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the major appeal of the union is that you can't get fired or laid off. This type of job security is crucial because it gives you massive leverage when it comes

the major appeal of the union is that you can't get fired or laid off. This type of job security is crucial because it gives you massive leverage when it comes to fighting for those other things. No matter how good the pay is, you can probably get better via striking, etc.

ThomPete 9y ago
No one choose a job based on the union. How many unions in the private market can really claim you wont get fired.
- metaphor 9y ago
  >> No one choose a job based on the union. Unfortunately, that's an overreaching statement. I personally know a few people who have accepted pay cuts to leverage the type of job security afforded by certain unions. >> How many unions in the private market can really claim you wont get fired. Certainly none, but does it really matter? There's exists a threshold where the difference between won't get fired and very difficult to get fired are pragmatically indistinguishable.
  - ThomPete 9y ago
    So was the one I was responding to. And I doubt that whatever personal anecdotes you have can be applied to unions in general as parent did. And yes it matters as the parent wanted to dismiss unions based on these false claims. Unions are neither good nor bad. Some of them have too much power, others have too little. Some should have a union (like uber drivers) etc. My own father tried to start a kind of union for a group of self-employed drivers working for one company. The result was that the company he worked for simply stopped his contract and scared everyone else off from backing him and a few others up. I have seen unions be both really bad, really good, unnecessary and not existing where they should. They are no different than consumer interest groups and other collections of people trying to reach some sort of balance. In many industries today they aren't needed but in some they still are.
Certhas 9y ago
Do unions work differently in the US? Because I am pretty sure that while you can't get fired for being in a union (or strike action), you can get fired for every other reason you could get fired for.
Aloha 9y ago
Thats not exactly true - you can be fired and laid off in a union, I've been both of those things while union.

ThomPete 9y ago

No one choose a job based on the union. How many unions in the private market can really claim you wont get fired.

metaphor 9y ago
>> No one choose a job based on the union. Unfortunately, that's an overreaching statement. I personally know a few people who have accepted pay cuts to leverage the type of job security afforded by certain unions. >> How many unions in the private market can really claim you wont get fired. Certainly none, but does it really matter? There's exists a threshold where the difference between won't get fired and very difficult to get fired are pragmatically indistinguishable.
- ThomPete 9y ago
  So was the one I was responding to. And I doubt that whatever personal anecdotes you have can be applied to unions in general as parent did. And yes it matters as the parent wanted to dismiss unions based on these false claims. Unions are neither good nor bad. Some of them have too much power, others have too little. Some should have a union (like uber drivers) etc. My own father tried to start a kind of union for a group of self-employed drivers working for one company. The result was that the company he worked for simply stopped his contract and scared everyone else off from backing him and a few others up. I have seen unions be both really bad, really good, unnecessary and not existing where they should. They are no different than consumer interest groups and other collections of people trying to reach some sort of balance. In many industries today they aren't needed but in some they still are.

Certhas 9y ago

Do unions work differently in the US? Because I am pretty sure that while you can't get fired for being in a union (or strike action), you can get fired for every other reason you could get fired for.

Aloha 9y ago

Thats not exactly true - you can be fired and laid off in a union, I've been both of those things while union.