Unions

I’ve had two thorough but drastically different experiences with unions in life. First, a few of my dad’s buddies are electricians who were part of the union that boomed in the Portland area: the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers or (IBEW). The other connection that still involves this first interaction with the union is a younger friend named Jack who works in the ironworkers’ union, but I’m not sure which one. Anyways, each of these guys have primarily told me the same three things: paying dues sucks, the union pays into their retirement, health benefits, and time off each at about the rate normal companies normally spend on their total benefits package. Each one of them has double the retirement of those around me of similar age who I’ve talked to, they enjoy ample time off when they save it, and don’t hardly pay anything out of pocket for insurance. I haven’t heard many stories of the older IBEW guys being out of work or going on strike but perhaps I haven’t asked. My friend Jack, though, had 3 months straight where he didn’t collect a paycheck because of slow-demand and then because of lengthy negotiations of mandatory and permissive terms that prompted a strike. However, once the agreements had been settled, Jack said he made more money than ever as demand had been backlogged due to the strike. It seems as if these more modern union workers feel almost powerless to the union. While the original ideology for unions is simply a collection of workers, it seems as if they’ve almost become a middleman company themselves from Jack’s experience especially.

The second thorough interaction I had with the union was when the owner of the contracting company I currently work for, and I discussed joining the union as a company as we had a contract offered to us requiring it that would have been three-times larger than our previous largest to date. What we found out from researching it and discussing the idea with friends around the industry, we found that it was massively disadvantageous to our company. First of all, this union is not as mainstream as the electrical workers’, ironworkers’, welders’, or carpenters’ union in the area. Second, because the pool of labor and operator union trainees is already small and we’d be the newest addition to the union, we’d likely get the “bottom of the barrel” when it comes to candidates for hire. The other downside it could have brought us is a distracting and possibly even destructive grievance procedure and negotiation process that would have strained our current administration. To the union’s case, it would have given us flexible labor options which could have allowed us to onboard or offboard depending on how the work-demand and scheduling execution goes. It also would have increased the benefits of the workers and could have created a more motivating work environment. Overall, we don’t regret steering clear of the union but certain government contracts may be forcing us to incorporate it—something that seems like a direct violation of the contractor’s “Right-to-work” laws and the allocation of taxpayer funds.