Hopelessness in the Workplace

From CounterPunch:

But the steep decline in worker satisfaction is traceable to more than hard work and long hours. It derives from a lack of a sense of empowerment. It’s no coincidence that the dramatic increase in dissatisfaction corresponds directly to a drop in union membership. Whether or not people realize it, belonging to a labor union provides a great deal more than the higher wages and generous benefits typically associated with union affiliation.

In addition to better wages and bennies, a labor union offers a built-in and reliable means of problem-solving. You have a bad boss? You’re tired of being harassed or held to arbitrary standards? You’re getting all the crappy assignments? A union rep can help. He can file a grievance; he can go over the boss’s head; he can go over the boss’s boss’s head; he can yell and scream with total immunity; in short, he can wage a Holy War on your behalf.

And

And even in those cases when the union rep can’t “remedy” the situation—even when, in truth, it’s the employee himself who’s contributing to the problem—having the union as a Father Confessor or shoulder to cry on is a critical safety valve, a way of blowing off steam and, hence, minimizing on-the-job stress. With a union representing you, you’re never alone.

Conversely, when you have no union, it’s every man for himself. Being stuck with a bad boss in a non-union setting means you’re at the boss’s mercy. Dr. Samuel Culbert, a UCLA psychology professor cited in the Conference Board’s finding, maintains that too many Americans work in “toxic” environments. Consider: other than quitting or internalizing the problem until he grows a tumor, what can he do? Without a union, he has no lobby, no support group, no safety net.

More here.

Yeah, I'm working in one of those toxic environments right now.

I mean, it's almost nothing compared to the rank toxicity of the public school environment where I used to work as a teacher, but definitely toxic, and it's a real drag because it doesn't have to be that way. Without going into a long diatribe, the long and short of my situation as a waiter at a corporate chain restaurant in the New Orleans area is that certain managers are extraordinarily petty, spiteful, and unreasonably punitive. Demeaning dress-downs are common, for the slightest transgression. These same managers also tend to play favorites, using different standards for workers they like, who take full advantage of the situation, which is noticed by other workers, increasing the overall level of demoralization.

For the most part, I'm treated well by management. I work hard and intelligently, and know whose asses to kiss. But it's depressing, at best, simply to be in such an environment. I stay there because the money is good, and I like the work itself, but I'm not excited to be there, which definitely affects the quality of my service.

If we had a union, we could fix this, making a better work environment, thereby increasing the restaurant's overall profitability. But like most American workers, we have no union. So the situation will remain as it is until these crazy asshole managers move on to greener pastures.

That is, unions, contrary to what has become the conventional wisdom in the US, can increase productivity, and therefore the bottom line, simply by getting management and workers all on the same page. I know, I know: union corruption, union greediness, union overreach forcing companies into bankruptcy, all these things happen from time to time. But let's not forget that whatever transgressions for which unions are responsible are nothing compared to the transgressions of business. Economics is messy. If we're willing to put up with Enron, WorldCom, subprime mortgage fraud, millions of gallons of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, and on and on, then surely we can put up with some relatively insignificant union corruption.

You know, I've never understood the free-marketers point of view on unions. Okay, I get that businesses don't want anything or anyone interfering in any way with how they make money. That part makes sense. I'm talking about how, on the one hand, they insist that it is a violation of various rights and freedoms for business to suffer any and all regulation, while, on the other, they believe it is just fine to use government to violate freedom of association as expressed in the collective bargaining that is the union's meat and potatoes. It makes no sense. If you're free to use your money to establish a business, then you must also necessarily be free to organize with other workers in order to improve the terms under which you are employed.

Markets are for goods and services, not people. That is, the entire notion of labor as a market, which is the conventional view of both economists and businessmen, where people are literally bought and sold as employees, runs counter to the very notion of freedom itself. People are not products. People are human beings. Free men. And from that perspective, unions are as American as apple pie.

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