3 ms·

The union may start as an organization that serves the workers who pay it, but will eventually, as with all bureaucracies, morph into an organization whose func

The union may start as an organization that serves the workers who pay it, but will eventually, as with all bureaucracies, morph into an organization whose function is to protect and enrich itself and the people operating it. It also adds another layer of management between the workers and those paying them. Those are both things that you should want to avoid, and if the company is treating people well, they probably don't see a compelling need to spite themselves by enacting extra management layers and costs. A workforce that thinks a union is dumb (sans campaigning) is the ideal state of workforce.

diggan 3y ago
Your comment might apply for unions elsewhere (maybe even specifically the US), but the situation on the ground in Sweden is very different, and it seems you might be missing the context that this is happening in Sweden. > A workforce that thinks a union is dumb (sans campaigning) is the ideal state of workforce. So about 70% of the workforce is Sweden is not "in ideal state" according to you, as about 70% is part of a union?
- QuarterReptile 3y ago
  >So about 70% of the workforce is Sweden is not "in ideal state" according to you, as about 70% is part of a union? Probably. I'm not sure why that would seem far-fetched. But, like you said, my comment is based on a US American understanding of unions, and Sweden may be different enough for this story to have other interesting dimensions.
  - fl7305 3y ago
    From my somewhat limited perspective, unions in the US and in Sweden are two completely different things. I've heard some horror stories in Sweden about small local unions that act like the US ones, but that's pretty rare. Sweden has a system that is based mainly on negotiations between the employers and the unions. This has worked fairly well for 90 years now. When the big Swedish companies like Volvo, Ericsson, Skanska, SAAB etc have to make drastic cuts, this is normally done with the union on board and few strikes.

diggan 3y ago

Your comment might apply for unions elsewhere (maybe even specifically the US), but the situation on the ground in Sweden is very different, and it seems you might be missing the context that this is happening in Sweden. > A workforce that thinks a union is dumb (sans campaigning) is the ideal state of workforce. So about 70% of the workforce is Sweden is not "in ideal state" according to you, as about 70% is part of a union?

QuarterReptile 3y ago
>So about 70% of the workforce is Sweden is not "in ideal state" according to you, as about 70% is part of a union? Probably. I'm not sure why that would seem far-fetched. But, like you said, my comment is based on a US American understanding of unions, and Sweden may be different enough for this story to have other interesting dimensions.
- fl7305 3y ago
  From my somewhat limited perspective, unions in the US and in Sweden are two completely different things. I've heard some horror stories in Sweden about small local unions that act like the US ones, but that's pretty rare. Sweden has a system that is based mainly on negotiations between the employers and the unions. This has worked fairly well for 90 years now. When the big Swedish companies like Volvo, Ericsson, Skanska, SAAB etc have to make drastic cuts, this is normally done with the union on board and few strikes.