My mother was a teacher’s union negotiator, I have worked for many years in a non-union hospital.
To me, a union is like having social services intervene when a family is abusive or neglectful of its children. It’s necessary if employees feel that they aren’t treated fairly, etc. So I’m against companies that employ strong anti-union actions to prevent employees who WANT a union, from having one.
Having said that, if an employer treats their employees well, including compensation, a union isn’t necessary. Non-union isn’t necessarily the enemy of Union. A Union isn’t necessarily the enemy of a company. Both management and employees have a lot to gain and a lot to lose if they don’t work together for their mutual benefit.
Being on the non-union side of things at our hospital, with other hospitals in our region having unions, our pay and benefits were the same as the union workers. The benefits of unions also helped our employees that were non-union in that way.
Not knowing anything about how Subaru’s employee relations are at SIA, I’m hopeful that the employees are treated fairly. In Japan, Subaru is unionized.
