Originally Posted by
CPOPE
The UWUA might be willing to take any of you disgruntled IBEW folks in
passing along because the thread went off track to another JB manefesto. Not all non organized shops are rats and scabs.
What does “merit shop” mean?John Killin is president of the Associated Builders and Contractors Pacific Northwest Chapter and executive director of the Independent Electrical Contractors of Oregon.
It’s not a bad question. In fact, I hear it a lot. Many assume it’s another term for nonunion. However, there is nothing negative or “non” about it.
Merit shop isn’t a status. It’s a philosophy. It’s a direct relationship between employer and employee that rewards innovation, initiative, hard work and teamwork. It promotes community and fosters loyalty among coworkers, employers and employees.
The roots for the term merit shop stretch back nearly 50 years. But what does it mean?
To those who use the term, it means freedom. It is freedom for the individual to do his or her best, for the employer and employee to work together for their common interest, and for the company to compete for customers by offering quality and cost-effective service. This is freedom to not bring someone else in to impede or interfere with those relationships.
Those who promote the “merit” philosophy believe in hard work, personal accountability and fair play. They are loyal to their employees and get the same in return.
Merit-shop contractors oppose discrimination on the basis of age, race, national origin, organizational affiliation, seniority, color, creed and sex. They reward employees for quality work, creative solutions and outside-the-box thinking.
It is a philosophy that embraces the greatness in our free-market system. It rewards innovators. It abhors approaches that institute price fixing, artificial market manipulations, or promote the view that there is only one way to do something.
The merit philosophy promotes the American dream. It recognizes that people are not robots. Not everyone works at the same pace, or approaches tasks in rigid, assembly-line manner. Instead, the merit philosophy challenges people by rewarding their productivity and creativity. The employee who works smarter, even at a slower pace, may still be the most productive and thus compensated differently. The 20-year veteran’s wisdom and wily efficiency might rightly earn vastly more than the first-year sprinter.
While merit-shop contractors typically are not unionized or signatory to a union, they are not anti-union. Nor does the lack of a union presence make a company merit-shop. A merit shop believes in choice. That is a choice for employers and employees alike. Employees should make informed decisions, and they should partner with their employer.
I have a very dedicated member who likes to say that there are three ways of doing business in construction – the union way, the nonunion way and the merit-shop way. The merit-shop way is all about supporting training, promoting safety, providing excellence and rewarding valued employees. There is nothing “non” about how he runs his business. He and his employees are “pros,” as are thousands of other merit-shop contractors and their employees all across America.