5 ms·
Ask any nurse, plumber, or teacher in the United States if they really feel they have the power to replace union reps that are perpetuating such practices. Pow
by sushshshsh 6y ago
Ask any nurse, plumber, or teacher in the United States if they really feel they have the power to replace union reps that are perpetuating such practices.
Power perpetuates power
- cool_dude85 6y agoNow ask any engineer in the US if they have the power to replace management that perpetuates bad practices.
- shaftoe 6y agoThey do. It's called finding another job.
- wizzwizz4 6y agoBirling: […] So I refused. Said I couldn't consider it. We were paying the usual rates and if they didn't like those rates, they could go and work somewhere else. It's a free country, I told them. Eric: It isn't if you can't go and work somewhere else. — J. B. Priestley Not everyone is in a position to find another job. And what do you do if the best place you can work is still rubbish? What if you're an ISP tech?
- mmm_grayons 6y agoOne is not forced to spend his life working as an ISP tech. I attended a community college for a few years where most people were learning new skills precisely because they didn't like the job or often the industry in which they worked. If ISP tech work was horrible and everyone left, employers would be forced to make it less horrible.
- mushbino 6y agoAn ISP tech? Just learn to code and then bounce from job to job to job until you find one with a good manager. Okay, sarcasm aside; I've worked for many different tech companies and good managers are exceptionally rare and there is no pressure from the top to change that, and pressure from the bottom doesn't work. There is, however, a lot of pressure to not fire or demote managers as it looks bad for the management above them.
- cool_dude85 6y agoWell, you were able to solve the problem of bad union reps at the same time. Two birds with one stone, good job.
- take_a_breath 6y agoPeople in unions can’t find other jobs?
- lukebitts 6y agoThey can’t find other unions
- take_a_breath 6y agoThere is more than one union. You can also vote/organize to change your existing union (I can’t do that at my job).
- mmm_grayons 6y agoOkay, so I get my one vote and now have to go spend time convincing others of something if I wish to change how I live my life. Even if there's less of a "safety guarantee", I'd prefer to take the risk of managing my own situation, something often thwarted by closed-shop unions.
- Nasrudith 6y agoSpecifically union power tends to be rather exclusive - competition or fragmentation over a shared niche harms them far more than even individuals or businesses. The dynamic is thus "anti-competitive" by design.
- adamsea 6y agoTrue! So, better governing systems for a union, no? You can’t get rid of power, just redistribute it. As flawed as democracy is, that’s what it attempts to do. Or do we want to get rid of governments? ;) In that case I’ll happily make the same snarky comment about whatever collection of humans accrue and then abuse power in our new government-free society. People are naturally social. There will always be power, wielded in one way or another. But we have and will figure out schemes to wield it in a to benefit the many more than the few.