A recent Gallup study shows lower overall job satisfaction for unionized workers due primarily to the sense of division and hierarchy in the workplace. The study was based on 149,514 interviews of union and non-union workers in the public and private sectors. The Gallup Healthways Work Environment Index questions were designed to test for certain factors shown to relate directly to various desirable business outcomes, including customer engagement, turnover, absenteeism, and productivity. The study thus suggests unionized workers’ may be far less engaged with their jobs than non-unionized workers. “The research shows that union workers are more likely than nonunion workers to consider their supervisor a “boss” rather than a “partner,” and less likely to believe their supervisor creates a trusting and open environment. It is not known whether certain types of workers who view supervisors in these ways are more likely to seek unionized jobs, or whether a unionized work setting changes the ways in which workers and supervisors relate. Nevertheless, the relationships show in general that, even after controlling for relevant demographic and geographic variables, workers who are members of unions score lower on the Gallup-Healthways Work Environment Index, which could have a bearing on overall employee performance in those settings.” Unionists might argue that unions are more prevalent in industries and to employers that typically suffer from bad management. However, given the current low union density it hardly seems likely that unions have somehow cornered the market on poor employee relations. We offer a third more plausible explanation for this phenomenon, far more likely than non-trusting employees seek union jobs or bad managers draw unions to them – unions promote division and mistrust in the workplace. (And frankly, we’re shocked this didn’t occur to Gallup!) And, if nothing else, the past month of union theater in state capitals across the Rust Belt should have reminded us all how unionists demonize anyone black-hearted enough to run a business, make a profit, balance a budget or manage others for a living. For just one of ten thousand examples, SEIU is promoting Take Em’ Down, a song by Dropkick Murphy, as the new battle cry of organized labor. “when the boss comes callin’ they’ll put us down when the boss comes callin’ gotta stand your ground when the boss comes callin’ don’t believe their lies when the boss comes callin’ his take his toll when the boss comes callin’ don’t you sell your soul when the boss comes callin’ we gotta organize let em know we gotta take the bastards down let them know we gotta smash them to the ground let em know we gotta take the bastards down” But it’s far deeper than Madison. Division of the workplace is the driving principle, the mantra, the bedrock, the lifeblood of organized labor. And in its absolutism it leaves no wiggle room for good bosses, generous bosses or bosses who care for their employees, let alone true teamwork. 21st century unionists still lock arms and weep while howling century old anthems to class warfare like Which Side Are You On (“Don’t scab for the bosses, Don’t listen to their lies. Us poor folks haven’t got a chance Unless we organize.) and Solidarity Forever (“Is there aught we hold in common with the greedy parasite, Who would lash us into serfdom and would crush us with his might? Is there anything left to us but to organize and fight?”) And just two weeks ago Joe Biden told labor leaders they were “the only people who have the capacity — organizational capacity and muscle — to keep… the barbarians from the gate.” So why would a unionized worker, bombarded with divisive messaging from the union newsletter and expected to, above all else (and under penalty of ostracism or worse) stay loyal to his “Brothers and Sisters” over “The Boss,” work cooperatively with management, trust the company or love his or her job? By union logic the unionized worker is patently NEVER paid enough, respected enough or valued enough because by definition the employer is intrinsically inescapably untrustworthy and cheap. By its very nature unionization demands a worker not trust his boss and come to work feeling perpetually underpaid, overworked and underappreciated by managers out to do nothing but screw him. That just might explain why Gallup is finding these folks “less engaged” with their jobs.
