LABOR UNIONS ARE CHANGING

Change is in the air. It is time for union leaders to embrace the change.I have hinted at it indirectly several times in several different blog posts, but it is time to say it directly. It is time to realize what is happening and for labor unions leaders to take charge of the labor market. No doubt, taking over the labor market will be a complicated affair requiring a number of changes in the basic way we think about the social order. It is imperative we do not damage our capitalistic system in the process. Some will think we cannot have labor unions controlling labor markets and still have corporate structures. I disagree. Companies hire and fire workers, which would not change. However, what would happen is we organized unions so that companies would come to union leaders to find workers to hire? Start with skilled labor. If the only way a company executives could find well-trained skilled workers were to go to the unions, then they would come to the union leaders to hire people. Just the idea that a company executive could come to the union and find a worker with the skills they are looking for would be the chief selling point of the union. The lazy and the drunks and in incompetent are not there. Just that one little step would shake up society in a good way. As a reminder, much of this is what unions are doing now; that is the objective of journeyman programs. In a way is what Angie’s list is all about but without proper evaluation of who is on the list. I want to hire a skilled finish carpenter and go to a union, who says that person is a journeyman; the union guarantees that I am hiring a skill individually. For example, union leaders would be promoting technical education in state and federal legislature by asking for tax money for those institutions in an organized way. Now, the general population, one parent at a time, asks for taxpayers to supports technical training and colleges for their children in an unorganized way. Technical school and college administrators have no sense of the job markets, but unions would have. In addition, unions would have been a source of skilled individuals in their regular members to help with the training. The objective of journeyman training is to know and keep the workers updated. Unions would be promoting job fairs and be able to take applications for skilled labor, but also be in a position to evaluate the skills of those workers. Union representatives would know how to correct the deficiency. This change would involve programs that are not now included such as both skilled and unskilled service jobs but are unionized. This segment of society represents the most workers; this is equally important to the union movement. With unions leaders putting emphasis put on worker integrity and experience where skill was not as big a factor as it is with skilled labor. Nevertheless, the union would function in finding labor to fill myriad job types. In addition, the unions would be in a position to promote updating skills and function by providing training centers for manufacturers to introduce widely used new programs, equipment, and machines both for skilled and unskilled workers. Just the idea that a manufacturer could go to a union leader that has access to all journeymen concerned with that type of equipment, and say they have designed and are selling new computer controlled equipment would be a great advantage to all manufacturers of complicated equipment. There is a lot of it out there ranging from floor vacuum cleaners to rocket engines. It should be obvious that this change would require a shift in the nature of union leadership from the historic 19th century contentious, head banging, fight over higher wages to 21st-century collaboration in the business world. The suggested change is from labor fighting business interest to and manufacturers and unions collaborating, which would be historic. URL: firetreepub.blogspot.com Comments Invited and not moderated