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I'm strongly in favor of public (and private) unions, for what it's worth. The current system is pretty dysfunctional, though. I think unions and the employers
by gizmo 13y ago
I'm strongly in favor of public (and private) unions, for what it's worth. The current system is pretty dysfunctional, though. I think unions and the employers should be mostly cooperative, not adversarial in nature. When it becomes Team Employer versus Team Employee and people defend people in their team no matter the circumstances you tend to get dysfunctional and inflexible bureaucracies.
- Iftheshoefits 13y agoWell, a cooperative relationship of course would work best. Unfortunately the historical circumstances that gave rise to unions didn't include such a relationship. Unions became favorable because of abusive practices by organizations (employers) with an incredibly lopsided advantage in resources (financially and politically). That hasn't changed in the last 100 years.
- gizmo 13y agoI agree completely. Countries with better employer-union relationships are typically countries where workers have more legal rights. So outlawing abusive practices to create a better balance of power would help.
- Xylakant 13y agoDefending a member in a trial/adversarial process and a cooperative relationship do not exclude each other. The union can very well defend the member in this case while still discussing cooperative solutions to the general problem of officers bullying citizens, just as a lawyer can speak for your side while still reaching out to the other side to find a solution that's acceptable for both sides and does not include a verdict. It is however important that unions have a bargaining power that is at least comparable to the other side's power - and that sometime requires going head to head with the opponent.