More blackmail!?
this post was submitted on 30 Nov 2023
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Unions aren’t always a good thing especially when the workers are able to come to favorable terms on their own. A lot of the time it’s just union heads looking for a cut of the deal.
Favorable terms with no means of legal leverage are just wisps of air. They can and will be rescinded at the earliest convenience of the corporation, which is literally why we're in the current situation we are today. The strongest middle class in the US existed when unions were at their peak. That is not a coincidence.
A formal, legal union gives employees power and leverage to enforce the favorable terms that they negotiate with an employer. You can argue that unions as organizations can be subject to similar corruption as any other organization, but contrary to popular propaganda, there is nothing inherent in the existence of a union that requires or lends itself to corruption any more than any other power structure.
Employees are legally permitted to organize a formal, legal union of their own outside the existing union organizations, but then they're starting from scratch. Existing unions have been through negotiations, have experienced lawyers, know the process and all of its pitfalls. The vast majority of workers are better off joining an existing union because of this.
You’re correct but my issue is with the corruption part. Look at Hollywood and that fiasco of a boycott and how it affected the people at the bottom of the union. Or the teachers union where is the damn near impossible to fire bad teachers and how the school system is suffering for that. Where as private schools pay more in return your job is dependent on how well your students preform.
Corruption exists in corporate structures, too. Perhaps even especially in corporate structures.
Unions provide a counterbalance to the leverage a company has over its employees, plain and simple.
Neither structure (unions or corporations) is meant to eliminate corruption, but having both means the power differential is balanced, and one can't steamroll the other.
Correct again, but is a union needed in every situation and how do a corporation counter balance a union
A union that abuses their power risks the company becoming unprofitable and forcing layoffs. A company that abuses the union risks the union going on strike. They hold each other accountable. They have a mutual interest in the continuation of the company, and they negotiate within the bounds of that reality.
Beyond this, the law places strict limits on the right to strike, and will make the union liable if they break those limits.
Unions are an essential part of a healthy labor market, even if you yourself are not a part of one.
Tesla will allow a union the same time mcdonalds or starbucks allows a union.
We can pretend unions will solve the problems but the reality is regardless of what any worker wants their jobs are going to be automated so it needs to be a group effort to force the allowance of free re-education/re-training into a different profession (i.e. UBI with stipulations that you must retrain into a new job until all jobs are automated).
There are no other options and you can't expect a company to keep a position open for a human that needs breaks, sleep and to eat when their competition is automating fully and saving more money than they are because they were forced to or chose to keep humans on staff.
This is not the age where unions have any effective impact, especially when almost every job available today will be eliminated in the next decade through direct mechanical automation or AI automation.
The only thing unions can do is push protectionism and that will kill the economy by killing companies and then we lose the companies, the tax revenue AND the jobs.
Well that was a whole bunch of bullshit. I hope you are at least getting paid by a company for that take because otherwise you are just spouting propaganda for nothing.
No counter argument or point to make, just a few insults and the typical air of incompetence surrounding someone who just assumes they're right without understanding economics, the current state of technology both software and hardware, the impact unions have, how unions work, how unions preserve jobs, the ramifications of those preserved jobs to market competition in an era of advancements, and apparently the written word of their native language.
An impressive display of intellect, truly.
This is not the age where unions have any effective impact
I don't know, the UAW looks like it's having plenty of impact to me. As a matter of fact, unions are looking pretty strong at the moment. But to be honest, you weren't here to argue in good faith, you made that especially clear with your last sentence.
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