I remember a unionization campaign at our local chicken processing plant several years ago. Most of the workers were Guatemalans brought in (legally) by the company. However, they were paid so little they could not survive on their salaries. They could not search for better work because nobody else would hire them. Those who complained were summarily fired – with no money to go home and no money to live on, they had to survive on the help of their already struggling compatriots. When they eventually tried to unionized with the help of a couple of churches and the local high school Spanish teacher, more were fired, the churches were vilified in the press, and the Spanish teacher received multiple death threats. Oh, did I mention that they were allowed to live in only one part of town (which the company owned and “rented” to them. It was a run down trailer park. Unions, like companies, can do a bad job. But the need for them is very real – and when done right, they can work very well for both laborers and management. My father was management in a factory and got along very well with union workers. But the knee-jerk anti-union reflex is just plain ludicrous.
I remember a unionization campaign at our local chicken processing plant several years ago. Most of the workers were Guatemalans brought in (legally) by the company. However, they were paid so little they could not survive on their salaries. They could not search for better work because nobody else would hire them. Those who complained were summarily fired – with no money to go home and no money to live on, they had to survive on the help of their already struggling compatriots. When they eventually tried to unionized with the help of a couple of churches and the local high school Spanish teacher, more were fired, the churches were vilified in the press, and the Spanish teacher received multiple death threats. Oh, did I mention that they were allowed to live in only one part of town (which the company owned and “rented” to them. It was a run down trailer park. Unions, like companies, can do a bad job. But the need for them is very real – and when done right, they can work very well for both laborers and management. My father was management in a factory and got along very well with union workers. But the knee-jerk anti-union reflex is just plain ludicrous.