Thursday, May 08, 2008
Fucking Unions
A few hundred years ago, unions may have (I emphasize, MAY HAVE) done beneficial things on behalf of the employee.
Since that time, though, they have become nothing more than corrupt methods for organized thugs to get paid for doing nothing but leeching from an economic system that would be performing much better without the drag chute of work disruptions.
Simple economic fact, folks: the market for unskilled labor will ALWAYS pay less than the market for skilled and trained labor. Why? Because you can hire anyone to push a broom and be assured that the job will be done adequately, but you cannot hire some Joe Stumblebum off the street to run a company successfully (id est, to show a profit under rapidly changing market conditions).
One story on the morning news out of L.A. is a group of janitors from their Union out protesting and on strike for more pay. What are they thinking? They are JANITORS - the indoor equivalent of ditch diggers. If they want more money, then I have a suggestion: GET A BETTER JOB. Get that diploma. Get some college courses under your belt. Get some job experience. Learn a trade that is more important to the economy than pushing a mop around a tile floor, and you will make more money.
That is how our system works. I started out working as a newspaper delivery boy. I stepped up to grocery bagger at the local Albertson’s, then to retail sales at the mall. I worked hard, kept my eyes open and my mouth shut, and “et what was give me”. I strove to be more valuable to my employer than the weekly cost of my paycheck cost him, because that is how one gains job security. With every job I had (and I went through a whole bunch of them), I learned something that would help me in future jobs. Now I run my own business (and not too shabbily, if I may say so myself), and have to measure the work of others.
The employers who are currently suffering without janitors for a few days ought to fire the lot, and hire the first group of people to apply as replacements.
Like I said, there isn’t a whole lot you need to know to be a janitor. Even I could do it.