[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by NeedSpace

I have done some research on unions as I was interested in a data-based perspective. Looking at two similar companies in same industry, one with unions and one without unions, those WITHOUT unions were happier, more productive and felt more engaged in their company than those in unions. In addition, there was no statistically significant difference in pay or benefits between the two organizations.

That said, as a researcher, I saw a major confound, perhaps it was the difference was due to the 2 different organizations? I collected more data, this time with only 1 organization looking at specific locations, some locations were unionized, the other locations had no union control. The locations performed the same operations just at separate locations. Again, the results found the people NOT in the union were significantly happier with their job, happier with the company and more likely to speak up in situations where there might be a safety issue. I have also replicated this result with another organization in a different industry.

Unions WERE great at one point and brought this country to where it is today, however, like whale oil, it is no longer needed and people need to move on. Companies today recognize that an engaged and motivated workforce MORE than pays for itself. Listening to employees satisfies an employee, decreases the likelihood of them leaving and increases profitability. The startup cost of a new employee in most organizations makes this a simple equation.

The goal of most unions is to drive a wedge between employees and the companies they work for. They are counterproductive and currently do much more harm then good. By the way, in addition to my research, a number of years ago I worked in a job that required I be a union member...this was my experience as well.

My business partner has published on this as has many other researchers.

Unions promote an "us against them" mentality. It's how they build "solidarity" between members (common enemy), and reinforce their own supposed worth. Some of the propaganda that I have seen distributed to our shop workers would put the Nazis to shame, and many of them buy into it wholesale. Around contract time they distributed "strength to strike" shirts that everyone wore on Fridays as well as whistles that they blew at break time and lunch. So three times per day we had a factory of grown men sitting around blowing whistles. They would also do mature stuff like crap on the floor in the bathroom and harass women as they walked through the shop. Definitely finely trained hardworking professionals.