Colorado Peace: Labor Pulls Four Measures From The Ballot

Choices Grown-Ups Make

Adults are often called upon to make important decisions that may have a significant impact on themselves and their families. These decisions are often economic in nature and are not, one would hope, made without careful consideration of their moral consequences. The decisions of moral men and women, who are compelled to choose principle over economic comforts, are sometimes criticized as naïve and self-destructive. Those of us who have been confronted with such quandaries, and went with our principles, are secure in the knowledge that we made the correct choice and can comfortably face ourselves in the mirror each morning.

One of the decisions we make as adults is the type and place of employment we might seek to best provide for our families needs and future. A principled person will not, under any circumstance outside of the very survival of himself or his family, betray those principles and take a job that he or she feels is contrary to those principles. Nor can, or should, any outside force compel them to do so against their will. For this person, it is beyond the pale to perform, or to take employment with a company who will ask them to perform, a task or assignment they find morally repugnant. Seeking employment in the modern workplace can be fraught with such decisions.

A somewhat unsettling aspect of looking for employment is the host of concessions that a company will ask of a potential employee. While many people are disturbed by the nature of some of those requests, the employer reserves the right, as an act of self-preservation, to delve into the most intimate details of the job seekers life and employment history. The principled adult must, at this point in the potential employer/employee relationship, decide if they are willing and able to, among other things:
Take a drug test
Take a physical
Take a polygraph test
Take a personality profile examination or undergo psychological testing
Consent to a medical history search
Consent to a background check, including police records
Consent to a credit check of themselves and their spouse
Sign a non-compete agreement

The applicant, who deems these requirements acceptable, will agree to them and, should all go well, be asked to return to the job site for further discussion. The discussion leads to another set of conditions that the potential employee must agree to in order to be eligible for employment. These might include:
Getting a haircut
Shaving or removal of facial hair
Removal of all jewelry or piercings
The necessity to work a schedule other than the preferred 9 to 5, Monday through Friday
A diminished salary until a probationary period is completed
Required participation in the company health plan, whether needed or desired
Required participation in the company stock purchasing program or 401k
Required payment to the company for use of uniforms and cleaning
Required purchases of tools necessary to perform the work
Required use of a personal vehicle to perform the work

Voicing unwillingness or reluctance to agree to these terms might be met with a terse “These are the terms and conditions of employment. You must accept each and every one before you can start work”. Making the decision that these conditions are acceptable will lead the applicant to their first day of work. Making the decision that they are not acceptable will lead the applicant to the door, seeking employment with a company that does not require the acceptance of employment terms the applicant finds unacceptable.

Suppose the principled job seeker agrees to all the requirements of a particular employer and states that they are ready to go to work. The employer says ‘Oh, one more thing… the employees here have a Union. The company and the employees have negotiated an agreement that requires all employees to belong to the Union. Should you accept employment with us, you would be required to become a member of that Union”.

The applicant, who may have negative feelings regarding Union membership, is simply confronted with another decision on a condition of employment. As in the previous cases, acceptance of that condition will lead to employment, non-acceptance the door. The applicant, finding the idea of being in a Union repugnant, can state so and seek employment elsewhere. Their moral compass has provided direction through the turbulent waters of this decision and they can continue to look themselves in the mirror each morning, confident in the correctness of that decision.

The claim that an applicant is subject to “compulsory Unionism” by accepting employment at an establishment where the employees have, democratically and under protection of the law, made the choice to form a Union is cynical and is, most often, made by those who would benefit from the dismantling of Unions. It also diminishes the significance of the decision of those employees who exercised their right to form a Union at that workplace and to collectively bargain with their employer. The fact that they did form a Union may explain why the wages, benefits and terms and conditions of employment at their place of employment are more attractive than those at others.

The truth is, there is no unconditional “right” to work in the United States: a potential employee must, in order to get any job, submit to every condition and requirement that the employer specifies, including the requirement to become a union member. The very idea that an adult, who lives by the morals and principles that they profess to carry with them, can be “forced” to join a Union demeans anyone us who fills out an application. Each of us has to make the decision whether or not to take a job that has, as a condition of employment, a requirement for membership in a Union. We either have the capacity to make reasoned decisions on, and take responsibility for, the many choices we are confronted with in the search for employment or we do not.

A responsible and principled person who does not want to be in a Union should, when applying for a job, make their first question “Is there a Union here?” If the answer is “Yes”, they should move on and seek employment with a company that will not present them with a condition of employment that they find contrary to their principles.