A one time AMFA member gave a bit of a speech to several other employees one day at work (DTW) about why he felt everyone should sign a card requesting a vote for union representation. He stated the workers, were underpaid and needed the protection of union representation. He strongly stated the union would be there to protect all the workers from the money grubbing over indulged CEO’s. The union would be there to force the company to treat all the workers fairly and raise the wages across the industry. He implored that without this representation the workers would be working for sweat shop wages in unsafe condition being taken advantage of by the companies slave masters which only want to profit by taking advantage of the work force.
We stood and listened, some shook their heads in agreement while others were visibly pondering his words. I raised my hand. This is what followed……
“I just want to get this straight. You want me to sign a card requesting a union vote for my protection. You want me to agree to pay money out of my paycheck for protection to an organization, so that that same organization can use some of the money collected from all of these peoples paychecks to blackmail the company we all work for. At which point, should this organizations threats and blackmail be unsuccessful I would be expected to walk off my job which would harm this company and cause me to go without a paycheck while the leaders of this organization would still be receiving their paychecks. So in short you want me to PAY for protection, in order to blackmail the company I work for and use my money to support politicians I may not necessarily support personally and you also want to use my money to pay other people to tell me I already do not make enough money? To me that sounds a lot like the Mafia and certainly sounds like racketeering. Though I certainly do not feel underpaid I do not need anymore money coming out of my paycheck and certainly not to pay people to tell me I do not make enough money to begin with. From what I have seen I do not need protection from my company or its management what I may need protection from is you and your “union brothers†with your threats of violence and the recent history of violence some of the union members from the very union you once belonged to engaged in. Grow up, if you do not like your job or you think you are treated so poorly there is a simple solution…QUIT. This is American we are not “allocated jobs†in this country we have the choice to work for a company or not. Further unions go out of their way not to recognize superior performance or superior ability rather the only workers the union seems to attempt to protect are those which can not do the job. Sorry I will not pay protection money to any organization I do not care if you call it The Mafia or A Union they seem the same to me.
Oh and how is that union thing working out for thousands of auto workers? Looks like they blackmailed the entire industry into bankruptcy to me.
We stood and listened, some shook their heads in agreement while others were visibly pondering his words. I raised my hand. This is what followed……
“I just want to get this straight. You want me to sign a card requesting a union vote for my protection. You want me to agree to pay money out of my paycheck for protection to an organization, so that that same organization can use some of the money collected from all of these peoples paychecks to blackmail the company we all work for. At which point, should this organizations threats and blackmail be unsuccessful I would be expected to walk off my job which would harm this company and cause me to go without a paycheck while the leaders of this organization would still be receiving their paychecks. So in short you want me to PAY for protection, in order to blackmail the company I work for and use my money to support politicians I may not necessarily support personally and you also want to use my money to pay other people to tell me I already do not make enough money? To me that sounds a lot like the Mafia and certainly sounds like racketeering. Though I certainly do not feel underpaid I do not need anymore money coming out of my paycheck and certainly not to pay people to tell me I do not make enough money to begin with. From what I have seen I do not need protection from my company or its management what I may need protection from is you and your “union brothers†with your threats of violence and the recent history of violence some of the union members from the very union you once belonged to engaged in. Grow up, if you do not like your job or you think you are treated so poorly there is a simple solution…QUIT. This is American we are not “allocated jobs†in this country we have the choice to work for a company or not. Further unions go out of their way not to recognize superior performance or superior ability rather the only workers the union seems to attempt to protect are those which can not do the job. Sorry I will not pay protection money to any organization I do not care if you call it The Mafia or A Union they seem the same to me.
Oh and how is that union thing working out for thousands of auto workers? Looks like they blackmailed the entire industry into bankruptcy to me.