So let me get this straight: The United Auto Workers is about protecting the worker, but only in its specific view of worker protection.
OK, great.
If you needed any more reason to be wary of the UAW's strong-armed attempts to grease its wheels and fatten its pockets here, well, here's hoping you were paying attention earlier this week. This newspaper's business ace Mike Pare - who, by the way, is the go-to source for all things Volkswagen - informed all of us that the UAW has termed the American Council of Employees as "anti-union."
Did we mention that the American Council of Employees is a labor group looking to give VW workers a choice, even recognized by VW as such, but apparently that's not union enough for the Grand Poobah of unions that is the UAW?
This seems more like the UAW trying to monopolize Chattanooga rather than representing the VW employees.
OK, whether you believe in or bemoan unions certainly is your decision, and like many of the divisive topics that compose the fabric of our national discourse, there are positives and negatives on each side and how those pros and cons suit your life can alter perspective and choice.
Personally, I would say thanks but no thanks to union inclusion. The security of numbers and the potential bargaining power are not enough to sacrifice my professional freedom. I would always prefer to be judged on individual and team accomplishments rather than through a universal scope that mashes everyone into a hierarchy-based system using tenure as its most distinguishing characteristic.
Call me conservatively optimistic if you'd like, but I do not view the workplace as a one-size-fits-all model with negotiated terms. That model seems even more dated in an era of specialization and career nomads. Think of it this way: My father worked 46 years for the same company; this is my third career and fourth newspaper in the last two decades.
While some of you are wishing I was at any of those other papers or those other jobs, it's clear a system with multiple choices seems to expand some of those options for the workers. And isn't the overall goal of the union to benefit the worker?
The UAW has forever portrayed itself as being for the workers, a fact that can be debated vigorously on each side.
What can be universally agreed upon, however, is that competition is a great thing in all walks of business. If you are not competitive, you are cooked. If you can't believe in your way being better than the others, you're fooling yourself as well as your followers.
This competition certainly appears to be a better way to determine the lone labor voice moving forward as VW looks to form a works council, since a two-horse race is always better than a dog-and-pony show. This is especially true since VW's desire for the workers to have a voice is the only way the UAW knew where Hamilton County was in the first place.
So, if union representation is as essential as the UAW makes it out to be, how is a second option a bad thing?
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6343. Follow him on Twitter at @jgree son@timesfreepress.com.