The State of the Unions

I recently received a comment on one of my posts that disturbed me. It did not anger me but it disturbed me. What disturbed me was that the person, who posted the comment, did not seemingly really read the entire post or perhaps did not fully understand the gist of the Blog. One of my first statements was that I was siding with the Writers Guild of America Union.

The Anonymous Comment was “You obviously have spent most of your life kissing ass and therefore didn't need a union. Look where you are now, Nowhereville.” And signed “from The Hoffa society for ass kissers.”

RE: “You obviously have spent most of your life kissing ass.” Not to defend myself, which I am probably doing now; but I have never been an ass kisser, a brown nose or a sycophant. People who know me will agree with me on this point. They will say that I am an opinionated asshole. Opinionated Asshole, Yes - Ass Kisser, NO! I can except this because I realize who and what I am.

Please note that the signature is “The Hoffa society for ass kissers”. Therefore I will assume that the person who made this comment is a member of this society. What does this mean? Is he or she an ass kisser? Was Jimmy Hoffa an ass kisser? Maybe his son and current Teamster Union President is an ass kisser. Or does it mean that this society is a group of people that have kissed a Hoffa’s ass.

In my blog I stated that I was basically against Unions. This is not the total truth. I should have said that I was against the Unions that attempt to justify their existence by demanding outrageous pay and benefits for their members. This subsequently raises the prices of goods and services for the average person. They are really not hurting the management that they work for; they are in essence hurting themselves. When one large union gets increased pay and benefits, other large union members say “hey these guys got this or that, we should be getting the same if not more”. This is human nature.

I also stated “Not to say that unions are not a good thing.” The key words here are “Not to say”. My implied meaning here is that Unions are an important factor to workers when they are fighting for better working conditions, fair benefits and a reasonable rate of pay.

But what are fair benefits and a reasonable rate of pay. Should a senior UAW worker be making more money and have greater benefits than a Resident MD at a small Hospital? And some UAW members do. I don’t know the answer, but it just doesn’t seem fair and reasonable to me!

The Beach Bum