Unions suck

I was at a neighborhood get-together the other night. I try to avoid this sort of thing, but the farm manager insisted.

One of the guests was a guy who works for the local school board. Apparently he is an "EA", or educational assistant.

Mr. EA was quite beside himself that every payday there are a few dollars deducted from his check for union dues.

Unions are an anachronism he said. Well, he didn't use the word "anachronism", but he did say that unions suck.

They protect the weak, he said.

Maybe when there were children working in mines and the workday went to fourteen hours, there was a need for unions, he opined. In the modern era they are just taking his money.

I was sorely tempted to interject, but because the farm manager wants to stay on good terms with the locals, I refrained.

Mr. EA is right of course. Unions do protect the weak. The lame and the halt too. And the gay and the colored and all sorts of sundry misfits who may not meet the approval of the boss' gaze on any given day.

Mr. EA, as I understand it, makes 25 dollars an hour to help "challenged" teens learn grade two math.

I'm guessing that the only reason the school board can't find some willing person to do that job for minimum wage is because Mr. EA is protected by a union contract.

After all, there can't be a shortage of folks who get grade two math. Like anybody who already passed grade three math for instance.

But there he is, whining about those ten bucks that come off his pay every two weeks.

You're right Buddy; unions suck.

But right-to-work and minimum wage sucks even more.