Unions are a Business

At CFC, we’re obviously in the business of selling groceries, and we’re committed to providing great products at value prices to our customers. You help us do that by providing friendly service and a lot of good work behind the scenes. The company needs to be successful to continue to provide good jobs and compensation for you.

Unions are also a business. They just don’t make anything. They have no products to sell. Instead, unions get their money from only one source – directly from employees’ paychecks. The only thing employees get in return is representation. You have to decide if that representation is worth the cost to you.

We don’t think it is.  And here are a few reasons why:

• Right now, you have a direct communication line to each and every Team Member, including every manager in the company. You can talk with those managers or the human resources department directly about your wages, benefits, and all other terms of employment. With a union, that wouldn’t be the case. You would have to talk with a union representative and work through the union to talk to CFC about your own employment concerns or issues.

• Unions do not pay for any employee wages or benefits. They simply collect dues from your paycheck.

• Employees are forced to pay the union, but don’t have much or any say over what the union spends that money on. It’s often high salaries for union officials and political donations to political candidates and causes you may not support.

• A union can offer no guarantees. With a union, all current wages, benefits, and working conditions are subject to negotiations. They could go up, stay the same, or go down.

• Unions sometime trade away employee benefits (such as a holiday or vacation) in bargaining to get things important to the union, like dues Check-off (the union’s right to take dues out of your pay before you get paid).

• Unions don’t add value or increase the bottom line of the company. In fact, it’s often just the opposite. Many times unions add to operational costs which can affect wages and benefits.

• Management and employees may lose flexibility in a union environment. Due to strict contract restrictions, management may lose its ability to treat employees as individuals on numerous issues. This can include promotions and raises being given based on seniority only, not based on who deserves them based on their work.

• Employees can lose “freedom” and, in some cases, “privacy” in a union environment. Individual issues often must be brought through the union and its shop stewards. They then decide what to take to management.

• Unions may control members by union rules and regulations, called “bylaws” that they write and interpret. For example, if you try to get rid of the union or cross a picket line, you could be disciplined by the union.

• Remember, the only way a union “business” can get money is from its members. A union doesn’t make anything nor sell anything. Dues, fines and assessments are its only means of making money.