“Faith-Based Federal Programs” should be an oxymoron. Whether under George W. or Barack O. , it is my opinion that no public tax dollars should flow to religious organizations of any kind. Period. This completely removes one’s personal choices about what religious values one wants to support. Talk about a complete violation of personal rights, this is it. It cannot get much more personal than this. What happened to the notion of separation of church and State?
Do you know who is to head the White House Office for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships? It is Joshua DuBois, a 26 year old. Think about this. Who do you know who is 26 that knows much about anything? At this age, no one has been on Earth long enough to have developed the maturity to handle this level of responsibility. This should cause one to think about Mr. Obama’s judgement.
Just finished reading an article in the Wall Street Journal about the so-called “Employee Free Choice Act“. If what I think this bill does is accurate, it cannot be allowed into law. It would be a disaster for small business. The key feature of this legislation, it appears, is that it would eliminate the employee secret ballot in a National Labor Relations Board supervised election to determine whether or not a Union will become the legal representative of employees at a company or not. The decision would be made via openly signed petition cards presented to an employer by a Union representative. The opportunity for intimidation and abuse by Unions would become gigantic.
Let me tell you a little story. I know a little about this having been the CEO of a company that had 2 union bargaining units; one in each of two departments. The total number of Union represented employees in both combined was about 40 employees of a total company employment of about 150 or so. We had another department of about 35 employees that was not Union represented. As it developed, we also had a manager of this department that turned out to be incompetent and a deaf ear to employee concerns. Upper management missed the signals of the situation and was informed by the NLRB that enough employees had indicated a desire for Union representation that an official election was to take place on a given future date to determine whether the employees in this department would “go Union”. Between the time of notification and the election, management had both the time and opportunity to listen and take needed positive corrective actions to address employee concerns. The department head was terminated a few weeks later. Others in management were given the opportunity to regain the trust of the employees and to open what had been blocked communications channels. The election took place. The employees decided they did not want to be represented by outside people after all. Had these circumstances played out under the proposed new legislation, the Union would have taken control of all negotiations of working conditions of the employees in this department. As it turned out, the working environment was made more positive but each employee retained the right to speak for himself or herself. Each employee retained the right for work performance and compensation level to be personal rather than mass determined. We became a better organization for the experience, but the secret ballot allowed for corrective action which was a win-win for both the company and employees in this department. Under Union representation, this would not have happened. The employees would have lost individual control of their employment lives.
Too many times, in my opinion, Union mentality breeds mediocrity. I know one journeyman electrician, now retired, that worked for General Motors/Delphi Corporation. He told me that many of the journeymen electricians went for lunch at a bar across the street from the plant in which they worked and stayed for hours about every day. I know a person who was a Union Steward at the same plant that used company assets and time for construction of his own home. He was on call 24-hours a day and was paid by the Union for this, but he had the time for carrying on other business enterprises. I know another journeyman pipe fitter that was told he would have plenty of time on the job to carry on an outside business; so, bring in his laptop to work to be able to do that. I know in my own past business that a machine operator could not change an ordinary light bulb on his machine without calling the machinist to do it.
I know what it is like to sit across the table from a Union International Representative to “negotiate” a contract when that representative new very little about the internal workings of our production processes. I know, too, that management withheld pay and benefits that would have been voluntarily shared with employees but for “negotiations”. These were kept back for bargaining chips. I know of employees that excelled at what they did and deserved more compensation than they received. I know of others whose performance was sub-par and were over paid. Both were paid the same because they were in the same job “classification”. The old story was don’t produce as efficiently as you can because you will be disciplined by the Union or co-workers either formally or informally if you do. It was my experience that Union representation was not a positive factor in the lives of the employees in our company. It hindered flexibility, stifled creativity and personal initiative, and limited change. We were very successful as a company and treated our employees individually with respect and care. I know, though, that we could have been better. I know, too, that I deeply resented outsiders coming into our company purporting to know us.
You can’t get something for nothing; that is unless you are one of the top execs at some financial firm or big company that has a Board of Directors consisting of either idiots or near criminals. I cannot understand the logic of paying anyone a “bonus” in a company that is losing money. Even more, I cannot understand the logic of paying someone millions of dollars to leave a company unless he/she has demonstrated in some significant way that he/she has benefited the company over a period of time. I learned not long ago…. and this completely shocked me since I come from the world of small business …… that executive level folks negotiate the millions they receive for severance at the same time they are negotiating employment terms before being hired. This is a complete disconnect for me. I can’t fathom agreeing to pay big bucks for departure before knowing what contribution or lack thereof an individual will make while employed at a given company. This is the height of stupidity.
This system cheats the people who own the company as shareholders. I have a feeling that the Board of Director mentality that has nurtured this environment is not one of integrity but rather one of greed. It appears this mentality is pervasive in our corporate world. This would never happen in the world of small business. In small business, if the company loses money, you sure don’t get bonuses. You may be lucky to retain your job regardless of how well you may be performing.
If nothing else, the move by the Obama administration to cap executive compensation in companies that ask for and receive significant tax payer support has brought more attention to the dishonesty and greed at the corporate executive level in this country. It remains to be seen as to whether the Obama plan will work or not. My highest hope is that the companies that have betrayed the public trust, like the Bush administration betrayed the public trust, will go down in flames. Maybe from the ashes something better will rise.