Are Unions Discouraging Business In The Valley???

[Why?Town]

Unions had a place. (Note the past tense usage of the verb in that sentence)

They helped eliminate unreasonably long work hours, unfair treatment of individuals, dangerous working conditions, low pay, crappy/no benefits, child labor, etc. Anyone ever read bout the early days of Ford Motor comapany?  Pretty crappy place to work and Ford wasn't alone.

These aren't problems today thanks, in most part, to the unions, but there are laws in place to keep them from becoming problems again even without unions.

A big problem with unions is that they take the payroll amount that a company is willing to give and divide it pretty much equally among the members. I know it is not quite this simple but basicly the best employees subsidize the pay of the worst. This makes it common for many of the best workers to migrate to management and/or other companies, leaving a bigger percentage of laggards behind, which the union fights to protect.  At contract time the union wants raises but is "selling" a workforce that is now of lesser value to the company due to the migration. It's a tough sell and results in alot of turmoil and headaches for all involved.

I should add that I've worked in a local union shop (USWA )over 20 years and that 15+ years ago I migrated to management. Also my company built a new division several years ago, it is far enough away to minimize the chance of GM's UAW and/or IEW influenced people applying for a job.  My employer did contact the USWA about representing workers at the new plant, they weren't interested. Not enough union dues to make it worthwhile.

This brings up another point, unions today seem to be more interested in organizing already existing and well-paid workers as opposed to helping those already organized. I know that the USWA focused alot of effort to organizing North-Star Steel (it's something else now) several times in the 90's while ignoring many issues in my local union, even at contract time. I think it was because the added union dues from N-S employeess would far surpass any added dues from raising the pay of the existing members of my local. FWIW, N-S employees were making 50% more than the represented workers in my local.

[ValleyPurchases.com]

No the idea behind the first unions was smart, but they have done nothing they originally were created for. All they want is higher wages and their bosses to get cuts and for them to get everything a job could offer when they don't deserve it.

Some GM workers get 20-25 bucks per hour to screw a bolt onto a car; but they demand higher wages for it.. It makes me sick.

Union business in Youngstown is corrupt and discourages new businesses from coming to town... Look at Akron/Canton and see all the new development there due to no unions!

__________________________________________________________


You write no unions in Akron or Canton?  I suppose you mean considerably less Union organization than the Mahoning Valley. How do we know that the Akron and Canton areas have less union activities than this area in the past twenty years? Akron and Canton actually have several unions: Not to be a "know-it-all", and I am taking your response seriously but you can find many of them here: http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:n0DUiruCCTUJ:www.superpages.com/yellowpages/C-Unions%2B%26%2BLabor%2BOrganizations/S-OH/T-Akron/+worker+unions+in+akron+ohio&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us

[ytowner]

No the idea behind the first unions was smart, but they have done nothing they originally were created for. All they want is higher wages and their bosses to get cuts and for them to get everything a job could offer when they don't deserve it.

Some GM workers get 20-25 bucks per hour to screw a bolt onto a car; but they demand higher wages for it.. It makes me sick.

Union business in Youngstown is corrupt and discourages new businesses from coming to town... Look at Akron/Canton and see all the new development there due to no unions!

[ValleyPurchases.com]

Akron/Canton is doing pretty well compared to the Valley in ways. The Mahoning Valley is making some nice strides with IT (information technology). The "Incubator" down-town is a nice concept. The issue here is many of the IT jobs are non-union so this area is not as relevant to my question. Another issue relating to IT is that the area is getting exhausted in IT qualified people versus the jobs that are there to fill.

Ok back to Unions. Why do you feel that they were once so good for this area and the workers here and now they are such a bad idea? Are you saying the jobs are not there to fill in the first place? Or Perhaps both? Once again, I am simply researching this topic and I have no opinion as of yet.

Thanks for the input,

Ian Billen, with Valley Purchases

ValleyPurchases.com   

[jay]

The United Way appeal is about $400,000 short this year.  One reason given for the shortfall is the reduction in the union work force at the local Delphi and GM plants.  In the past, these union workers were very generous when giving to the United Way, food drives, and toy drives.

[ytowner]

You don't need businesses, you just need to look at Akron/Canton or other areas in the rust belt that have gone away from unions to see the brand new jobs they bring in from companies that do not want union workforce!

The idea behind unions was great back in the day; but ever since then they have beem a big mistake. People in this area feel they should get whatever they feel like it through their unions and it makes companies broke.

Someone needs to research this.
The amount of union jobs that has left the area over the past 50 years.
The amount of non-union jobs that has left the area over the past 50 years.

Then figure out the same for new jobs that are union and non-union.

I will assure you of this; union jobs lost heavily outweighs non-union jobs lost and there have been very few new union jobs created since Black Monday.

NO MORE UNIONS!

[ValleyPurchases.com]

Hello,

My cousin and myself were in a debate/discussion concerning the benefits and draw backs of unions in the work place. My cousin insisted that businesses are very reluctant to move into or build in The Mahoning Valley because they do not want any union involvement. He claims that businesses will not come to the Valley because of the fact that the organization may, by state law have to be unionized, and/or may have to include their workers in a union. He claims that the companies feel that unions are much more trouble than they are worth and loads are staying out of the area based on this.

I do not necessarily agree or disagree that there is some substance to his argument.

I informed my cousin I would like names of some businesses/companies that have chosen not to move into the area based on this fact. I also requested some factual information regarding the circumstances so I can research this.

Does anyone have any input on why, or why not this may be true or not true. Some factual information I can "google" would help greatly if you support this theory.


Thank you