Unions were necessary

Well we have heard the saying that Unions were necessary and most recently we heard it from our boss and the management who stated that ‘Unions were necessary when they started, but now they have gone too far’. This statements simply refers to the  wage concessions. We here in why did you join the union do not agree with the employers point of view and we hope Samuelsen does not falter on his promises.

We remind Samuelsen to take a careful look at what happened in the union wage concession in the auto industry which is the clearest example that shows a negative slope. In addition the same is seen in the series of wage concessions that were agreed to by the unions in the auto, rubber, steel, trucking and airline industries. In each case wage concessions were made in the face of events or developments that caused the demand for union labor to become more elastic thus threatening large losses in employment and union membership especially if there wasn’t any wage relief.

We do not agree with the employers point of view completely and Samuelsen must consider what has happened to the auto industry. Wage concessions were made first by the United Automobile Workers (UAW) with Chrysler, which was then followed by concessions with Ford and General Motors (GM). As a result the UAW have to make record breaking ‘give backs’ after a decade of below average wage gains. 

Those at the UAW could not see that the auto prices kept going up while the wages were at a standstill and therefore we remind Samuelsen about the projected fare increase of January 2011 and we are not going to be swayed with any bankrupt employer rhetoric. Also with the argument that the fix we are in has much to do with the national economic downturn and that our employer should be granted concession as a result doesn’t make sense and we here in the why did you join the union say no to that argument.

When our retirement and personal stock market accounts go down in value us employees don’t cry or whine about it. Instead we take it in stride. That is the way the market is and what is good for the goose is also good for the gander.

Employment has not grown with our employer. In fact we lost over one thousand members of Local 100 to the lay offs and that has reduced our numbers in the membership. Until we regain our original number of the membership to 39,000, and substantially exceed the average rate of wage increase in the economy and raise wages with no employment losses from raising wages then may we talk to the employer to see if there is a venue to moderate but otherwise no.