BSO Dave
AH elite
I completely disagree with your first point. I grew up on a farm wearing my ass out every day. I worked hard, became a chemical engineer, and advanced to lead major industrial assets and subsequently the division of a fortune 100 company. As a general manager I hit every control room and maintenance shop every morning before dealing with any corporate crap. The union president of my last industrial asset became a shooting buddy and one of my best friends.
I respect and commend your personal experience. However, yours is not typical and not representative of what most working-class folks deal with in terms of personal relatability with upper-level corporate executives whether it be on the labor or management side...
I'm not sure if you are also making the inference that all union executives are relatable and represent the best interest of the worker, but I can assure you that, by and large, they do not...
With the exception of the teachers' unions, most labor unions are evenly split between democrat, republican and independent. With specific regard to represented LE and fire, the vast majority of members lean conservative and traditionally vote against the urge from union leadership to vote democrat... Even the Teamsters have publicly revealed that 60% of their membership will vote for Trump even though the union itself will not officially endorse either candidate... That is not leadership in the best interest of the workers... Sad...
You can absolutely know, relate to, and understand the people working for you if you make an effort to do so. To claim otherwise is arrogance in the other direction.
If you took my assertions as arrogant, you haven't taken my point... If you have a different personal experience, that's great, but it's not typical based on my experiences in working with hundreds of labor unions and their executive counterparts across the country... I have spent 25 years on the labor side representing LE in labor-management negotiations. I have extensive experience dealing with every type of executive and appointed bureaucrat serving in a leadership role on the management side on both local and national levels. I have negotiated with HR directors, City Managers, CFO's and their Attorneys...The one thing all these execs have in common is that they all think that they are the smartest person in the room... The other thing they all have in common is that in their smug arrogance, it never occurs to them is that they all can't be right... In general, they regard union representatives on a local level as uneducated dummies who are not on the same intellectual level with them... Unbeknownst to many of them, 99% of the time they are terribly mistaken. Furthermore, their main interest in the bottom line. Their only objective is how to get the job done for the least amount possible regardless of quality, safety, or the well-being of the workers...
I'm not suggesting that there are not great bosses in every aspect of labor and industry who generally care about their employees. But, unless they have come up from the working class themselves like you for example, they cannot claim true relatability to the workers no matter how much they would like to think so...