Are Unions the Answer??

If I'm in the mood to start an argument in my family, I only need one word, really: Union. There, I said it, so you may want to duck when my family starts reading this blog. I don't really have any strong feelings for a union or against a union, I've never been a member of one and I don't know that I am missing out on anything. I've read that they make a lot of promises, but I don't know how many of those promises have been kept. I remember my step-Father, one of the greatest men I have ever known, and the union that he was in. That union kept voting for the overtime that was mandated, and one of the greatest men I have ever known ended up working himself to death. My Dad thought that unions were the only way to go. He proudly participated in his union until his forced medical retirement. Unfortunately, the only thing that I ever saw either of these two unions do was send a beautiful arrangement to the funerals of two good men. They were nice flowers, to be sure, but all things considered, I would rather have those two wonderful men back. Now the biggest boogie man that Walmart has in their arsenal is the dreaded union. Whenever the talk starts to head around to a possible union invasion, you can hear the butts of management get tighter than a snare drum. I am not kidding. With a couple of drumsticks, you could line up management and have one of those drum wars that I used to love to listen to when I was younger. But is a union the answer? I don't know. I know that Walmart is not shy about closing a store that has a union in it. What can a union do for you? Can they get better insurance for you or could they just ask for better insurance? I've written before about my opinion on answering the insurance problem, so if you want that, look back through the older posts and you'll find it. Can they get more hours for you? Or would you have to work more hours to cover your union dues? Again, I don't know. Let me be clear when I say that I have never been a member of a union. I have family that is or was in a union, and the results are somewhat mixed. One of the center pieces for Walmart's anti-union rhetoric is the pat piece "Our associates don't need anyone to speak for them, they do a very good job of speaking for themselves!" That sounds nice, doesn't it? I mean-there is Walmart giving recognition and praise to their hard working associates. Or are they simply blowing smoke up the butt of those very associates so that they don't want to organize? I know that union membership is down from its heydays when they did real good with miners and such. I know that if they were able to unionize Walmart and it's huge legions of employees, the coffers would be overflowing in most unions again. But what good could they actually do for the associates? If they ask for more money for the associates and Walmart says no-then what? A strike? Now what are you suppose to do for money? And what about the other benefits? Can a union guarantee that you will get better benefits than you have now? Can they guarantee you anything? For the kind of money that union fees add up to, I would like to have some rock hard guarantees in writing. Again, this is one of the few blogs I've written without a definite opinion to state. For myself, I don't know that a union could do any more for a Walmart associate than simply asking for what you want yourself. If you have a definite opinion, please feel free to let me know. I could be convinced either way. I cannot stress enough that my mind is not made up on this. My mind is made up that Walmart has got to find a way to treat their associates better and stop taking advantage of shadowy laws and statutes. If I had been able to sue Walmart when the illegal immigrants that they hired through an agency mixed bleach and ammonia and almost killed me, I might be able to afford some of the other things I would like to have instead of the medicine that I have got to have so I can continue to enjoy breathing. The constant little cough that I have wouldn't aggravate the people that I care about, and I might be able to do more things with my boys without having to suck on an inhaler every couple of hours. I wouldn't have nosebleeds every few hours, and I wouldn't have to keep checking my nostrils to make sure that I don't have blood running down my face. I would have never scared any of my sons with a bloody face that I didn't realize that I had, and I wouldn't have had to hide my face to make sure that I didn't scare him any more. I wouldn't have scars on my vocal cords that sometimes make my voice lower than the "fun girls" on an old episode of Andy Griffith. Or Suzanne Pleshette. So if you have the answer to the union question, please let me know. I would love to hear it, and I would thank you later.