> I don't want to be "equalized". You already are - by your employer. Mostly equalized at the absolute bottom of every situation where you disagree with your s

> I don't want to be "equalized". You already are - by your employer. Mostly equalized at the absolute bottom of every situation where you disagree with your superiors or need to rely on the company for something. > I'm happy to negotiate my own terms. And your employer is even happier for you to believe you are actually negotiating your own terms. > In my experience the union leaders negotiate better terms for themselves than for the people they represent. That is certainly a potential problem. But think about the distribution of status, benefits and compensation of owners, managers, and employees - that's even more extreme, and prevalent, than misdeeds by union leaders. This sounds like a bit of a "democracy can have corruption so let's support the monarchy" kind of an argument. > The company prefers to have a good "shepherd" for the flock - the union leader. What companies prefer is to shepherd the flock themselves. Failing that, getting a collaborative shepherd. The challenge in unionization is disrupting the shepherding and allowing for conscious collective reflection and action. > in France, Germany, Italy where the unions are strong, but the Bay Area, London, New York where unions are not really a thing. The US is the center of the major world empire right now, and is not really comparable with most other places. However, even if you took the US - it's pretty much a hellscape, socially. Large tech companies are swimming in their ill-gotten gains while a huge number of people are homeless, many can only access contaminated water, students are in massive debt, infrastructure is in poor repair, public facilities and systems are under-developed... ----