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> Result of the strike: failure. 6000 printers were fired, but there were jobs for 670 new workers who used word processing. The sad part is that it kind of do
by AnthonyMouse 2mo ago
> Result of the strike: failure. 6000 printers were fired, but there were jobs for 670 new workers who used word processing.
The sad part is that it kind of does work from the other end.
Suppose you're a former press operator who can't expect to find any more work operating a printing press. Should you take a McJob? You have years of experience working with electric motors and hydraulics and pumps and industrial control systems. You might be better off to get a job in a trade. Study for the licensing exam and become a plumber or an electrician or the like. Except that you can't, because you're required to do a multi-year apprenticeship to get into any of those things no matter how much experience you have doing something similar. And you can't even get the apprenticeship to begin with because you're 45 years old and the union won't take you.
When a job is being eliminated by newer technology, the union has essentially no power because the employer doesn't care about workers going on strike when they're about to be laid off regardless. But when those laid off workers then want to get a job in another industry, the union there shows up to exclude them.
Which obviously sucks because then the union is screwing the laid off workers rather than some faceless corporation we might imagine or prefer them to be screwing.
- vasco 2mo agoAll unions just exist to fuck up the existence of anyone not on the union. All you need to know this is to have worked near unions.
- pjmlp 2mo agoWhy should the age play a role at all in unions? In European unions you pay the membership and that is it. On top of that many apply to complete industry sectors, they are not tied to specific jobs and don't care one second how you got your skills.
- AnthonyMouse 2mo agoThe union lobbies for regulations that require you to apprentice under an existing master in order to enter the trade. The union's masters then purposely limit the number of apprentices they take to limit the supply of license holders. Since the slots are then valuable as a result of artificial scarcity, they get allocated on the basis of nepotism etc. You're not the nephew of anyone currently in the union so you don't get an apprenticeship. Moreover, getting your own full license takes around a decade, during which time you're expected to work as an underling regardless of whether you already have the capacity to do the job yourself. So to the extent that anyone can get an apprenticeship without blood relations or graft, they expect someone who is willing to be stuck in an entry level position for that long even if they already have significant relevant experience from a related field, and then you get in the queue behind a million high school seniors and never get a slot.
- pjmlp 2mo agoQuite different from over here, as mentioned it is a plain membership. Getting permission for jobs is required in many cases without any union having anything to do with it, you have to get them regardless. Finalising high-school without going through trade school, or into university, meant jobs that only unqualified people get.
- jdub 2mo agoyou're describing a pre-20th century guild, not a union
- parineum 2mo agoI've only known one person who went into a trade union but it almost perfectly describes his experience. Right down to having an uncle in the union already.
- mattjhall 2mo ago> And you can't even get the apprenticeship to begin with because you're 45 years old and the union won't take you. This is not how unions work in the UK