SOUND ADVICE FOR UNIONS

Currently the entire union movement is under pressure from a growing number of State legislatures, because of unsustainable public service employee contracts. Those contracts were approved by elected officials who have historically received substantial campaign contributions from unions, thus creating an overly friendly and complicit working relationship.

Emotions are running high, but it is clear that union membership has fallen dramatically to only about 12% of the total workforce. Loud, strident voices in the upper ranks of the union movement, such as self-serving opportunists Richard Trumpka (AFL/CIO President) and Andy Stern (President of the Service Employees International Union), continue to hold on to policies that were effective in the good old days when unions represented a substantial percentage of the workforce in America.

As a resident of one of the last communities in America with a strong union workforce presence (reportedly 25% to 60% in Michiana today) permit me to draw your attention to a very important article in the South Bend Tribune. Recently local union and management organizations sponsored an address by nationally recognized consultant Mark Breslin, who essentially told the union dominated audience that they better recognize that “Union entitlement is over.” Here is a link to the article:

http://www.southbendtribune.com/business/sbt-20110319sbtmichb-08-02-20110319,0,2323393,print.story

I suggest that everyone needs to hear the frank advice from authorities of Breslin’s stature, because it takes all the excessive bravado and emotional bluster out of the conversation. Unions have an important contribution to make to the American economy and workforce, and Breslin’s words go a long way in getting the discussion pointed in the correct direction. As he stated, “the Union culture needs radical change” or it will vanish from the American workforce.

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