I find that this is not true. In most large corporations, it is impossible to fire anyone unless they are caught in a dishonest act, gross incompetence (losing a great deal of money) - or have an excessive amount of tardies or absences. In my company, every company I have worked for, and from talking with other people, practically every company everyone I know has worked in - you cannot fire someone for being incompetent.
Companies are so afraid of wrongful termination lawsuits that it almost cannot be done.
So your company has an open door policy. That’s wonderful. They all do. I suggest that you test it by getting a bunch of your co-workers to gether and going into the open door together. Hell, you might even let all your fellow workers that you are inviting them all over after work to discuss work related questions like wages, benifits, and conditions. Maybe you could suggest that the group elect a spokesperson (You, maybe?). That way, when you all went in to see the boss under his open door policy, you could speak with one voice.
When you suggest to your fellow workers that they have a constitutional right to assembly and speech and labor law forbids retaliation against them for concerted activity, watch them get all nervous and run for the exits. Do they know something you don’t? Damn straight. They know the surest way to get shit canned is to exercise your constitutional rights on the job.
Now since there is already a union present on the job, the boss will likely be slighly more reluctant to create a martyr and prove the union’s point, so this really isn’t a good test of the program.
Join the union even if it is run by
incompetents or appears to be doing nothing. Without unions all those who work in non-union places would be slaves along with everyone else like it was during the time that Charles Dickens described. Don’t be misled into thinking that the leopard has changed it’s spots. It is merely on a leash, abeit a very long and weak one.
The union train will eventually carry everyone to freedom. This is the judgement of history.
The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it. (Karl Marx, 1845)
I have never worked for a union. There are instances where unions are necessary…and instances where they are not needed. I am very fortunate in that the company I work for has always treated its employees very decently. We recently purchased a company in another state that does have parts that are unionized. Our company has decided to honor all union contracts. Of course this killed us because our company discovered that the benefits we have far outweigh the benefits offered by the union. The pay was off by as much as a dollar an hour for like positions. They sick pay, insurance benefits, vacation…all were beneath ours. Of course even with the union we will raise their benefits to meet ours. I’m not talking about a poor state here…the company we bought out is in Florida.
I dated a guy who was totally a union man. He was brainwashed totally. My benefits are better than his were. The people in his company were not required to join the union, but they enjoyed the union benefits. He talked about these fellow employees like they were the scum of the earth. I explained to him that they have the right to do as they like. He watched every move made by the company, he was a shop steward, and it was a constant fight. I would not have worked there. Why work somewhere if you can’t trust the people you work for.
One guy in Ohio told me, the only difference between a union and non-union company…in a non-union company the company screws you, in a union company you screw each other. He worked in a closed shop.