Quote:
Originally Posted by mooky
In the end, your anti-union stance boils down to "there is corruption in unions"
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Actually, in the end my belief about unions is far more complex than that. It's just easier in a quick few sentences to point out how oh so many of them don't run for the benefits of the individual workers. However yes, my anti-corporation stance can also be largely viewed as "there is corruption in corporations", so it's a fair point.
Mostly, it's because unions work on an implicit assumption that workers are incapable. Whether it's of bargaining, or of just working efficiently - unions take everyone down to the lowest common denominator in a perpetual race to the bottom. Want to work harder? Not much point, because you'll be paid the same as the guys who work the least. More qualified? Again, you're still making the same as the least qualified guy here. Think you can do better on your own? Too bad, because you're stuck getting the same deal as everyone else. Hell, want to think on your own? Well, you don't have any choice. Your peers have decided to strike, so strike you must. Even if you disagree with why you're striking, even if you've done the financial analysis and know you're going to be worse off after a 3 month strike - doesn't matter. Your buddies don't understand math, so you're stuck striking and losing 3 months pay for that extra 1% raise the strike got you.
Unions are great for the absolute worst employees. They generally 🞵🞵🞵🞵 for the best. They're supposed to act as an equalizer but the way they run in practice in modern times, all they are is level setting down to the lowest employee.
I certainly won't argue about working conditions in China, and the general trend to send jobs overseas. Unions won't do much for the latter part - people in China would still be making a fraction of what we do, and the jobs would still be over there. The only way we'll ever stop that is to force corporate executives to work and earn their profits in the countries where they employ their people, but the cat's out of the bag on that one. Unions would never have stopped it anyway; corporations would have just shipped ALL jobs overseas instead of just some.
But as Jeff said, this is all boring and not the point of this thread.
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