What Unions don't want you to know

GM offers all U.S. union workers buyouts, retirement Reuters

Okay the radio news agencies are just glossing over this, so I figured I better pop it out for people.

This is the dirty little secret that the Unions don't want you to know....they are killing America's companies.

While they do/can do a lot to fix working conditions and try (well used to) even the playing field for all workers on equal levels---they also do a lot of damage--and we aren't even talking about what happens to the families when the Union votes to strike and the worker didn't.

We used to live next door to a family which had both incomes tied to one of the biggest unions in our state. When the union decided to renegotiate the contracts they figured they had enough in savings to cover the strike period--after all, they had never lasted very long in the past--well this thing dragged on for a couple of months and things got tight....then it lasted a tad longer and they were really hurting...then finally when the union finished their negotiations his job was moved to a different state and hers was still here.

They needed both incomes to stay afloat (she was a 'champange on a beer budget' type of person) so they had a long-distance marriage for about 4 yrs only seeing each other on the weekends and two weeks out of the year if their schedules lined up.

It was very sad.

Now they are going to 'bitch' and whine about this move too---but if you read the story completely you will find that the retirement benefits will switch from being handled by GM to being handled by the Union which the workers have been paying into (and getting pennies on the dollar during strikes) for years--some for over 30 yrs!!

So what was the union doing for these people before this offer was made?

I know that when the unions negotiate in our state, the retirees are usually the ones who get the shaft...its like once they stop paying into the union, they aren't worth the time or trouble.

We have seen several retirees, thru union negotiations, suddenlly get left with reduced pensions or even some with none at all! It wasn't the companies in some cases that put that on the table, it was the union that brought it up...

and of course once the wages go up, so do the union dues....after a strike, the dues go up....after a negotiation, up they go....up, up, up....and there is nothing a worker can do about it except leave the union---

if you leave a union you will never work again unless you open your own business.

You know I think I figured out why people don't write about this very much----its impossible to write about unions without dredging up a lot of ill-feelings.