15 ms·

Can you name 3 profitable, growing, unionized industries? Not to mention the paternalistic relationship it implies. If I don't care for the terms of an employm

by ja30278 17y ago

Can you name 3 profitable, growing, unionized industries? Not to mention the paternalistic relationship it implies. If I don't care for the terms of an employment contract, I won't work under it. If no business in my industry offers terms I consider favorable, I can start my own business. If that's impractical, or I'm unwilling to do it, I should change professions entirely.

omouse 17y ago
Here's a list of companies: http://levellers.wordpress.com/2009/06/03/no-profitable-unionized-companies/ http://levellers.wordpress.com/2009/06/03/no-profitable-unio... Profitablility of a company is mainly tied to decisions made by management. A unionized company could be very well or badly run, depending on the management. It's the management that hires the workers and decide what they should be doing after all. A union helps both the workers and the company because without the company, the workers (and the union) would no longer be needed. In the GM bailout, the UAW took some wage/benefits cuts so that GM wouldn't be completely down the shitter. Not to mention the paternalistic relationship it implies. If I don't care for the terms of an employment contract, I won't work under it. If no business in my industry offers terms I consider favorable, I can start my own business. If that's impractical, or I'm unwilling to do it, I should change professions entirely. Changing professions is sometimes impractical. What will you do and how will you live while you are training to join another profession? Starting a business is difficult, you can ask all the people here how much work they have to put into it. What if you don't have the skills to manage a business or to market a product? Not only that, but where do you get the capital from? VCs? Banks? You have to beg them and do a song and dance to get any money from them. Then you have to keep doing that while you remain unprofitable so that the business keeps on running. What if every employer offers contracts that are crappy in one way or another? What do you do then? Choose the lesser of a million evils? Why should you do that when you can bargain and possibly get a better contract? A union is as paternalistic as the state or the corporation. So if you have no problem with those, groups of people co-operating to achieve something, then you shouldn't have a problem with a union. Maybe the word has a negative connotation for you, we can change that easily. Let's call it XYZ or some other word instead.

by ja30278 17y ago

omouse 17y ago

Here's a list of companies: http://levellers.wordpress.com/2009/06/03/no-profitable-unionized-companies/ http://levellers.wordpress.com/2009/06/03/no-profitable-unio... Profitablility of a company is mainly tied to decisions made by management. A unionized company could be very well or badly run, depending on the management. It's the management that hires the workers and decide what they should be doing after all. A union helps both the workers and the company because without the company, the workers (and the union) would no longer be needed. In the GM bailout, the UAW took some wage/benefits cuts so that GM wouldn't be completely down the shitter. Not to mention the paternalistic relationship it implies. If I don't care for the terms of an employment contract, I won't work under it. If no business in my industry offers terms I consider favorable, I can start my own business. If that's impractical, or I'm unwilling to do it, I should change professions entirely. Changing professions is sometimes impractical. What will you do and how will you live while you are training to join another profession? Starting a business is difficult, you can ask all the people here how much work they have to put into it. What if you don't have the skills to manage a business or to market a product? Not only that, but where do you get the capital from? VCs? Banks? You have to beg them and do a song and dance to get any money from them. Then you have to keep doing that while you remain unprofitable so that the business keeps on running. What if every employer offers contracts that are crappy in one way or another? What do you do then? Choose the lesser of a million evils? Why should you do that when you can bargain and possibly get a better contract? A union is as paternalistic as the state or the corporation. So if you have no problem with those, groups of people co-operating to achieve something, then you shouldn't have a problem with a union. Maybe the word has a negative connotation for you, we can change that easily. Let's call it XYZ or some other word instead.