Opinion
Labor Unions and Workplace Favoritism
I
have many discussions with
people who claim that they do
not need the help of a labor
union in their workplace. These
individuals will even go so far as
to suggest that they can get ahead
on their own and that a union will
get in their way.
It is difficult to argue with some-
one who is intent on believing a
myth. It is sort of like those peo-
ple who continue to believe that
the world is flat or that the Iraqis
had weapons of mass destruction
at the time of the 2003 U.S. inva-
sion. No matter what sort of proof
you put up, they have an “answer.”
But for the rest of us, it is worth
considering a common workplace
problem: favoritism. If we are
honest, we all know that if some-
one is personally close to a super-
visor or manager they can
frequently count on better treat-
ment. Most of us expect that to
happen and take it for granted.
Still, that does not make it right.
In fact, favoritism in the work-
place is a major source of demor-
alization for the workers. You
T RANS
A FRICA
Bill
Fletcher Jr.
work hard and expect to be
rewarded, only to find out that
someone else who just hap-
pens to be friendly with man-
agement is being treated better
than you.
Perhaps you are lucky and
there is a human resources
department at your work-
place. Maybe it is just one
person, but in any case, you
can go and speak with them.
If you do, I am sure that they
will offer you coffee or tea,
and an opportunity to share your
pain. At the end of the discussion,
however, nothing has changed.
Absent a labor union, a work-
place has only the rules that are
demanded by government or cre-
ated by management. The thing
about management’s rules – and
this is the kicker – is that they do
not have to go by them. That’s
right. They can set up a “person-
nel policy” that says that promo-
tions are based on the best
qualified person and, presto, the
best friend of the manager gets the
promotion and there is not one
Another, and very ironic side to
all of this, is that someone who
was playing footsy with a supervi-
sor could find themselves in a very
different situation if a new super-
visor appears on the scene. The
conditions that supervisor X set up
can be changed by the new super-
visor Y. The person who was the
recipient of favoritism, in other
words, can find that they are on
the “outs” with no explanation or
objected to legislation to create
health and safety protections for
workers. The owners simply did
not want to be accountable to any-
one.
The most consistent answer to
such lawlessness, then, ends up
being a labor union. A union can
negotiate a contract/collective bar-
gaining agreement with an
employer that emphasizes fairness
in personnel decisions, including
promotions. None of this
is onerous. It is just ensur-
ing that workers are treat-
ed with respect. This is
what always makes it so
odd when you hear politi-
cians attacking unions.
Why are they afraid of
workplace fairness?
Absent a labor union, a workplace has only
the rules that are demanded by government
or created by management. The thing about
management’s rules – and this is the kicker –
is that they do not have to go by them
thing that you can do about it
unless you can show that there
was some sort of discrimination
based on race, sex, religion,
national origin or disability.
apology.
In the U.S.A. , many if not most
owners of companies do not want
to be obligated to follow any rules.
This is why so many companies
Bill Fletcher, Jr. is a
Senior Scholar with the
Institute for Policy Stud-
ies, the immediate past president
of TransAfrica Forum and the
author of the new book “They’re
Bankrupting Us” – And Twenty
Other Myths about Unions.
Obama Needs to Project More than ‘Hope’
T
he primary goal of the Dem-
ocratic National Convention
in Charlotte, N.C. this week
is to highlight the sharp contrast
between the policies of President
Barack Obama and Mitt Romney,
his Republican opponent.
In the past, political conventions
were used to count delegates to
determine each party’s respective
presidential nominee. That has
changed in recent years, with the
ballot outcome already determined
by the time thousands of delegates
roll into a city for the convention.
Today, the speeches are directed at
millions watching on television,
the Internet or a mobile device, not
the people sitting in the conven-
tion hall.
Republicans concluded their
T HE C URRY
R EPORT
George E.
Curry
who couldn’t carry his own
precinct in his bid for governor,
Team Romney made a major
appeal to its base. And the selec-
tion of Paul Ryan as his running
mate served to underscore that
point.
The problem for Republicans is
that the election will largely be
decided by undecided independ-
With shifting U.S. demographics, the
Tampa gathering may be the last
national political convention that
Republicans or any other party can
make a race-based appeal to White
voters
national convention in Tampa and
for the first time in 60 years, the
GOP nominee didn’t make the
argument that his party will do a
better job in foreign affairs. Presi-
dent Obama took that issue away
from Republicans by ending U.S.
involvement in the war in Iran,
bringing troops back from
Afghanistan and approving a mis-
sion that resulted in the death of
Osama bin Laden.
With shifting U.S. demograph-
ics, the Tampa gathering may be
the last national political conven-
tion that Republicans or any other
party can make a race-based
appeal to White voters. Despite
token appearances by former Sec-
retary of State Condoleezza Rice
and Artur Davis, a former Demo-
cratic congressman from Alabama
ent voters. And Romney, a Massa-
chusetts
moderate-
turned-
conservative, can’t afford to
appeal directly to that group with-
out alienating ardent conserva-
tives already suspicious of him.
Except for a speech to the
NAACP annual convention in
Houston, Romney has done little
to appeal to African-American
voters. Not that it would do him
much good. A recent NBC News/
Wall Street Journal poll showed
Romney getting zero percent of
the Black vote. Of course, that
does not mean no Black person in
America will vote for him.
Instead, the zero was in a poll
with a margin of error of 3.1 per-
cent. That means that Romney
probably will not match John
McCain’s unimpressive 4 percent
in 2008. By comparison, George
W. Bush captured 11 percent of
the Black vote in 2004.
Both Obama and Bill Clinton
were elected president without
receiving a majority of the White
vote. And Obama can do it again
this year.
Look at how this plays out in the
battleground state of North Car-
olina, which Obama carried by
only 4,177 votes – or 0.3 percent –
in 2008.
Blacks make up 22 percent of
North Carolina’s population. Over
the past decade, 1.5 million people
migrated to North Carolina – 61.9
percent of them non-White.
According to demographers quot-
ed by the Charlotte Observer,
Obama can carry the state by win-
ning just 36 percent to 37 percent
of the White vote.
Obama’s larger problem is that
after campaigning four years ago
on a theme of hope and change,
there is not much of either today.
His severest critics note that after
promising change – that’s about
all they have left in their pockets
after nearly four years of his lead-
ership.
The test this week for Obama is
to demonstrate that he isn’t the
same naïve former U.S. Senator he
was four years ago in Denver.
With Republicans hell-bent on not
seeing Obama return to the White
House, he needs to show that he
has more than just the audacity of
hope.
George E. Curry, former editor-
in-chief of Emerge magazine, is
editor-in-chief of the National
Newspaper Publishers Associa-
tion News Service.
Week on the Web
Live coverage of the
Democratic Nation-
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USA News
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September 5, 2012
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