense - until my husband was walking the floor one evening, and got to observe one of the maintenance guys come out from the "sleeping area", and (not seeing my husband) walk over with a wrench and whack something off of one of the machines, and then walk away as some kind of alarm went off. My husband said he just stood there stunned as everything fell into place.

Very strong union.

So, in answer to your question, the reason so many people who owe so much to unions HATE the unions is because

they hate unions giving favoritism/preferential treatment to people who don't work or pull their weight, taking advantage of them, and not enforcing "the rules" fairly.

It has been described to me as being forced to live in a high school popularity contest; if you are one of the "chosen few" - either by blood or drinking buddy - you will be protected, but if you are "an outsider" you will be given the crap jobs and sacrificed. It isn't what you know, or how hard of a worker you are - it is WHO you know, WHO you drink with, WHO you are related to - and for the majority outside of the "sacred circle" it sucks. And for those on the outside (before silly people suggest they run for office), if you can't win the "popularity contest" it won't get better.

Other people's experiences may vary. I am sharing those of my family: my father, my father-in-law, my husband's uncle and my husband. I have other relatives in the industry as well ("Uncle Charlie" being drunk on the job stories - sigh; my mom not getting fired after she walked off the job because my dad was able to pull strings when she worked for a bit during a rough financial spot in my childhood; my grandpa losing his fingers on the line, etc.). I believe in the concept of unions, but understand the implementation has been less than stellar.

Politics is always local, and unions are filled with personal politics.

A lot of people hate that, so they hate the unions. People recognize FAIR. People recognize JUSTICE. The auto unions have lost that, and that means they are losing the support of the people.

It is like finding out that a boyfriend/girlfriend is cheating on you; you might love who you thought they were, but it doesn't mean you still want to be with them.