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Have you ever worked for a union? It's just another entity that you have to negotiate with, except not only are they a self interested entity like your employer
by ralusek 5y ago
Have you ever worked for a union? It's just another entity that you have to negotiate with, except not only are they a self interested entity like your employer, but they also average out your interests within the context of their other members. It's good if you were on the bottom half of the distribution and you don't value independence/personal leverage. If you are a talented individual who is able to make your worth known to a self interested employer, such that you can typically negotiate higher pay, or choose to work on specific things, at specific hours, etc, unions can be extremely constraining. They often have arbitrary systems in place of meritocracies, where a position you might be better suited for, which your employer would prefer to have you do, will instead go to someone with seniority, or someone who has played the union political game better than you.
In other words, it's just another interested party that gets inserted as a middle man between you and your employer. If you weren't lacking in leverage, which most engineers are not, you're unlikely to find the upside.
- realityking 5y ago> If you are a talented individual who is able to make your worth known to a self interested employer, such that you can typically negotiate higher pay, or choose to work on specific things, at specific hours, etc, unions can be extremely constraining. I’ve never worked in an Amazon Warehouse but I don’t think there’s any room to negotiate any of that - no matter how good you are, you’re still a replaceable cog to Amazon.
- syshum 5y agoEveryone is replaceable, this is fact and people need to recognize this fact However even roles where the skill set is filled by more people a good worker, that shows up on time, has few absences, performs the job with limited errors, and has higher productivity then other members will be valued more by the company, and (in a non-union setting) often be giving more wage increased, promotions etc In a union setting however none of that matters, everyone is on the exact same contract, and the pay is often determined by tenure not performance.
- bluGill 5y agoWhich is why Amazon Warehouse workers are a good target for unions, while tech workers are not. If amazon figures out a way to measure productivity of warehouse workers and reward the better ones, then suddenly they are not a good target of unions. Unions work when people are all equal in output. Assembly lines are only as fast the line, it doesn't matter how much faster you can put that bolt in the hole than the next guy: it just means you have more time to wait for the next widget to come before you can put the bolt in the hole, so you can't be worth more than the guy who barely gets done in time (and the guy who is a little slower needs to be fired)
- jjeaff 5y agoConsidering people like Angelina Jolie or Dwayne The Rock Johnson are members of a union, I don't think your story holds up.
- syshum 5y agoExceptions do not make a rule, i am not sure why people think pointing to SAG and a few A List celebs is proof of anything other than the fact we as a society over value entertainment
- throwaway316943 5y agoSAG is not comparable to a labor union.
- Frondo 5y agoSAG-AFTRA is a union.
- throwaway316943 5y agoWhich operates in an industry entirely different from labor. You’re delusional if you think acting and manual labor are in the same bucket. Besides, every union differs from the next but they’re generally all cesspools of political wrangling and promotion based on seniority. Everyone I’ve known that belongs to a union is just cashing a check and waiting to retire with a pension, 0 ambition.
- donw 5y agoAnd the income of the average actor in Los Angeles is…?
- legutierr 5y agoThe average actor in LA isn’t a SAG member.