Small Business and The Union

Card Check is an important issue for so many businesses.

I wanted to share with you one story sent to us by a WIPP member:

 

Small business owners are losing sleep. Partly to blame is the current economy, but there is also a more alarming concern on the horizon, and that is the Employee Free Choice Act. We are concerned that should this bill become law, we will not be able to compete, continue to provide for the well-being and lively hood of our employees and their families, or grow our companies.  We treat our employees as family and believe fully in sharing the wealth. We know that if this bill becomes law it will create a rift in the family and will only discourage growth and soon a broken business. We will not be able to hire and may even have to reduce our current workforce, adding to the sky rocketing unemployment rate. Most of all we want to protect our employees' most fundamental right...to work. Unions hinder growth and are not the answer.

 

In 1962 in the small town of Rogers, Arkansas, an entrepreneur opened a retail store. The store was founded on the principle of providing quality products at fair and reasonable prices. This small store grew to be one the largest retail chains in the United States, employing tens of thousands of people in its stores, and distribution centers across the country. 

 

 In 1975 another entrepreneur worked with a handful of like-minded individuals in his parent's garage as they set out to create a system that would take computing from large warehouse machines to ones that now fit in your pocket.  This company grew rapidly over the years and now employs tens of thousands of people and has forever changed the way the world does business.

 

Who are the two companies? Wal-mart and Microsoft.  Sometimes we forget that very large corporations all started out as very small and entrepreneurial business.  In the early days of Microsoft, the company could not even make its payroll; instead it offered its employees stock certificates. There was no public offering of the company stock at the time; the certificates weren't worth any more than paper.

 

Yet these two companies today are responsible for creating an economic engine that helped to spring forth support companies, suppliers, warehouse companies, and manufacturing plants. Who among us cannot contribute some part of our current lively hood to one or both of these companies?  How many thousands of people are employed and their families taken care of because of these companies?

 

No one can deny that small businesses are the backbone of this country. The great ones grow up to affect change and economic growth like Microsoft and Wal-Mart.  The good ones provide for stable employment and a tax base for local communities.

 

One may ask, why do we not encourage more of these small businesses? Aren't they the ones responsible for creating a solid middle class in America and all of the opportunities surrounding that?   We do encourage small business. That's what makes our country great. However, the Employee Free Choice Act that is being pushed through congress by the Unions will discourage small businesses.

 

Unions want this bill because they are losing membership. Currently the unions only have 6.5% representation in the private sector workforce. The union cries out that corporate America has become too greedy, but they don't look to their own history of greed and corruption that ran rampant during the days of high union membership. Mr. George Santayana said it best when he said, "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

 

How will the unions intimidate? They want to remove the fundamental right of the secret ballot. Their answer is replacing it with a card check program.  If 50% + 1 of the company's employees publicly sign a union card, then the workers are organized. This creates an environment ripe with corruption and intimidation. People have a choice, go along with the group, or find yourself another job. In the end there are two losers, you and the company.

 

Now imagine... what would have happened if Microsoft or Wal-Mart were unionized in their early stages? Would there be a computer on just about every desktop? Would there be hundreds of thousands of people employed both directly and indirectly by both companies?  Would our country be as strong as it is today?

 

Unions had their place in our history and they did help to build America. But those days are long gone now. Unions know their time is past, therefore they want to rob the worker of the fundamental right of a secret ballot and bully their way back to the glory days.  The Union wants to create a system that levies heavy fines against a company that is providing for its employees well being.

 

If a group of workers feels that a company is not treating them fairly, well we do have free choice in America, and those workers are free to go work for another company. If enough people do, then eventually the bad company will fail, as no one will want to work for them.

 

Here it is, the demise of small business. We are selling America into the Greatest Depression.

 

Lisa Pineiro

Jeff S Ray

Technical Services Inc

Durham, NC