Freedom vs. Unions

My experience with unions have been very limited throughout my life having come from a right to work state. The only exposure has been in passing as I have pursued my personal quest to learn everything I can about individual freedom, natural rights, and the principles espoused by the founders of our great nation. In almost every instance that I have run across mentions of unions in my studies it has been in an example where the union is in violation of principles of freedom. So, needless to say I entered into my first encounter with a real union with a sour taste in my mouth.

I was hired by AT&T to work in their customer service and sales department, it had a decent starting base wage and offered "commissions" on top of it (I found out that the union is opposed to commissions because somebody with less seniority might make more than somebody with more, so they had to create an incentive program outside of our actual paychecks). I began with the excitement of starting a new job. I met the group that I would be going through training with and everybody seemed very professional and nice, and I generally get along with most people. I have since that day made many friends and a few good friends.

That first week we were introduced to the CWA which is the union "representing" anybody in the call worker industries. One of the first things out of the mouth of the union steward that covers the building that I work at was a comparison of the wages of the people that worked at that building and the CEO of AT&T, as if there is some actual comparison between her person skill set and her ability to command a high wage and the skill set and responsibility of the CEO.

Let me segway here to have a short discussion about individual freedom, capitalism and a free economy, because I think it applies to her thought process as well as many in society today who have not made a study of principles of liberty. All people, in all of the world have the natural right to be free from any type of force. This can be divided into two types of force, the first is physical force and the threat of physical force. This is the looter, thief, and all type of criminal that physically imposes their will on others, it also includes any government that imposes its will outside of its proper role through the threat of physical force if the will is disobeyed. This could be a brutal dictator, or a constitutional government, no government has the right to deny natural rights. The other type of force, and possibly the more sinister and destructive is the forcing of the mind. Thomas Jefferson said "I have sworn, upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man". He along with almost all of the founding fathers of this country were great advocates for reason and enlightened thinking, and sought knowledge wherever they could find it. Thomas Jefferson actually learned several new languages in his adulthood so that he could study the writings of various civilizations in their native writings. Lies and deceit, fraud and corruption, which is the forcing of the minds of others is immoral and should be fought with as much effort and vigor as any physical force.

In a free economy(the only moral economic system), where all men everywhere are free to trade with other free men, the only trading that would be done is where each party in the trade is trading something of value for something that they value more. In the case that we are talking about the CEO with his expertise and skill set, his experience and competence as an administrator and executive have been well earned and he is able to trade his unique skills to the company of AT&T for something that the company values more than the $20 million, which I assume is a well run and profitable company. This union steward I assume was trying to make the case that his job cannot be that hard, that it would be worth it for AT&T to pay an executive such a high salary. From the little bit that I know about this particular union steward, I believe she is a single mom, in her late 20s or early 30s and I do not believe she has any college degree, she has worked at AT&T for most of her career and except for union steward has never had any actual responsibility in her career. Do not get me wrong I am sure she is good at what she does, I hope so, at least after so many years at doing the same job. The company is willing to pay her $25/ hr plus bonuses, she wins because she values the $25/hr more than she values the time she spends at work and the company wins because they value the work she does more than the $25/hr they are paying her.

Throughout the presentation of the union to the class she kept throwing around words like "entitled", "deserve" and "fair", all words I have found in personal experience used by the looter. People that expect something or are entitled to something that is unearned solely because of their need. It is these same type of people that have put into place a "progressive" tax system in the US and almost every other civilized nation in the world. This system punishes success, the more successful you are, the more you are punished. The wealth is removed by threat of force from successful individuals and businesses and handed out in large quantities to unsuccessful individuals and businesses which gives less incentive to be as productive as possible to those that are inclined and gives no incentive to unsuccessful people and businesses to make the changes necessary to be successful, which leaves us in the situation that we currently find ourselves in as a country.

The oft repeated mantra of unions the world over is "workers of the world unite", and is understood by few who repeat it. This phrase was first penned by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in the Communist Manifesto, the authors of the manifesto also advocate, in their piece, for "abolition of private property", "abolition of the family" and marriage, as well as "abolish countries and nationality". It is appropriate that the CWA asks all of its members to wear red on Thursdays as a show of unity.

I was also told in the meeting with the union stewards that if I did not join the union that I was a free loader, getting the wages and benefits of the union members without paying dues. As if AT&T would not pay a skilled salesperson that has a proven track record and skill set as much as they would if I got together with a bunch of other employees and bullied the company through the threat of force into paying me more than I am worth. The only thing that the union has actually done is ensure that there is little to no ambition to improve yourself and move up within the company, and the income potential of the sales people is limited, to more equally distribute the pay among all workers. Also, that the pay favors those in seniority rather than those that are the most productive.

Workers of the world unite? I say give me liberty or give me death.