RE: Unionizing?

["Oja, Kelly" <Kelly -dot- Oja -at- Kingland -dot- com>]

Okay, here goes my third draft on this subject. I have read some quality
posts on this subject, and I feel I am now ready to respond.

I was in a union job before I decided to return to college and complete my
degree. I was working for a company that had a open shop, it is now a
modified shop. Given the opportunity to go back in time and make the
decision to join or not to join, I would not make the same decision I did
then.

I did decide to join the union, but would not do s again. I believed unions
in theory work, but in practice do not for the most part. Granted, I
belonged to a weak sister chapter of the UAW, and I may have a different
opinion if my particular chapter had more muscle.

I experienced working with people who did have to know what they were doing,
but that is all they did... what was in their job description and ONLY what
was in their job description. Hence, I believe that in some cases, unions
create lazy employees.

I did work in a similar manufacturing job before the one I just mentioned,
and it was extremely anti-union. You could get fired on-the-spot for not
working, and people did. But I would rather work at this place again before
my union place. Maybe it is my personal work ethic. I believe in a honest
day's work for an honest day's pay.

Now I did not swing so far and wide from my previous left-minded views to my
current right-minded views that I lost my senses. I do believe that there
are companies that are simply interested in taking advantage of employees
every chance they can, and that is where the "idea" of a union comes in, to
protect those employees.  Unfortunately, just as there is corruption in the
front office of companies, there is an equal level of corruption in unions.

One reply stated that employees cannot be fired for organizing. I disagree.
If management finds out about an employee attempting to organize a union and
do not approve, they will find a reason for giving the employee their
walking papers. That or make their life so miserable that they will quit.

I am not saying all unions are bad, but I simply cannot buy into joining
another union. I realize it is easy to say if you don't like your current
situation to find another one. I am single and do not have a family, but I
do have a large amount in school loans to pay off. I cannot imagine writing
without variety. My union job did not have variety. It was the same thing
day after damn day. That is what a union provides, complacency.

I better stop here because I could go on and on. But I think I hit the
points I wanted to.

Kelly


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Check out SnagIt - The Screen Capture Standard!
Download a free 30-day trial from http://www.techsmith.com/rdr/txt/twr
Find out what all the other tech writers, including Dan, already know!

Order RoboHelp X3 in December and receive $100 mail in rebate, FREE WebHelp
Merge Module and the new RoboPDF - add powerful PDF output functionality
to RoboHelp X3. Order online today at http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.