Submitted by Mother Jones (not verified) on Sun, 07/13/2008 - 7:09am.
I absolutely agree that groups of workers should have the right to choose what Union they want to be in, or indeed if they do not want any union at all.
But the unions themselves also have the right to choose whether or not they want to be a part of that kind of activity, or not. Just because a group of workers want to shop around for other unions, it does not automatically follow that those unions must make themselves available to them.
Good solid principled trade unions need to make exactly that decision. Do we spend the time, effort and resources of the union (which are considerable) in swapping around organized sisters and brothers like baseball cards, or fighting each other for those members when a "deal" cannot be worked out ... or do we just stop the insanity.
I absolutely agree that groups of workers should have the right to choose what Union they want to be in, or indeed if they do not want any union at all.
But the unions themselves also have the right to choose whether or not they want to be a part of that kind of activity, or not. Just because a group of workers want to shop around for other unions, it does not automatically follow that those unions must make themselves available to them.
Good solid principled trade unions need to make exactly that decision. Do we spend the time, effort and resources of the union (which are considerable) in swapping around organized sisters and brothers like baseball cards, or fighting each other for those members when a "deal" cannot be worked out ... or do we just stop the insanity.