The Union, not the one you’re thinking of.

Some may have immediately thought of the Southern Union or the Confederacy from the civil war, I am discussing labor unions. Why would the topic of labor unions come up in a political blog? Because they have a great deal of impact on how we work and what happened and is happening in this country.

In 1935 Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which encouraged labor collective bargaining agreements and unions. Basically it allowed people to group together and put forth requests to the employer, everyone could be treated fairly. This was a big issue at the turn of the 20^th century, there were fewer laws protecting the rights of workers and children could work in the coal mines. I doubt there are many people who would like to return to that era.

Today our rights are required to be posted in every workplace. You can usually find them in some official poster on your work bulletin board. It will reference lots of laws, rights and specify the national and state minimum wages. These are all great things that have been influenced to some degree by unions and organization.

What it the political point? Unions make large contributions to political parties. But that is not what I am concerned with.

The NLRA permitted people to have elections to decide on how they would be represented. I strongly support a democracy and the right to negotiate, however, I also support the right of the individual. There are many places (State employees, grocery stores, newspapers, labor…etc.) that require union membership. This is the where I have an issue. In order for someone to get a job in some fields they must join a union.

A friend of mine was required to join the bricklayers union and after he was laid-off , in order to be eligible to work as a bricklayer in the future, he had to continue to pay his union dues. Basically he had to pay the people who helped him negotiate with his employer, even when he didn’t have an employer.

Unions have encroached on the personal liberty of the individual. My problem with them is that they want a worker to pay them regardless of if they provide a service to the employee, and if that employee wants out of the union, the employee could quickly become unemployed.

Unions are not all bad, however, anytime a law encourages the forcing of a private person to pay another private person for anything other than compensation, I get worried about freedom. I like being able to leave a job if I don’t like it, I think people should have the right to leave a union when they don’t like it. If I don’t want to pay union dues, I should not be force to do so.

It is similar to having a magazine subscription you hate,

that automatically renews and you can’t cancel.