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> if unions hadn't existed, you'd still be slaving away 6 days a week (minimum), 10 hours a day, your children would be working instead of going to school and e
by skynet-9000 6y ago
> if unions hadn't existed, you'd still be slaving away 6 days a week (minimum), 10 hours a day, your children would be working instead of going to school and everything labor related would certainly have been worse.
This is not historically accurate.
For example, Henry Ford actually increased wages (without worrying about unions, and he had literal enforcers to bully people.)
He claimed to be doing it for altruistic reasons, and so that workers in his plants could afford a Ford, but the real reason was because he had to, because people could choose to work elsewhere, even if they had to move. Also, he attracted people from other cities and states to move to Dearborn.
This is the real antidote to union-busting and union-towns. Any job that basically needs a person can always be paid minimally, but multiple employers have to compete for that person; perhaps an alternative job is far away, but mobile people will always be worth more because their market is larger. It was a bit different 150 years ago during the Industrial Revolution, because of information asymmetry and the cost of relocation.
So why form a union? Just get a better job from an employer that literally values you more. It's not like these companies don't exist.
- pietrovismara 6y ago> Just get a better job from an employer that literally values you more. For most people your statement sounds like a joke. You can't "Just get a better job". Most people are stuck in their jobs, that's why they have to put up with the bullshit from managers and customers. Entire shitty industries wouldn't exist if people weren't blackmailable into working bad jobs. Please please, get out of your circumstances and try to imagine how others have to live before making generalized statements like that.
- capableweb 6y ago"This is not historically accurate." and then uses one story about Henry Ford as evidence, really? Read up a bit on unions and their impact on the world (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_union https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_union), and come back with more stories about how a business owner raised his employees salaries so therefore unions are not useful where salaries are not being raised...