I recently had a discussion with a friend in which this friend stated that they felt that they were deserving of a substantial pay raise among other really nice upgrades to a new contract. The union where we work promotes this idea. They continue to say we are worth it and that we deserve it. My friend felt that because they had sacrificed and suffered many trials throughout their career, with many other companies, in other places and gained all kinds of experience, they were now deserving of the rewards (I am referring to tangible rewards, such as cash) and that this company should be the one to pay up. They had climbed to the top and they now want those tangible rewards. Now, I have to admit that I did not sacrifice or suffer nearly as much and I also work for the same company. So would someone like me deserve the same rewards as my friend, even though I did not sacrifice as much? Or did I just get really lucky to work here with them?
The caveat I see to this 'reward' is that it might price us right out of the market. Like so many union jobs in this country, I believe that some union laborers have essentially priced themselves out of a job. When there are so many other people in this world both in the US and in places like China willing to do your job for less in a newly emerging world economy that is driven mainly by costs, why would a US company continue to employ you. In some cases the end results are that there are job cuts and more people out of a job just so you can have your huge pay raise.
For example, at a particular industrial plant, jobs are being cut at a significant rate. The union labor at this plant is just not cost effective. The wages paid are too high for the inefficient labor they provide. For instance, if you need to turn on a machine - a simple task that should take but a few seconds - can take up to an hour to accomplish. Apparently only the electrical trades are allowed to turn on/off the machinery. Unfortunately trying to find one of these people is like digging for a needle in a hay stack and when you do find them they are on their 'break' and will not be able to assist you any time soon. The end result is that trying to do maintenance on a machine that should have taken only a few hours, takes all day. Some of these people are paid wages far in excess of other people in other jobs, other states or other countries. So when the company says we need to be more productive and cost less, these unions fight for status quo or even pay raises! Is it any surprise that those jobs get shipped off shore? All this so that a few people could claim their rewards! Were they deserving? Were the people who lost their jobs deserving of that fate?
As for the reason for deserving the tangible rewards, so what if you worked really hard. There are no guarantees in life. No one came up to me and said if you sacrifice and work really hard you WILL get these tangible rewards, only that it is possble. I was always told that it is better to try and fail that to not try at all. So does that make me deserving? There are many people out there who work and sacrifice more than I can possibly imagine and they never see the rewards. Then there are people who do nothing other than being born into the right place or are just simply lucky and are in the right place at the right time that see more rewards than you or I can imagine. What did they do to deserve to win the lottery or inherit a large sum of money? I was taught to be happy with the satisfaction of a job well done and that a job is not worth doing unless it is done right. But I was NOT taught that I would definately receive all these tangible rewards if it worked really hard.
What happened to the satisfaction of a job well done? What happened to the simple pride of accomplishment? There is nothing wrong with doing a job to the utmost of your ability and 'rewarding' your self with the knowledge that you did a great job or you accomplished that amazing feat. For example, climbing Mount Everest. The reward you get is that fact that you actually climbed Mount Everest and live to tell about it! What an amazing story! And if you get some tangible reward, then that is like the icing on a cake. I believe that the danger is coming to Expect that delicious icing. Of course the possibility of getting a reward for a job well done is a tantalizing carrot dangling in front of our noses. There is nothing wrong with 'going for the gold', just don't come to expect it. You might get caught in a cycle of desire - always wanting what you don't have. You start to expect that tasty little carrot and start to think that you deserve it!
Of course I am not suggesting that you run out and offer up your services for free (not many of us have the same altruism of Mother Theresa) or that you should just accept substandard pay and let someone take advantage of the services you provide. I think we should be asking ourselves if the pay is a fair one. Does it meet our requirements and what we think we are worth - realistically worth (because I think I am worth a billion bucks!) Is it what your employer is willing to pay? Is there some middle ground you can meet on? Just because a company can afford to pay me the 'billion bucks', should it be required to so? I think this is where greed steps in. My greedy self says "oh yes"!! My realistic self says "I love what I am doing and I can't believe that someone is willing to pay me any money at all to do it." Of course I realize that I am lucky anyways in that I love my job and I am able to get a 'reward' in that satisfaction. For others, sometimes the only satisfaction comes in the form of money. So I can understand the desire of deserving a huge monetary reward.
