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The conference I just attended was held in Philadelphia. We were at the convention center, there was lots of physical labor to be done, and the unions were ubiquitous. I have always been sympathetic to unions. My grandparents were all immigrants (from Italy on my Mom’s side, and Ireland on my Dad’s). When they came to this country, working conditions in the Boston area were pretty dire.

My mother’s parents worked in the mills in Lawrence, MA, scene of the Lawrence textile strike. As the article points out:

The mortality rate for children was fifty percent by age six; thirty-six out of every 100 men and women who worked in the mill died by the time they reached twenty-five.

The mills and the community were divided along ethnic lines: most of the skilled jobs were held by native-born workers of English, Irish, and German descent, while French-Canadian, Italian, Slavic, Hungarian, Portuguese and Syrian immigrants made up most of the unskilled workforce.

The Italians had actually gotten there ahead of the Irish, but when the Irish came in, they were given the better jobs, since they spoke English. At least that’s the story I grew up with. It was the supposed explanation for why my mother’s mother never liked my Dad. I remember being told I had “mixed blood” when I was a kid. This is hilarious, of course, given they were all Roman Catholic Europeans.

The other story I recall growing up with was the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York. This tragedy was mythologized alongside stories about extended family members who’d lost fingers and limbs in mill machinery in Lawrence to underscore the good things the unions had done for immigrant workers.

Hence, my sympathy for unions and my suspicion of corporate entities.

Fast forward to last week in Philly. The union workers were everywhere. We were briefed ahead of time that if, say, a loudspeaker needed to be moved, we were NOT to touch it, but rather, we needed to find a union worker and ask him or her to move it where we needed it. My company hires audio techs for the conferences, and they, too, were not allowed to touch the sound equipment. Rather, they had to show the union workers how to do what needed to get done.

Fine. I was willing to see this as an inconvenience that could be set aside in the interest of the greater good.

Except. Well, except that in the week I was in the convention center, I don’t think I saw a single person who actually looked like they had even the remotest joy or interest in their job. People looked utterly bored and miserable. No laughter, no curiosity, no joy. Nada. Everything was a big drag — I went into one room, where we were slated to have a panel of five experts talk to the audience. There were two microphones and five chairs jammed around a tiny table.

“Could we get a larger table for this?” I asked, “And a mic for each person who will be speaking?”

Angry gaze of the man I’d asked. Bitter discussion with his co-worker. One of my colleagues reviewed the work request, and indeed, we’d asked for five mics.

The thing that was kind of awful was the lack of communication. The union guys seemed to expect to be screwed over, and they weren’t even a little curious about what the equipment was for, or what we might be trying to accomplish. In other words, they were not interested in investing themselves in the broader vision.

Too pie-in-the-sky, my notion that they might want to collaborate?

I guess so. But really, that’s tragic.

At one of our conference sessions (which, rather ironically, focused on how to motivate workers), a speaker talked about how one significant aspect of compensation is the opportunity to develop and be exposed to new challenges. Yes, I know people can not be expected to savor a challenging work environment if they are struggling to feed themselves and their families. But I don’t think that is the case here. What seems to be happening is that the union is training workers to expect nothing from their work except a pay check. And no matter how nice that pay check might be, if your job has no joy, it’s a crappy job. Period.

Corporations, which I used to see as evil empires, are at least recognizing that workers want challenges and development. No, they aren’t developing people out of altruistic motives. Companies recognize that to cultivate high performers, they need to offer challenges and opportunities and training and support. They need to let people follow their bliss, to put it in the most liberal terms. It’s good corporate policy. Engage and develop and motivate your workforce and you’ve got yourself a competitive advantage.

Let’s contrast that to my parting experience in Philly. We are all sitting on the plane. Apparently the baggage workers are unhappy with the merging of their carrier with another. We hear the bags being tossed into the cargo space. Thunk… … … … … … … thunk… … … … … … … … … thunk… … … … … … … thunk… … … … … … … … … … … … thunk. Minutes between each thud. A work slowdown. Lovely. Ninety minutes to put the luggage on the plane.

I’m losing my religion.