Re: NYT Article: Love the Worker, Not the Union...

[Bill Lear <rael@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tuesday, May 27, 2003 at 14:23:03 (-0400) Michael Hoover writes:
>...
>May 24, 2003
>By AARON NATHANS
>
>...
>Many [...] workers count on unions for gains in
>salary, working hours and conditions. ...

Actually, workers count on unions as an institution that is capable of
countering the power inherent in corporations.  Owners organize their
own interests under the legal umbrella of the corporation.  Workers
typically attempt to counter this with unions.  Why organizing a union
should be seen as anything different from or less valid than forming a
corporation is beyond me.

>                                 .... Sometimes these
>concessions drive prices up, and union campaigns often
>create bad feelings between labor and management. ...

Isn't it is typically the anti-union campaigns that
create the friction?  And why don't we ever hear this:

     Many wealthy persons count on corporations for lower salaries
     from workers, longer working hours and less favorable labor
     conditions in order to support higher stock prices, executive
     compensation, and higher profits.  Sometimes these conditions
     drive prices up, and corporate campaigns often create bad
     feelings between owners and society.  But the tension is
     especially striking at Whole Foods ...

>In a written statement, Michael Duffield, a company
>spokesman, said that Whole Foods fosters "a decentralized,
>nonbureaucratic environment, and this ability to be fast
>and flexible is a large part of our success."

In other words, a spokesman for a highly centralized, bureaucratic
institution is claiming that it fosters the polar opposite.

>"Work environments dominated by unionization are not often
>characterized in this way," Mr. Duffield added, "and that
>is why John Mackey, and Whole Foods Market, does not
>believe that representation by a union is in the best
>interests of team members" - the company's term for
>employees. Mr. Mackey declined to comment.

As usual, the best interests are to be determined not by the "team
members", but by the ruler of the institution, who knows best for "his
people", such as what color hair they should have, what decorations
they should put on and in their bodies, what clothing they should
wear, what political expressions are allowed, and crucially, how big
a slice of the pie that they produce is theirs to keep.


Bill