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tl;dr: the author's answer to the question in the headline is that US unions have become too weak to negotiate adding union representatives to corporate boards.
by _rpd 8y ago
tl;dr: the author's answer to the question in the headline is that US unions have become too weak to negotiate adding union representatives to corporate boards.
- pm90 8y agoI wonder how much of the "unions are horrible" view that most of us have today was just a effective marketing campaign, much like the "welfare queen" stereotype. Weakening unions seems to have caused much more damage than whatever evils they were accused of (profligate compensation for unproductive workers)
- asmithmd1 8y agoMost of it is marketing. Notice how hard companies fight whenever there is an attempt at unionizing a workplace. My wife is a member of a nurses union and it is nice to have a contract with your employer (something all top executives have) instead of work conditions being at the whim of a manager. A downside of most contracts is there is little room for performance bonuses - almost all contracts are based on time in the union and not performance. The effect is an A player and a D player all get the same wages and benefits. There is no reason a union contract has to be structured this way, but for some reason they almost always are based on time and not performance.
- asmithmd1 8y agoSo what does every nurses get in terms of pay and benefits after they are all averaged together? A pretty good deal! After 20 years almost $100/hour of work, 1.5X that after 40 hours per week. 6 weeks vacation, paid sick time and paid major holidays. The contract is renegotiated every 2-3 years to keep the rates increasing with inflation
- rileymat2 8y agoAre you sure about your numbers outside of a few select localities with high cost of living? https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Registered_Nurse_(RN)/Hourly_Rate/e57a1cea/Late-Career https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Registered_Nurse_(R...
- zaarn 8y ago>paid sick time Isn't the nurse at work if they're sufficiently sick? (That thought occurred to me reading this and I found it somewhat amusing.)
- Kalium 8y agoGuaranteeing people advancement and pay improvements over time tends to make everyone at least a little happy. It means a future you can plan around for everyone. For union leadership, this has the great perk of more or less aligning incentives among members. This works as long as a sizable chunk of members don't start to see themselves as equipped to do significantly better than their supposed-peer. And, well, as soon as you do performance pay it means someone's going to lose out, because now workers are competing with each other. And this definitely aligns incentives away from where the union leadership wants them.
- dahdum 8y agoUnions generate a lot of individual anecdotes, whereas any benefits are far more diffuse. The stories of unions protecting terrible cops, teachers, and running up costs in construction / maintenance are widespread and constant. If you've ever worked somewhere you couldn't change a lightbulb on your own, or carry a small box of materials to another building, plug in an appliance, or similar you quickly get a dim view of their value. I'm not saying all are bad, but the bad ones...are really bad.
- asmithmd1 8y agoI would blame an environment like that on the company slowing shrinking instead of growing and the workers are fighting hard to hold onto every job for as long as they can.
- patient_zero 8y agoThe anti-union marketing campaign is still going strong, so I suspect you are correct. I have been forced to sit in company meetings where they help drive the anti-union message home every time there is the slightest talk about organizing. Have you had one? I am curious how wide the practice is. I used to work in healthcare, which could really use some representation too.
- stass 8y agoHave you considered that it might not be a marketing campaign, but rather other people having an opinion different from your own? That unions indeed can potentially be damaging for society (and there are plenty of example of that) and it's not just a propaganda?
- patient_zero 8y agoI would not waste time considering something so foolish. Management led, company sponsored meetings are so far removed from what you are talking about that I almost thought you were replying to someone else.
- casiotone 8y agoHow much? All of it. The US population has been brainwashed for decades into believing fighting for workers rights is paradoxically, counterproductive to gaining workers rights.