I wish they didn't take $150 from me a month but that's about my only complaint. I'm better off with them than I'd be without them.
Pick any public service you want.
For capitalists, because they get in the way of treating their workers like disposable machine-tools. For everyone else, because they resent what they don't have. My dad's pretty liberal but still looks askance at unions because his company's never had them. He feels like union workers ask for too much when really he's just accustomed to asking for too little (he's management though. It's been 30 years since he was on the line).
Unions power grew through the red scare,
Reagan, the democrats abandoning them and racial resentment are all largely to blame, plus the rise of right to work and corporations in the 70s coordinating on anti-union strategies.
Why is this issue you use as an example an optics issue, rather than just an issue?Many unions also have no concept of optics.
For example, when the BART union went on strike in the Bay Area, and one of the demands was that they NOT switch to direct deposit. Nope, the union demanded that everyone still get paid by paper check, simply because a handful of people had delivering checks are part of their job duties.
Can't reassign those folks. Can't let them apply for other positions.
Have to keep processing physical checks (and incurring the extra costs to do so) rather then switch to direct deposit because someone on the union payroll likes that job.
American unions could do themselves a world of good by hiring competent PR firms and learning how to manage their images.
What's the racial resentment angle?Unions power grew through the red scare,
Reagan, the democrats abandoning them and racial resentment are all largely to blame, plus the rise of right to work and corporations in the 70s coordinating on anti-union strategies.
You called ?worker's rights LUL
only rights that matter are those of the shareholders
now get the fuck out of my office before I call in some mexicans
I said companies. Still waiting.
Honestly, it's because many unions have gone from "protecting the worker" to "protecting their own profits/interests."
My SO works as a nurse and her union has done an exceedingly crap job in negotiations because it only looks out for the older workers at the expense of the younger workers.
When unions have gotten so big that they can't effectively represent their constituents as a whole, and end up picking-and-choosing winners-and-losers, you're naturally going to see some resentment.
In these cases the union feels a lot more like a mafia protection racket than an organization that's looking out for a worker's best interests.
And that's not even touching the topic of public sector unions, like Police Unions.
I honestly believe that unions would be a lot more beneficial to workers (and better accepted in the US) if they were smaller and better represented the worker groups, as opposed to these national, mega-unions that are just in it for the $$$.
What's the racial resentment angle?
Do you think that when you take away individual bargaining that people will remain performance oriented?
A lot of unions were (and some still are) super duper racist. Their membership would vote for Dems despite being socially conservative and xenophobic because of the perceived economic benefits. When the Dems went all-in on civil rights and labor unions weakened in power both due to deregulation and the general economic changes brought on by technology and globalization, many of them just started voting for the GOP.What's the racial resentment angle?
It's ridiculous. Should be flat out criminal for companies to punish unions and unionization of workers.
This is a giant, I think; As globalization picked up a lot of Unions crumbled due to operations being moved overseas. This lead to a rise in formerly Unionized workers resenting people from other countries and generally just people of different races. In the past 10 years or so racial resentment as a whole has spiked due to us having a Black President and a light being shined on racial inequality and acts of violence committed by Law Enforcement against primarily minority suspects. Trump and the Right as a whole have fed into that. It started with "illegal immigrants coming here and taking American jobs" and has evolved to the isolationist platform Trump is all-in on--building a wall, cancelling all our free trade agreements, being actively hostile towards minorities, etc.
Do you think I'm arguing against unionization? It's completely industry dependent. It's downright stupid to say unions don't have their place but it's even more idiotic to say they are absolutely necessary across all industries or that they don't do more harm than good in most high skilled workforces. There is a reason why unions are more commonly employed in public services and low skilled workforces, it's because they have low bargaining power and have high availability.Yes?
Do you think anecdotal evidence that amounts to "I really didn't like my coworkers" makes for a convincing argument against unionization?
Another issue with some unions is everything is by seniority. A company may want to promote a good worker, but can't because someone else has seniority. Maybe they don't want the senior worker in the position, so nobody might gets promoted.
They can be good and bad. Good because they can negotiate for you better bad because they protect shitty employees who should have been fired ages ago. I work for a retail company that has a very strong union. I'm part of the union as well but in a supervisory role. what makes it tough and makes my job ten times harder is terrible employees who the union protects. If these people were fired I honestly would like my job but I have to babysit around 10 people because they don't so their fair share of work and slack of at the first chance while the remaining people work their ass off and have to cover most of the work. Its terrible and extremely demoralizing. Sometimes I wish we didn't have a union, just so that we won't be stressed out as much.
Because they protect the useless and lazy ones who get paid the same amount of money as their peers yet have a third of the skill set, knowledge, productivity and integrity.
You've done all this research and you've not figured out and seen numerous articles about this?
This thread doesn't seem set up to want to answer any questions but "lol stupid US"
I pointed out that one of the most common arguments made on this subject isn't particularly convincing.Do you think I'm arguing against unionization?
It's downright stupid to say unions don't have their place but it's even more idiotic to say they are absolutely necessary across all industries or that they don't do more harm than good in most high skilled workforces.
Because they protect the useless and lazy ones who get paid the same amount of money as their peers yet have a third of the skill set, knowledge, productivity and integrity.
I personally don't work in a Union, but there is a Union at my place of employment that includes people I work around. This is a complaint I've heard from friends in the Union. When a Union steps in to protect a bad employee from being fired, the end result is usually that other coworkers end up having to do more work, which breeds resentment. Also, many complain about paying dues and receiving little if any benefit back, because the Union sucks at negotiations.
Relying on your union to negotiate for yourself and hundreds or thousands of others, when you have a marketable skill set doesn't make sense.I pointed out that one of the most common arguments made on this subject isn't particularly convincing.
But this:
Seems to point to yes. Relying on the mercy of your employer because you think you're irreplaceable doesn't make any sense. Japanese professionals die due to working too many hours. Software devs don't see their families for weeks on end during crunch. Plenty of professional industries have low job security due to constant downsizing to maximize profits. I'm not convinced that highly skilled workers don't need union protections for just as many reasons as their lower skilled counterparts.
And yet...
Brah, if I correlated that graph on a world wide scale to extreme poverty rates, I can make the decline of unions look like the greatest thing ever.And yet...
Which local? I know 3 is pretty much at capacity and they are kind of holding back their apprentice program.Glad I'm a member of the IBEW, couldn't imagine being a non union electrician.
Mirrors the trend of globalization as well.