Random excerpt: in “The Office”, the warehouse crew wanted to unionise and Jan from corporate shuts it down by threatening to fire them. What can the unionisation of workers do and if it’s that important, how can corporations make it optional?
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At GE, I was a Co-op and therefore technically a management trainee even though I earned half the minimum union wage.
I ordered a printer to use with a lab computer. The printer arrived within a week. I know because I got the tracking slip. When the printer wasn’t in the Lab within two weeks, I went looking for it. It was sitting on the dock out in weather so its cardboard box was soaked. I showed the appropriate paperwork and asked a dock worker to deliver the printer to the lab. He said it wasn’t his job. Someone from inventory control or maybe the mail room needed to deliver the printer to the lab. His job ended when the printer landed on the dock.
After another week, the printer arrived on the table in the Lab next to the computer. Great! I started to unpack it and was scolded. The union member threatened to “write me up” because unpacking and configuring the printer required a union technician.
Two weeks later (5 weeks into the ordeal), a technician arrived and unboxed the printer. He left it sitting next to the computer but not plugged into the wall or the computer. So, I plugged it in.
I received a fine of “a day’s union wage” equal to two days of my wage for plugging in the computer. That’s a UNION JOB!
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If you ever want to see this in action, visit a trade show in a “union” venue like Detroit’s Cobo Hall. You cannot cary anything to your rented booth. You cannot lift a corner of the carpet remnant in your booth. You cannot plug anything in inside your rented booth. If the carpet worker lays the carpet before the electrician positions the extension cord, you get to pay to have the carpet taken up again, wait for the electrician, and then pay to have the carpet put down again. You have no control over the order in which a trade works on your booth. We paid 4 times for carpet: 1) Initial install 2) Rip it up 3) Second install, 4) Rip it out at the end.
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The fundamental premise of unions is that all employees are interchangeable, and there is no such thing as “merit”. Pay increases are based entirely on years of service. It can take 2 years of writing up an employee for malfeasance or incompetence before you can finally fire the employee. Rather famously, an Air Force civilian employee showed up for the first day of work and never came to work again. He collected pay for 2 years before he was finally fired. UNION!
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