Are Unions Still Relevant

The NYT reported the president of the largest union (Service Employees International Union) in the AFL-CIO is threatening to pull his union out of the organization if the federation’s president, John Sweeney, is re-elected. The Times reported that membership in the private sector has fallen to 8%, the lowest in 100 years.

This leads me to the question are unions still relevant? In the interest of full disclosure, my Dad, all of my uncles and my grandfather were teamsters. I come from a union family, we would not cross picket lines and my father was always on strike, at least it seemed that way to me.

For me unions are completely irrelevant, for starters, working one job for my entire life does not sound appealing. I would like to wear many different hats and in the union seniority rules. To the person switching companies every five to ten years, seniority means being consistently passed over for promotions in favor of someone who has worked at the company much longer. I would like to see promotions and pay based on merit not seniority.

The problem is most unions are labor unions. This is a problem because labor is moving overseas where it is less expensive. As a former warehouseman, I am no stranger to physical labor but I never had an opportunity to join a union. The problem to me is the union is not a work organization, but rather a lifestyle organization seeking to control members politically. That is not an attractive option for me. My politics are for me to decide, if I want to place my ideological opinions ahead of my unions interest that is what I am going to do. The pressure to conform turns me off.