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Unions, No!

Article by Jasper Silvis

This is an important public service announcement. If you are a member of a labor union and have felt for years that your talent, dedication, discipline, and hard work have gone unnoticed emotionally and especially financially, you are not alone. More importantly, I bring good news that a better life is within your grasp. You just simply need to be shown the way.

Like many a parasite or cancer that slowly drains the host of its vital nutrients to stay alive, labor unions, from their inception in the early to mid 1900s have systematically drained ingenuity, productivity, drive, and desire to be better from the American workforce. In short, unions made standard what was once considered rare in America, “mediocrity”, a word so insidious and destructive to the American spirit, because it keeps you buried in low expectations like a drone, but not so far as to push you to make a decisive change in your life.

You see, before labor unions, most employees received pay based on a percentage of their company’s revenues in a given pay period. This pay structure gave incentives to the worker to earn more company business and be an advocate to the products or services of the company on and off work hours. Also, the work week was never defined by an arbitrary set of hours, but by an individual company’s needs pertaining to their industry. If a valued employee was ever dissatisfied with terms of pay, hours worked, or workplace conditions, and company management refused to consider the employee’s needs, the valued employee would either move on to another company more in-line with the employee’s needs, or would simply start his own business based on desired principles. Standard free market forces, the constant struggle to hire and retain valued employees, and the continuous process of creating and marketing valuable goods and services for a profit, provided the pressure needed for companies to determine appropriate pay and workplace conditions.

As a side note, labor unions pride themselves for establishing the 40 hour work week. They should take no honor in this setback. A company should be free to determine what their hours of operation are as demanded by competition within their industry. But ever since the 40 hour work week, employers had to increase the amount of workers required to do a job efficiently. This increase in cost is due to 2 conditions: overlap in employee shifts when employer has fixed hours of operation, and extended company hours of operation beyond the scope of their business to cover multiple 8 hour shifts. These replaced what would have been an employee working a 10-12 hour day to support the full operational hours of the company. This increase in cost did not get absorbed by the employer and the company, but by the consumer of the product or service in the form of drastic price increases since the early 1950s through to today. Also, the system of apprenticeship, where knowledge transfer of a trade and craft were disrupted by these artificial work time rules set by unions, causing a reduction in quality and an increase in time taken to master a craft.

Companies used to be a family, where managers and workers knew each others’ children and supported each other in hard times. The advent of the labor union caused a rift to develop between labor and management, no longer operating as a family but as a dysfunctional team, mediocre and somewhat tense relationships on good days, utter war on bad days. The seeds of mistrust have spread like weeds since the labor unions grabbed power. Just look at the automotive industry. In “right to work” states, where workers could choose whether or not to join a union, production is expanding (such as the Nissan plant in Tennessee). Contrast that with the automotive ghost towns of Detroit, Michigan, where labor unions put a stranglehold on productivity, not allowing management to make the necessary changes for company survival and profitability. Ever really wonder why automobiles produced in “right to work” states cost thousands of dollars less than union states?

So what happened? The root of the labor union is more philosophical by nature and started when 80% of the workforce doing only 20% of the work got organized. These are the people you know well. They are the ones who start complaining as soon as they clock in. They are the ones walking from station to station, cubicle to cubicle, interrupting the productive with endless conversations of how busy and overworked they are, speaking loudly of course, because it makes them feel more important. These whiners believe that their very presence deserves higher pay at least equal to that of the 20% of the people doing 80% of the work. They believe they are entitled to high pay and life-sucking and profit-killing retirement benefits just due to their years at the company.

And because they are mediocre in productivity and possess a pea-sized amount of initiative and determination, they are terrified at the thought of finding another job they would like better, so they demand yet another completely stupid concept… job security… a term, like mediocrity, that has robbed the American workforce of ingenuity and risk taking vitally important to advancements in technology, manufactured products, and services. Think of it this way: Who works harder to bring research money into a university, a tenured professor or one fighting to earn tenure? And do I really have to ask who is the better teacher in the classroom?

When unions do not get what they want, and without regard for the profitability and basic viability of the company they work for, they perform a ritual that is the largest combined organization of petty whiners and bullies known to man… the labor strike. Whiners spew complaints and demands at company executives while bullies prevent the productive from performing their agreed upon duties to keep their company alive.

Is that what this country, founded on the principles of rugged individualism, has been reduced to… complaining for a pay raise instead of earning it through increased profits to the company? Labor unions have completely and grossly altered the manner in which pay is determined, from merit based to seniority based. Unfortunately, you know this all too well. If you are still reading this, and have not thrown objects at your computer screen or at least some profanity at me, you are most likely employed at a company for about 2 – 5 years, are 10 times more productive than your co-workers that have 15 more years experience, but you receive less than half of what they make. They are the tenured professors of the labor union; refusing to be productive by choice, demanding productivity standards be decreased, while demanding compensation be increased, just for the honor to be able to bask in their glow. Now since your union has demanded pay be based on seniority, you will soon decide that it isn’t worth it to work hard and be productive. You will fall into mediocrity so slowly and painlessly that you will be to numb to recognize it.

Don’t let your union suck the dream from your soul. You know what you desire for your family and well being. Act now to take control of your life instead of having it dictated to you from a labor contract created without your consent or input.

Let me show you how to improve your situation without risking your current job. In six months or less, you could be saying “goodbye” to your union and “hello” to your individualism, unlocking the entrepreneur within you that is literally begging to be released.

Go to my website, YourWealthAdvantage.com, and review my information. It’s that simple. When you discover the simplicity of the system and recognize, as I did, the potential for financial freedom that is limited only by your determination to succeed and willingness to apply that determination into concrete actions, then complete an application, laying out your goals so I can work with you to lay out your plan for success. Once you complete an application, I will contact you personally. I am an internet marketing coach, working in the same manner as our great grandparents did before labor unions corrupted our country’s work ethic. I take personal responsibility in your success, getting you quickly to the point where you are coaching others and building a profitable business. Moving away from the wage based system into the profit based system is the only way to gain wealth and financial freedom, and will open your eyes to possibilities your labor union has shielded from you all these years. You will be limited only by what you believe you are worth and not by what someone else thinks you are worth.

Review the information in my web pages, starting at YourWealthAdvantage.com, and make a decision to run your own life. This is a serious business building serious wealth for serious entrepreneurs. Treat this like a hobby and you will fail, so don’t even bother continuing if that is your mindset. Knowledge plus action equals wisdom. Knowledge without action is a waste of life. Understand your current situation and take action today to change it. My team will be there to guide you.

I am a former aerospace engineer & software developer turned internet marketing coach, real estate investor, and fitness coach within a year. It thrills me to watch people I coach become coaches themselves, forever leaving a legacy that will endure as long as the entrepreneurial spirit lives on. Financial freedom is about time, not money. It is my hope that my articles help you to grow into the successful person you deserve to be.