But I am still having a hard time following the logic that you get what you deserve. If you sacrificed and worked so hard just for that money, won't you be let down if you don't receive it. If you worked so hard and sacrificed for just money, why not channel all that effort in doing a job that makes you happy or at least content? So that the satisfaction of a job well done, a job you at least like doing, can be the reward you are looking for. I can see a lot less disappointment and a lot less desiring what you don't have. That kind of reminds me of a dog running around in circles trying to catch its tail and never quite succeeding and only ending up really dizzy!
In addition, I can not escape the idea that life can be very unfair and uncertain. It would be nice to think that rules like - the harder we work or the more sacrifices we make the more reward you will get - that the lazy people will get nothing that they didn't earn. You reap what you sow. How nice that would be if we lived in a vacuum and that was an absolute. But as any good farmer will tell you, you can sow the best field in the county using the best fertilizers and the best seeds all in the neatest rows, but if a tornado or horde of locust destroys that, you will not be reaping anything more from that crop than the farmer down the street who didn't bother to sow any crops at all.
Life does not exist in a vacuum. There are so many things that affect each other. We are all interconnected and interdependent with each other. We wouldn't have our jobs without the company to employ us and the company would not be a company without the people to make it work. I believe people need to consider the consequences of disrupting that balance before they do. Is the company really taking advantage of your services? Are you being realistic with your needs and demands? Life is not as easy as those nice little absolute rules. So if deserving more could hurt other people, would you want those rewards? I guess what I am wondering is where does deserving end and greed begins?
3 comments:
Such an ambitious first post!
I think you have raised some of those nigh-unto unanswerable questions. Several thoughts (in the spirit of good dialog and with maybe just a pinch of devil's advocacy!):
First, I think it's sometimes difficult to know the meat of a thing by looking at its fringe. Politics is rife with this, with each side using the most egregious failures of the other side as being EXEMPLARY of that side; but of course the truth lies somewhere in the middle. I think unions are certainly not immune from many of the criticisms you raise, but I would argue that the difficulty in these cases is in the justice of the thing pursued by the union rather than in unionism generally (and I'm sure you'd agree with that). A union at its core is only a body politic which is organized to speak with the voice of the group. I'm reminded again and again that organizations have the evil tendency to have their own perpetuation as the first order of business.
Second, I think that while I also wonder at what is deserved, I think this side of things rarely comes into play at a practical level. Contract provisions are a function not of justice, but of negotiation and what the market will bear. Maybe this is sad and ugly, but I think deserving is a philosophical thing that often does not mix its water with practical things.
Lastly, I would say that the problem of letting people do a job who are willing to work for much lower wages is the problem of trying to equalize economies of societies in very different stages of development, like air rushing from high to low pressure (and with an urgency that directly reflects the discrepancy between the airmasses). Someone from (to pick a place out of a hat) China does not expect 1) to live in the kind of house that Americans are accustomed to, or to pay anything like what an American expects to pay for housing; 2) to drive a car like almost every American drives; 3) to pay even half of what an American spends on food and basic sustenance. You get the idea. The fact that they can live on less is not a JUST pressure on us, even if it is a REAL pressure. This pressure will be a part of our world until our economies have equalized, which is decades (centuries?) away.
Just some thoughts. Welcome to the blogosphere!!
This is so much fun! Love this kind of dialog....
I do agree that I am taking a broad and generalized look at Unions. I did point out the worst about Unions inorder to prove a point and that is not exactly fair. Unions did and still do, to some extent, have some very positive benefits.
However, I do not believe that Unions are only a body politic organized to speak with the voice of a group. In this case I am reminded of a particular human trait: bias. I question the motivation of the Union leaders. I believe that some of the larger Unions put their own perpetuation or survival of their jobs in the Union above the interests of the rank and file. Or as in the case of our own Union, their own interests in retirement above the interest of the majority of the group. I question the motivation behind the descions made by the Union. And so I question the very thing that the Union pursues, the motivation behind it and yes idealistically the justice of that thing pursued. I believe that Unions can sometimes become a body with a mind of its own.
