The Unions' Dilemma

Let me say up front that I am not anti-union. Though I practiced labor law from the management side for ten years, I never busted a union... and never will. So these thoughts come with good intentions.

The unions' dilemma is that, if they are to retain the loyalty of their members, they must always bring home more perks. It's the "what have you done for me lately" syndrome. Perhaps organized labor deserves a share of the blame for not communicating well enough with members about how unions protect their rights and benefits. Or perhaps that wouldn't make much of a difference.

Regardless, the fact is that rank-and-file expect ever fatter wage and benefit packages, each time their reps go to the bargaining table. Unions end up pushing employers to the brink of bankruptcy in many instances. Employers for their part eventually start pushing back and/or finding ways to get out from under their collectively bargained obligations.

Fund raisers at non-profit organizations have a similar problem. No matter how much money they raise in year x, more is expected from them in year y. They solve this problem by changing affiliations often during their careers.Unions don't have that luxury. They must go back to the same bargaining table, on behalf of the sames bargaining unit, against the same employer, every three or four or five years.

Eventually, they end up --- as in Wisconsin, Ohio and New Jersey --- with (if the employers are public entities) the tax payers demanding that they get some relief. In the private sector, concessions are demanded.

(No surprise, of course, that CEOs and other top managers and directors continue to award themselves exorbitantly. Somehow, shareholders rarely raise much of a stink about that. Rather, it's the workers who take the hits when things go south.)

This, then, is the unions' dilemma: If they keep pushing for more, they will inevitably trigger a harsh response from the employers, whether public or private sector; if they ease off, they lose the support of their dues paying members.