Unions Demand Another 'God-given Right'

January 15, 2003

One more reason not to like unions.

Workers at General Electric recently staged a two-day strike.   What were they striking over?   Their co-payments were going up an average of $200 per year.   That’s right.   $200 per year.   That’s less than $17 a month and they called a strike.   Forget the fact that employee health care costs for GE had risen from $965 million in 1999 to $1.4 billion last year.   Forget the fact that GE was absorbing over 90 percent of the increased costs.   The union at GE figures it’s the God-given right of every employee to have the company cover their health care costs.

They said as much when they contended that GE has the resources to cover the additional costs.   What the heck does that mean?   Just because the company can afford it, they should?   And the employees can’t absorb the additional costs? They don’t have the resources to absorb $17 per month?   If that’s the case, these people are living way too close to the edge.

This brings up the whole notion that the company owes employees health insurance - or anything else, for that matter.   The company owes its employees an honest day’s wages for an honest day’s work.   Period.   Once companies started adding benefits like health insurance to their compensation packages to attract workers, many began to look upon those benefits as rights.   They aren’t.

A spokesman for the Steelworkers union said, “Rising health-care costs put domestic companies at a disadvantage in the global market because they compete against companies whose governments subsidize health-care.”   In other words, either the government should pay for employee health care or the company should.   Heaven forbid that the employee who is using the health-care coverage should pay.   The truth is, what really puts domestic companies at a disadvantage in the global market are the unreasonable demands of unions.   This latest strike exemplifies that.

The next big God-given right is a 401(k).   Many companies already offer them for their employees, some matching a generous portion of the contributions.   When a company cuts back on those matching contributions, employees cry foul.   How dare the company take their money?

One of our sponsors provided us with free ice cream each Thursday.   After a couple of months it stopped.   One of my co-workers said that the employees were going to stage a strike until either the ice cream came back or we all got free gift certificates to Baskin-Robbins.  He was joking, of course, but I actually heard some complaints when the ice cream stopped!

Since when is it the company’s responsibility to take care of its employees?   One caller lamented that her husband had to have surgery and that their insurance costs had gone up and the company wasn’t taking up the slack.   I certainly have plenty of sympathy for those facing high medical bills but is that really the company’s problem?

What’s next?   Not enough groceries in the house so the company should buy them more?   Maybe they expect the company to pay for gas to get them to and from work.   Better yet, the company should provide them with a car.   Not just any car, mind you.   It has to be one befitting their social status.

Unions demand health-care coverage, pension plans, myriad vacation, sick and holidays off.   Even birthdays are holidays!   Where will it end?   I’ll tell you exactly where it ends.   The same place it’s ended for many workers in this country.   It ends when the company packs up and moves to Mexico or overseas.   Then the unions sit there scratching their heads and wondering why.