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Unions don’t work the way you think they do. If they are large unions they actually actively negotiate against the workers as well. Take a look at the railroad

by rdtwo 4y ago

Unions don’t work the way you think they do. If they are large unions they actually actively negotiate against the workers as well. Take a look at the railroad union as an example. Only smaller local unions are effective at negotiating wages and benefits

vincnetas 4y ago
ok, lets go with smaller unions then.
sdenton4 4y ago
Using one union as a stand-in for all is pretty silly... Should we understand large corporations entirely on the basis of Enron?
- rdtwo 4y ago
  It’s pretty systematic, look at state wide teachers strokes of nurses. Any big union
- rdtwo 4y ago
  Ha you say that in jest but Enron is a good model for large zombie corporations. We know a lot more about the inner workings of Enron that we do about many corporations as well.
criley2 4y ago
It's ironic that you mention the railworkers union to defend your claim that I don't understand unions, when the rail industry in America got everything they wanted from the workers. Your point is basically "the worst union imaginable is the same as no union". That's not the own you think it is.
- rdtwo 4y ago
  You are misinformed. The railroad union got screwed. For one they didn’t get an actual contract. As far as I can tell they got Tentative deal that was used as a procedural trick to delay the strike till after the midterms. It’s not even clear that there was anything in this “tentative deal”. More importantly the strike wasn’t about pay as much as it was about absolutely terrible scheduling practices. Employees were on call 24/7/365 had to show up at very short notice, couldn’t take vacation or sick leave etc. There was no promise of actually fixing any of the problems in that deal. This happens a lot in union strikes, workers want better work conditions but instead the union negotiates like 1-2% more pay and the media reports it as greedy unions getting overpaid. Even though that’s not what the workers even wanted.

by rdtwo 4y ago

vincnetas 4y ago

ok, lets go with smaller unions then.

sdenton4 4y ago

Using one union as a stand-in for all is pretty silly... Should we understand large corporations entirely on the basis of Enron?

rdtwo 4y ago
It’s pretty systematic, look at state wide teachers strokes of nurses. Any big union
rdtwo 4y ago
Ha you say that in jest but Enron is a good model for large zombie corporations. We know a lot more about the inner workings of Enron that we do about many corporations as well.

criley2 4y ago

It's ironic that you mention the railworkers union to defend your claim that I don't understand unions, when the rail industry in America got everything they wanted from the workers. Your point is basically "the worst union imaginable is the same as no union". That's not the own you think it is.

rdtwo 4y ago
You are misinformed. The railroad union got screwed. For one they didn’t get an actual contract. As far as I can tell they got Tentative deal that was used as a procedural trick to delay the strike till after the midterms. It’s not even clear that there was anything in this “tentative deal”. More importantly the strike wasn’t about pay as much as it was about absolutely terrible scheduling practices. Employees were on call 24/7/365 had to show up at very short notice, couldn’t take vacation or sick leave etc. There was no promise of actually fixing any of the problems in that deal. This happens a lot in union strikes, workers want better work conditions but instead the union negotiates like 1-2% more pay and the media reports it as greedy unions getting overpaid. Even though that’s not what the workers even wanted.