Then of course I see a flaw within the very function of the Union. HOw can they speak with the voice of the group. In our case, we all have our own ideas and opinions and we all tend to speak up, especially at the same time and all I can hear is cacaphony (the loudest being a very vocal minority - the proverbial squeeky wheel). So how can the Union possibly negotiate for all the members. From first hand experience, I can say that, in general, members of a Union usually have diffent ideas about what they want. How do you satisfy everyone? There will always be some people who are dissatisfied. And this is gearing up to be a different blog...
Anyways, I do agree that 'deserving' is a philosophical thing. I was trying to figure out how, if at all, it might mix with practical things. I do agree that practically speaking, negotiation is mostly a function of what the market will bear and that is indeed a truly sad thought. I realize that I was being idealistic, which is rarely ever realistic.
As for what the market will bear, I will agree with you that the 'air' pressure from China and others is not JUST, but it is still very REAL. I was trying to make the point that I think it is a mistake to ignore foreign economies and the pressures they exert. We should not turn a blind eye to the effects that an economy like China has on us (the USA). I am reminded of early American history - what I remember of it - in which our labor(many of whom are immigrants - another blog) and our materials (cotton, steel, lumber etc..) were far cheaper than our European counterparts. The Europeans were having to deal with the same weather phenomenon that we are now having to deal with: another economy that can provide labor and materials far less than we can. We had the cheap labor (then enter the Unions and another blog) and cheaper materials (like what our steel mills provide then and now).
Like the Europeans before us we must now face the problem of the equalization of economies. The Europeans were proactive about it and survived. My point is that the USA is not being proactive and is turing a blind eye to the problem. We continue wrapping blankets around ourselves trying to maintain our insular lives.
Coming back around to Unions again, they (not all - but some) are perpetuating this attitude even exacerbating the problem (by not neogtiating with this problem in mind, they are driving jobs away into China). So again I question how are the Unions facing this problem. It would appear that some are more interested in self preservation (their nice lifestyles paid for by union dues...I know I am generalizing) rather than the rank and file. There was a recent break within the ALF-CIO. I wish I could remember the interview with one of the newer Union leaders who is facing these 'dicrepancies between the airmasses'. Trying to work with companies and employees to find a middle ground to help this ear-popping equalization. He had some very interesting and innovative ideas. Again this is leading to another blog...
As for the standard of living in places like China, I am very familiar with it. I lived in 3rd world countries. I've seen first hand how these people live. I also realized that these people were not unaware of what other people in other countries have. Another human trait: Covet. To covet what your next door neighbor has or in this case what other economies have. It is my belief that history will repeat itself and China and others will find them selves just as we are. Then all this ear-popping weather phenomena will slow down.
Hopefully anyways...Of course we might be here in the next hundered years due to any number of reasons...Another blog...
Okay I am done now, how did I do? Point, Counterpoint, this is fun. Anyways, what do you think of the recall vote for Tom? recalltom.org
or is that another blog as well?
From the pan into the fire...
I've been away for a bit in New York.
I would only add, or reinforce your comment about how a union can find itself caroming off in a direction not mandated by the rank & file. I'm reminded (I'm repeating myself) that ANY institution (any church or government or other managerial entity) very soon has its own perpetuation as its first order of business. Often these leadership positions go to people fond of hearing themselves speak, fond of having supporters follow them around spouting psalms of praise. And soon they are listening to the little voices inside their heads rather than following their mandate.
I think no body like the collective voices of our union speaks with a single voice, except by a kind of amalgamating process that tallies the votes and says "THESE are the issues most supported; these the ones least supported." That results in, hopefully, the greatest number of people being happiest in the greatest number of areas--while acknowledging that virtually no one gets everything they want.
Compromise--the ugly reality of a dirty democratic process!
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