Labor Unions

DMW

Like most people, I support labor unions and think they have been very important over the years, but I'm starting to wonder if they do more harm than good sometimes. There's currently 2 strikes going on here in LA that are affecting me, and they're both a little troubling.

Firstly the grocery store workers have been on strike for over 2 months now, with now end in sight. At first I respected the stirke and tried to do my shopping other places. That was until I found out more details about the strike. To my amazement, these folks were making roughly $20 an hour plus benefits. The strike is about their healthcare and the starting wage for new employees. Maybe it's just me, but $20 an hour sounds like an awful lot of money for someone that just scans groceries. That's more than most teachers make in this country. As evidenced by the length of the strike, the demands of the unions simply can't be met during these economic times, and I think the victims of this whole situation are your average workers that just want to go back to work and support their family, but is bullied into striking by the unions. Most unions don't hold votes on strikes so these people really have no say.

The other strike is going on with the TA's at my school. They have gone on strike now, during our 10th and final week of classes, right before finals. They too are making unreasonable demands of the University of California system that has had it's budget decimated by our former government. I'm not sure about the grocery workers, but I know for a fact that most TA's had no say in whether or not to strike because they didn't vote on it. There's no way the University system can meet their demands, so everyone, especially the undergraduate students, get screwed.

So my question is; are unions dated? There was a time when they were needed to fight for living wages, but it's seems that more and more these strikes are motivated more by greed than fairness. Especially when the economy is down like it is now, I think these over zealous union leaders are doing a lot of harm to a lot of people. Is anyone really surprised that a grocery store can't pay people $20 and hour plus full benefits just to scan groceries? It wouldn't be much of a problem if there was an alternative, but unions seem to be everywhere these days. Walmart is the only store that I know for sure doesn't have a labor union.

I hope these unions start to realize how badly they've screwed up when they see that public support has shifted to their employers.