My Experience with Labor Unions

When I was 10 years old in 1953, I read a newspaper report about a Steamfitter Union President who was assassinated with a car bomb. The Mafia was running the Labor Unions. I blamed corporate management for putting up with this corruption. That’s when I became interested in Labor Relations as a career. I also read the American Communist Party Goals published in 1920.

I continued to read about Labor Union “demands” and strikes and wondered how we had abandoned all common sense. I also learned that Personnel Directors were the ones who were responsible for Labor Relations in their companies and believed we could do better. I became interested in how groups succeed and saw Labor Unions as a problem.

I formed a Rock Band when I was 14 years old in 1957 and played 3 nights a week through high school.  I joined a Blues Band when I was 18 years old in 1961 and played 6 nights a week through college. We became the “house band” at the Living Room nightclub on Gaslight Square in St. Louis in 1962.  The Musician’s Union Rep showed up at the club and required us to join the Musician’s Union. They set “union scale” and spent half of their dues revenue on an annual picnic for members.  It was a harmless union.

My brother left college in 1957 and joined McDonald Aircraft and they put him in their Electrician Apprentice Program. He was required to join the IBEW. Missouri is not a Right to Work State.

I started working summer jobs when I was 16 years old and continued to do this through college.  I got a summer job at Granite City Steel in 1962 and was required to join the Steel Workers’ Union.  One night I saw an employee from day shift enter the warehouse, get in the crane and crash it into the stacks of finished steel.  He was the Union Steward and had heard rumors of lay-offs, so he did this to create a mess we would have to clean up.  I predicted that Granite City Steel would go out of business and a few years later they did go out of business.

I got my first Personnel job in 1967 at Kearny Electric. We had Teamsters who were selected by the Union Hiring Hall. The Mafia placed a bookie on our loading dock. We moved the plant to Atlanta GA.

I joined Monsanto Textile Division at the headquarters in 1968. We had non-union plants in Pensacola FL with 6000 employees, Decatur AL with 3000 employees and Greenwood SC with 3000 employees.  My job was to keep our pay rates ahead of the unions. We had annual unionization attempts from OCAW. We made unions unnecessary.

I joined Washington University in 1971 to keep the unions out. They were targeting universities. I was hired by the Medical School to set up a Personnel function.  I received a notice of election from NLRB. The union was SEU. I wrote for an LM-2 Report of SEU financials and a copy of one of their contracts.  Their pay was lower than what we were paying.  The petition covered 90 housekeeping employees. I met with the Chancellor and his staff and got permission to conduct a campaign.  I met with employees each week and discovered that their supervisor was the problem. I talked to the supervisor and he immediately improved his attitude. I won the election with 80% of the vote.

I had also established the Personnel function at the Medical Campus and moved to the main campus. They had 2 unions on the main campus. One was food service and the other was facility maintenance. President Nixon had imposed wage controls at 5.5%. I was able to announce the wage increase budget for the 8000 non-union employees ahead of contract negotiations with the 120 union employees. The union members moved to decertify their unions. I had completed the HRIS, policy, regulatory compliance and compensation system work I had started and it was time to return to manufacturing.  We had made unions unnecessary.

I joined Schwan Foods in 1975 in Salina Kansas to automate production and add to their employee development process for 3400 non-union employees. The only union attempt we had was our Tortilla bakery in Hutchinson Kansas with 70 employees. We closed the plant and moved production. Schwan Foods revenue increased from $150 million in 1975 to $650 million in 1979. I had upgraded employee development, policies, compensation practices and automated financials.  This company was solid.  I turned down a promotion to Marshall MN….too cold.

I joined Rickel Manufacturing in Salina Kansas in 1979 to run off the UAW. We also had to focus on what to do with the business. Rickel made high flotation fertilizer application equipment and wheat prices were fragile. I tightened work rules and began contract negotiations. Another local Ag equipment company was hiring and advertising higher pay rates than we were paying, so I raised our pay rates to match theirs.  The employees decertified the UAW. We knew the Japanese were coming with their Ag equipment line and we sold Rickel to an unsuspecting competitor in 1983.

I joined Hayes Microcomputer Products in 1983 to upgrade the Personnel systems and handle rapid growth.  Hayes made the PC modem. Revenue was $35 million with 100 non-union employees.  The CWA was handing out cards and we needed to respond.  I was developing a compensation system and knew we would be raising rates.  We implemented a 25 cent per hour, across the board increase and that stopped the CWA organizing effort.  By 1986, revenue was $220 million with 1000 employees. We had made unions unnecessary.

I joined Electromagnetic Sciences in 1986 to replace their retiring Personnel Director and handle rapid growth. EMS was a highly capable defense electronics company. Revenue in 1986 was $35 million with 500 non-union employees. We grew to $120 million in revenue with 1200 employees by 1993. We had also established LXE as a commercial electronics subsidiary. We had no union attempts and that was nice. We had made unions unnecessary.

In 1993 I formed a Private Consulting Practice and served 45 mostly electronics manufacturing companies until 2017. Some of these were large bureaucracies like Boeing and many of their policies are unsustainable. Other large companies like Rockwell maintained union-free policies.

Union membership in US private sector jobs had dropped from 30% to under 10% from the 1960s to the 1990s. We had made unions unnecessary. Unions cause divisions in workforces to separate management from employees and employees from employees.  Unions contribute nothing to the organizations that have them. They are Marxist in origin and Bolshevik by design. They act like Democrats and refuse to understand the importance of productivity to sustain prosperity and the importance of property rights and self-reliance to sustain freedom.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader