Workers of the world Unite!

Growing up in NYC where unions are the norm, I've come to generally have a distate for most of them.

In my view, there are no good unions left, their time has come and gone. The purist vision of a union was a great idea when they became relevant in the late 19th and early 20th century.

Over time though they became bloated and corrupt with mob influence directing their activities rather than the original mission statement, protecting their members.

But now........I think a union might not be a bad idea. Here's why..

The original intent of unions was to protect the single worker from the greed and mistreatment of the company he or she worked for. In the vein of that mission why isn't there a union being formed to protect the modern day cubicle dweller from the abuses of the global corporation? Since many of us aren't even employees of the company we work at these days, this idea actually should grow some roots.

Think about it, if a union was formed to promote, protect and lobby for workers that are at risk of being offshored, companies would be less inclined to make these waves of moves to off shore companies.

It can happen. An accounting union comprised of members that do AP, AR, ledger work etc forms nationally. Their membership can create pressures across multiple companies whenever a company reviews the possiblity of offshoring their functions. It's potentially a powerful lobby, with reach not only in the company that is considering the offshore move but other companies as well.

A national "sick out" happens when XYZ co in Denver starts talking to a Wipro about offshoring their IT staff. Productivity drops off all over the place, that's millons of lost time and effort.

Why not?

There was a time a union was needed to protect the little guy. The little guy was the average blue collar joe who toiled hard for himself and family.

Now I am seeing that the "little guy" can easily be a post graduate degreed white collar professional. Who would have thought?

I have to get back to work now, but I will explore this in the future.

What do you think?