Why should we care about unions again?
Transit workers strike in New York, leaving millions stranded during the holidays.
Believe it or not, I am not going to address the transit strike directly, but rather talk about my own unpleasant experience with a union. You see, one week due to heavy rains and thunderstorms, the DFW Airport was closed for four hours. That means, essentially, that many flights had been delayed for four hours or more. I arrived at the airport two hours early, as usual, to make up for the inefficiencies of air travel. By the time my flight was officially delayed, I had already been waiting two hours, and we continued to wait for another three. Finally, we were given five minutes to board the flight because if we did not, then due to union rules the flight attendants would not be allowed to work. The flight was full, with around 200 people who were now being told they could not fly to their destination because of the rules concerning three workers.
Now, at what point is this supposed to foster sympathy for the unions? This happens to me time and again where something can't happen or is delayed because of union rules. We, the non-union folks, are supposed to believe that unions stand up for the working man. Of course, I have also watched a union reinstate a worker who was fired for incompetence, and rightfully so. Unions only care about unions. They don't care if their demands are economically feasible, they don't care if the customers end up paying for the union's demands. Labor unions were started with noble intentions, but anymore they remind me of some sort of legal extortion racket.
I continually hear calls for a technologists union. I am totally against this. If other unions are anything to go by, our field will shrink, people will be reluctant to hire anyone except for positions they absolutely need, customer service and satisfaction will drop like rocks, and the industries that rely on us the most will also struggle the most to be a success. Maybe I'm off base, but this is all I see produced by contemporary unions. If they want public support, maybe they should think about what the public perception of them is.
Believe it or not, I am not going to address the transit strike directly, but rather talk about my own unpleasant experience with a union. You see, one week due to heavy rains and thunderstorms, the DFW Airport was closed for four hours. That means, essentially, that many flights had been delayed for four hours or more. I arrived at the airport two hours early, as usual, to make up for the inefficiencies of air travel. By the time my flight was officially delayed, I had already been waiting two hours, and we continued to wait for another three. Finally, we were given five minutes to board the flight because if we did not, then due to union rules the flight attendants would not be allowed to work. The flight was full, with around 200 people who were now being told they could not fly to their destination because of the rules concerning three workers.
Now, at what point is this supposed to foster sympathy for the unions? This happens to me time and again where something can't happen or is delayed because of union rules. We, the non-union folks, are supposed to believe that unions stand up for the working man. Of course, I have also watched a union reinstate a worker who was fired for incompetence, and rightfully so. Unions only care about unions. They don't care if their demands are economically feasible, they don't care if the customers end up paying for the union's demands. Labor unions were started with noble intentions, but anymore they remind me of some sort of legal extortion racket.
I continually hear calls for a technologists union. I am totally against this. If other unions are anything to go by, our field will shrink, people will be reluctant to hire anyone except for positions they absolutely need, customer service and satisfaction will drop like rocks, and the industries that rely on us the most will also struggle the most to be a success. Maybe I'm off base, but this is all I see produced by contemporary unions. If they want public support, maybe they should think about what the public perception of them is.
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