There was a time in the US when unions were absolutely necessary. Back in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s industrial magnates ruthlessly exploited workers with 70 plus hour work weeks and dangerous conditions. There was hardly any oversight or protection from the government. Then many brave individuals began to organize in the face of violence and intimidation to make things better. When the Great Depression unfolded much was put on hold, but our greatest president of the 20th Century (FDR) had the guts to stand up to the evil and greedy industrialists and established workplace limits with 40 hour work weeks and required overtime pay. Safety measures were also implemented, along with Social Security.
Now fast forward to post WWII and the economic boom that followed. Unions dominated the US with the vast majority of workers enrolled as members. But when the rest of the world started to catch up and competition began to bear down, the corruption and humans’ default nature of going too far when unchallenged started to reveal itself. In other words, unions ended up gaining TOO MUCH power. I can give many examples. Firstly, take the automotive industry. By the late 60’s unions could make practically any wage increase demands they wanted and the big 3 would buckle almost every time, passing the extra costs onto the consumer. Also many employees simply weren’t doing a day’s work for a day’s pay. But when things got tough in the early 70’s with the energy crisis and Japanese competition, US car makers got their clocks cleaned with the gas guzzling junk that Detroit was putting out. When people bought a fuel-efficient Toyota that lasted for 250,000 miles with hardly any problems and the American garbage was lucky to make it to 100K without major engine or transmission failures, the chickens came home to roost. While the Japanese car company higher ups were concentrating on quality and efficiency in an environment of collective zeal, Detroit executives were on a 3 martini lunch trying to seduce the secretary. Add to it the mob influence that seeped into unions and the stranglehold unions had on most companies, it’s no wonder everything started to crumble.
I have worked at union and non-union shops and I will be the first to admit that it’s good to have some union manufacturers around to balance things out and keep the non-union companies honest, however the worker abuses that I’ve seen at union factories is unbelievable. I’d say about 1/3 of the workforce does virtually nothing, and management knows it but has almost no recourse because as I’ve heard many of the lazy bums say a hundred times: you can’t fire me, I have my union. And that in itself is probably the biggest problem I’ve seen with unions. When you don’t have the authority to fire a sorry SOB you’ll have a hard time competing with the Chinese, Japanese, etc. I’d rather work at a benevolent non-union shop where the employer treats its employees well.
Back to REI. Nowadays they have the likes of campsaver and backcountry to compete against and they are formidable. I am very grateful that REI has so many brick and mortar stores around the country and the sale they just had was awesome! I wish them the best, but again if you are an REI employee who feels that you’re being taken advantage of then perhaps get some job training in something like the medical field where you are more in demand and not so easily replaced. Nevertheless, I’m sure many REI employees are valuable workers with real knowledge on how to run the store well and I don’t want to diminish what they do. It’s just that today’s outdoor gear market is fiercely competitive and in order to keep from going bankrupt, REI may not be able to handle unionization right now.
