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Seems like unions do more harm than good these days. I can see how they were important decades ago. But now days if a company treats their employees bad you hear about it on the news, social media etc. The last thing employers want to do is have an employee killed on the job too.
I remember the Ford Plant hired a friend of mine years ago. He had dropped out of high school & was not the brightest. But he got a job there & was making 90k a year (with OT--back in the late 90's). All he did was a physical type job. No way he should have been making that much money.
Stagnant wages prove we need unions. There are study after study showing Americans are becoming more and more educated to make less and less. The gap increases between the wealthy and lower earning and we let it happen because we are all so goddamn scared of another recession or being fired. We can't afford to hold out, employers can. Some people are quite skilled at what they do, but only make 12-13 an hour which isn't even enough to buy a home. But they have to eat, and feed their family, so they keep doing it knowing its bull****.
Stagnant wages prove we need unions. There are study after study showing Americans are becoming more and more educated to make less and less. The gap increases between the wealthy and lower earning and we let it happen because we are all so goddamn scared of another recession or being fired. We can't afford to hold out, employers can. Some people are quite skilled at what they do, but only make 12-13 an hour which isn't even enough to buy a home. But they have to eat, and feed their family, so they keep doing it knowing its bull****.
If those skilled workers only made 12-13 per hour wouldn't that 12-13 per hour be worth a lot more if people with zero skills made only 4-5 per hour?
There needs to be a balance in power between the employer and labor. History has proven too much power to the union can actually bankrupt the employer. Flip side is too much power to the employer can turn workers into robot slaves.
But if the balance is already there a union is not needed. Apparently these workers thought so. I once worked at a place where a union was continually trying to get employees of my company to join but they never offered us anything better than what we were already getting. And we got great benefits.
I've also worked for a union trust office and saw quit a few unions screw their employees including the one I was in that was responsible for the theft of millions of dollars in the employees' 401ks.
In my experience, many of today's unions are just as guilty of exploiting their members as the corporations. Workers must be very careful in choosing whether or not to join a union. There's no point if there's not going to be benefits enough to justify union dues to make it worth their while.
I do not like the concept of how unions are here in the US, but I do like the concept of collective bargaining and employee representation. Unfortunately, the unions have exploited both of those concepts to the demise of the very workers they were "helping."
Collective bargaining is important because it is nice to have one voice to deal with in a company with thousands of employees, it is basically no more than a chain-of-command structure in employee relations, and it assist in setting policies that impact employees.
I like employee representation during disputes, and if it was not for the inept employees exploiting the system and a**hole managers abusing employees, everyone would like it. Fact is a bad manager is bad for the company, and can drive away talent before the company is aware of the issue. Having protection can raise the issues in a manner that attracts company executive attention, and can deal with the core of the issue at hand.
But it never seems to work, too many people like to exploit the protections for their own selfish reasons, and in the end, we have seen what happened to union heavy industries in the US.
I'll retire back down south were the cost of living is cheaper because people think its ok to make $9 an hour.
There are many people who use to say the same thing, then their job disappeared and went offshore. The union job you have now may be fine, but who knows in the future for those who enter it.
There are many people who use to say the same thing, then their job disappeared and went offshore. The union job you have now may be fine, but who knows in the future for those who enter it.
Jobs get offshored regardless if it is unionized or not. Even non-union labor costs more than labor in a poorer country. Why do people keep pushing this nonsense.
I am not a strong union supporter for a lot of things mentioned in previous posts, however. It did offer some protection for the older employees with seniority. The at will employee is at the mercy of their employer. I know of several people who were let go because of "restructuring". Let go some older and a few younger so they don't violate any laws, but really at will employee has no protection. These people were doing well in their work, no complaints or problems. Now try to get a new position at 55 or so when there are lots of younger people who can start at almost minimum pay. Heck even the older are willing to take a cut but more upsides to hire younger employees. So at least unions had some protection for that. But the younger employees who voted no union may not be thinking that far ahead.
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