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I didnt think HN needed a downvote button until this thread. Quick Union story- Was an engineer at a factory. Foam pieces were blocking my path to the process

I didnt think HN needed a downvote button until this thread. Quick Union story- Was an engineer at a factory. Foam pieces were blocking my path to the process room. Like, there was a tiny pathway, probably not shoulder length wide that I'd turn and squeeze in, and that was the path to my room. The floor was a wreck, something bad happened with the temperatures + wax or something. The floor was a mess, foam everywhere. This was my job and I was failing tonight. Messing with temps and wax constantly, checking if chemicals were weird. Pretty much grasping at straws to fix this issue. Well back to the blockage. I couldnt get to my room without either clearing the foam or walking around the factory. So I took the piece of foam and tossed it into the garbage bin behind me. Oh what a mistake. The next morning my boss was swamped with last night's mess and citation/form/write up that I was doing Union Jobs. I was punished by having to take 2 days off unpaid. They paid a worker an entire day's salary, and I got some sort of negative mark on my record. My boss wasnt happy about this despite him being understanding of the silliness. This was one of many many things that got to the point of hating unions. 95% of people just wanted to work. Then you had people that abused the system to the point that it didnt work.

hpcjoe 8y ago
Funny how the union abuse anecdote gets downvoted, while the pro-union propaganda doesn't. My stories are similar. Its not a right or left issue. Unions, with very few counterexamples ... to the point where I am unaware of any ... devolve into rent seeking constructs, which increase costs, decrease quality, etc. I'd love to be wrong about this, but I've not yet seen counterexamples, where unions are held up as paragons of what we can be if we work together. Many may have started to provide an offset to the asymmetric power of the management ... but pretty much all of them eventually are corrupted by the power that they yield. So much so that they can negatively impact people whom are not part of their union, wish no part of it, and yet have no choice but to join and pay dues. This is a problem. A union should be a temporary construct, something that can be brought into existence quickly to offset/blunt bad management. Just as quickly, once it succeeds in its mission, it should deconstruct itself. To be formed only when needed. It should not persist. When it persists, it starts with nest feathering by officials at the top, rent-seeking behaviors, etc.
- Frondo 8y ago
  You might not be getting a lot of counterexamples because you're obviously coming at this with such a deeply held belief that no one wants to bother..."water? is it wet?? I surely don't think so..."

hpcjoe 8y ago

Funny how the union abuse anecdote gets downvoted, while the pro-union propaganda doesn't. My stories are similar. Its not a right or left issue. Unions, with very few counterexamples ... to the point where I am unaware of any ... devolve into rent seeking constructs, which increase costs, decrease quality, etc. I'd love to be wrong about this, but I've not yet seen counterexamples, where unions are held up as paragons of what we can be if we work together. Many may have started to provide an offset to the asymmetric power of the management ... but pretty much all of them eventually are corrupted by the power that they yield. So much so that they can negatively impact people whom are not part of their union, wish no part of it, and yet have no choice but to join and pay dues. This is a problem. A union should be a temporary construct, something that can be brought into existence quickly to offset/blunt bad management. Just as quickly, once it succeeds in its mission, it should deconstruct itself. To be formed only when needed. It should not persist. When it persists, it starts with nest feathering by officials at the top, rent-seeking behaviors, etc.

Frondo 8y ago
You might not be getting a lot of counterexamples because you're obviously coming at this with such a deeply held belief that no one wants to bother..."water? is it wet?? I surely don't think so..."