Why Unions are Bad for Business

2008-08-28 00:33:55 (GMT) (WiredPRNews.com - Business)

Fort Worth, TX (WiredPRNews.com)—While the 40-hour work week, overtime, child labor laws and improved working conditions are now common place because of organized labor’s work in decades past, unions have outlived their usefulness. Their long-time stranglehold on companies like GM and Ford show what kind of damage they can do to once-strong businesses.

Union membership has steadily declined over the past several decades because they’ve gone from helping workers to becoming a bureaucratic obstacle to workplace efficiency and employee freedom. One of the latest examples of this is the misnamed Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which would eliminate the private ballot that currently exists for employees to vote on whether or not they want to join union.

The EFCA advocates obviously want to use peer pressure and intimidation tactics to swell the union ranks. Of course, increased union membership means more dues automatically deducted from employee paychecks and into the union coffers.

Employees should have the freedom to decide—without intimidation—if they want to join a union or not. The Coalition for a Democratic Workforce (CDW) agrees. This week the CDW unveiled an ad that exposes the ‘card check’ scheme that would drive a wedge between employers and employees.

The ad encourages voters to get Congressman Mark Udall (D-CO), a co-sponsor of the EFCA when it passed the US House of Representatives last year, to change his support for ‘card checks.’ The card check is a process where a union could force a public vote—instead of a private one—if a majority of employees to sign cards indicating interest in the union.

“Union bosses are working overtime and spending tens of millions of dollars to get card check passed. We’re going to work equally hard to educate people about the threat to private ballots in union organizing elections,” said Brian Worth, of CDW, in an 8-26-08 CBS MarketWatch.com article. “…The ability for workers to cast their vote in private is at stake.”

Unions are desperately trying to stay relevant in an economy that no longer needs them. As businesses increase automation and become more global, unions are an obstacle to business efficiency and, by extension, lower prices for the consumer.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/coalition-democratic-workplace-releases-new/story.aspx?guid=%7BF95F2AE3-7495-400A-9CC2-E0C2E7CDE353%7D&dist=hppr

http://www.myprivateballot.com/

http://www.unionfreeamerica.com/

Wired Staff Reporter