4 ms·

The main benefit of being in a union - IMO - seems that you can't be fired or "cancelled" for expressing your political opinion on Twitter. The next best seems

The main benefit of being in a union - IMO - seems that you can't be fired or "cancelled" for expressing your political opinion on Twitter. The next best seems to be severance (more if you've been with the company longer). I think any company can implement these unilaterally.

vkou 4y ago
The third benefit is that you have a lot more bargaining power behind you. One employee is fungible, the entire workforce is not.
- kennend3 4y ago
  > One employee is fungible, the entire workforce is not. Not sure what it is, but man i dislike this term being used like this. To be "fungible" is a contract for a physical good without a specific "sample" of that good being specified. So you can put a contract on for "100oz" of gold, and the counter-party can complete their obligation by supplying one 100oz bar, or 10 10oz bars, etc. Legally, they met their obligation as these are "fungible". People are rarely "fungible" and it is a pet-peeve seeing this being used all the time like this.
  - kennywinker 4y ago
    One of the major aims of industrialization has been to make people as fungible as possible. People are not fungible, you're right, but a whole lot of effort + technology + process exists to try to make people fungible. e.g. the assembly line, or customer support scripts.
    - kennend3 4y ago
      Agreed.. except the point of industrialization was to make people replaceable. Fungibility is a legal construct tying into contract law. It is a misuse of business "terms" by technology people.
      - kennywinker 4y ago
        Second definition is "interchangeable" https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fungible https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fungible
      - Dylan16807 4y ago
        Fungible goes beyond replaceable, and the intent here is closer to fungible. An amorphous blob of labor-hours.
shadowgovt 4y ago
The advantage to a union is it's not up to the company alone whether they implement such things unilaterally.
kennywinker 4y ago
Another benefit is employees who've unionized make higher wages. Depending on who you ask and what study the average is somewhere in the range of 10-25% more than non-unionized employees.
- diebeforei485 4y ago
  This is not true in tech, but granted very few tech companies are unionized.

vkou 4y ago

The third benefit is that you have a lot more bargaining power behind you. One employee is fungible, the entire workforce is not.

kennend3 4y ago
> One employee is fungible, the entire workforce is not. Not sure what it is, but man i dislike this term being used like this. To be "fungible" is a contract for a physical good without a specific "sample" of that good being specified. So you can put a contract on for "100oz" of gold, and the counter-party can complete their obligation by supplying one 100oz bar, or 10 10oz bars, etc. Legally, they met their obligation as these are "fungible". People are rarely "fungible" and it is a pet-peeve seeing this being used all the time like this.
- kennywinker 4y ago
  One of the major aims of industrialization has been to make people as fungible as possible. People are not fungible, you're right, but a whole lot of effort + technology + process exists to try to make people fungible. e.g. the assembly line, or customer support scripts.
  - kennend3 4y ago
    Agreed.. except the point of industrialization was to make people replaceable. Fungibility is a legal construct tying into contract law. It is a misuse of business "terms" by technology people.
    - kennywinker 4y ago
      Second definition is "interchangeable" https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fungible https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fungible
    - Dylan16807 4y ago
      Fungible goes beyond replaceable, and the intent here is closer to fungible. An amorphous blob of labor-hours.

shadowgovt 4y ago

The advantage to a union is it's not up to the company alone whether they implement such things unilaterally.

kennywinker 4y ago

Another benefit is employees who've unionized make higher wages. Depending on who you ask and what study the average is somewhere in the range of 10-25% more than non-unionized employees.

diebeforei485 4y ago
This is not true in tech, but granted very few tech companies are unionized.