Much to my pleasant surprise the UAW and GM have reached a tentative agreement on their labor talks and are encouraging members to go back to work immediately.

It seems the union lost out on the health care benefits for the retirees, though:

A person briefed on the contract told The Associated Press earlier that the agreement would shift the burden of retiree health care from GM to the union and give workers bonuses and lump-sum payments. The person requested anonymity because the contract talks are private.

That puts a heavy burden on the union, but they can always raise the dues.

The UAW has gone on strike against GM, the first strike in ten years.

The hangup seems to be health care benefits for retirees and “job security” for active employees. This has been an ongoing battle over the same issues for over twenty years.

As a former officer of a local union who has been on strike too many times I can tell you this is a losing proposition for the company and the employees.

In the end a compromise will be reached that will satisfy neither side, and both the company and the workers will suffer economically, though I believe strikers’ benefits for UAW are much better than they were in my union.

It’s fun for the first week, but when negotiations drag on it starts to get on your nerves to the point you worry all the time.

In our case we lost our benefits after 30 days out so the union always settled within that 30 days for the same basic offer that was on the table when they walked out. Maybe the UAW has the funds to pay benefits to the strikers.

When the strikers return to work their first check most likely will have union dues taken out effective the first day they went out, which means a check for a very small amount. I once had a check for less than a dollar and kept it just to mess up the company’s bookkeeping system.

Unions have priced our companies out of business, or close to it.

Although I was once pro-union, I see no benefit in belonging to one now.

When I was a union member and then a union officer I had to walk the picket line. When I was an officer I was in charge of two picket lines and walked them both.

This is hot, tiring and discouraging work. People couldn’t receive union benefits for pay unless they walked the picket line.

Things have changed. Now the unions outsource their picket lines and for more money than I ever got for union benefits to walk the line.

The picketers marching in a circle in front of a downtown Washington office building chanting about low wages do not seem fully focused on their message.

Many have arrived with large suitcases or bags holding their belongings, which they keep in sight. Several are smoking cigarettes. One works a crossword puzzle. Another bangs a tambourine, while several drum on large white buckets. Some of the men walking the line call out to passing women, “Hey, baby.” A few picketers gyrate and dance while chanting: “What do we want? Fair wages. When do we want them? Now.”

Although their placards identify the picketers as being with the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council of Carpenters, they are not union members.

They’re hired feet, or, as the union calls them, temporary workers, paid $8 an hour to picket. Many were recruited from homeless shelters or transitional houses. Several have recently been released from prison. Others are between jobs.

“It’s about the cash,” said Tina Shaw, 44, who lives in a House of Ruth women’s shelter and has walked the line at various sites. “We’re against low wages, but I’m here for the cash.”

Carpenters locals across the country are outsourcing their picket lines, hiring the homeless, students, retirees and day laborers to get their message across. Larry Hujo, a spokesman for the Indiana-Kentucky Regional Council of Carpenters, calls it a “shift in the paradigm” of picketing.

I guess the unions are collecting so much in dues these days they can afford to hire temps to do their picketing. The problem is, as you can see, they don’t have the fire in their bellies a real union member would have about these issues.

With the Democrat leadership in Congress saying they were going to “fix the economy” it appears there isn’t much to fix at least in the job sector, since we are at virtual full employment with a jobless rate of 4.4%.

If you have a 401(k) or similar plan at work check your portfolio and you will probably see it has also increased if you’ve invested in good mutual funds. Usually the companies offer only good choices for investments.

Inflation, if it exists at all, is low at the worst.

The tax cuts implemented six years ago seem to have done the intended job, but they are set to expire and the leaders in charge now don’t seem to want to keep them going.

Now we have Congress fiddling around with union card check instead of private unionization elections held by the National Labor Relations Board as has been traditional.

What this means is a union organizer, probably along with a non-management employee from within the company, goes up to an employee and tells the employee why he or she should join the union. The employee is then thrust a card into his or her hands to sign right then that he or she wants to join a union.

I know how it works because I used to be an officer in a local union. It’s kind of hard for a person who goes along to get along to reject the offer at the time, and then he or she begins to see union dues taken from his or her paycheck once enough people sign the cards.

Our union used to do this to get new members. Since we were already unionized but in a right to work state we’d do this on private time such as lunch or breaks.

The union paid a bounty for each new card signed. The problem with that was as soon as the dues started coming out the person who signed would drop out of the union. At the time the bounty was $100 per new member and $50 per re-signed member. Some people made a living off of this.

If the unorganized companies are forced to have a union you can expect the employees to go out on strike to get a contract and come back to work with virtually the same thing that was on the table when they left.

The unions in this country are some of the biggest supporters and contributors to the Democrat party. I can’t tell you how much money was appropriated for elections that were with a wink, wink and a nod, nod going to take voters to the polls and we’d take anyone (the law) but “we know where our voters are.” Chuckle, chuckle. I never participated in these activities and either voted against or abstained since I was out-numbered anyway.

In addition to that the unions lend employees to the Democrat election efforts and pay their salaries while they campaign.

Union card check is nothing but a scheme to help the unions to make it legal to intimidate workers.

If a person joins a union it should be because he or she believes it to be in his or her best interest and not because he or she is afraid to be shunned at work. And shunning does happen.

Make a company pay more to employees and start paying their benefits and you will see that company start to cut back on employees in order to stay in business. And believe the unions are not going after the minimum wage jobs, but the high-paying jobs. Look at what unionization has done to GM, Ford and Chrysler.

But if the leadership thinks this is a burning issue in fixing the economy who am I to question their wisdom? After all, my congressman is John Spratt, who is in a leadership position in the House. It doesn’t seem like I can complain to anyone about anything I don’t like. That is, until November 2008.