A few days ago at work, I was on the periphery of an incident involving a union garbage truck driver and our staff and management that highlights an all to common perception. Apparently the driver refused to empty the dumpster behind the building because it was overfilled and was "unsafe" to lift over his cab. He made this known by calling his dispatch and informing them of the situation before proceeding to his next stop, leaving the overflowing bin untouched. The dispatch then called and informed store and building management so the problem could be rectified before the next removal attempt. This was the second time this week these events had played out in this exact manner. What was interesting to me was the reaction by my coworkers and management. They were upset with the driver for not getting out of the truck and either removing enough of the excess refuse himself or buzzing our back door to get someone to do it for him while he waited.

     My peers vilified the driver's actions as "typical" union behavior and made sarcastic comments such as "Unions...it's what makes the country great." and "Well, you know he's in a union, what do you expect." I found it interesting that such casual animadversion was being flung at unions because one man seemed to be abusing the power union membership allowed him. I've never heard these same people decrying the totalitarian nature of the standard corporate business management system because of the caustic actions of a single manager. Apparently a system is broken and worthy of criticism if it gives the power to say "No" to the individual worker, but not if it limits that power to just a few at the top. This perception is not just held by those at the top, which is to be expected, but by those that would benefit most from the distribution of power that unions allow.

     Union members like the driver above share a significant burden of the responsibility for the propagation of this negative and skewed perception. Due to their actions and perceived abuses unions are seen as instruments of bloated inefficiency and greed. On the other hand it's amazing that with so many examples available in both recent memory and throughout history the totalitarian nature of the corporate model isn't seen in the same light. Instead people like Bernard Ebbers of Worldcom, or Ken Lay of Enron are portrayed as "a few bad apples" in an otherwise valued and laudable system while a common driver of a garbage truck is seen as the epitome of selfishness rampant in another. The cogs in the machine of capitalism are not allowed to make noise or act in a way that promotes self interest, such actions of self determination are reserved solely for those few that own and or control the machine. What is truly amazing is the collaborative nature of most cogs in helping those in power to silence and marginalize any other cog that begins to squeak.

Todd Burns is a blogger who currently resides in an undisclosed location in Alaska. He can be reached at TWBurns@gmail.com.