I will admit the unions pushed for the workers rights that we have today, but have they gone the way of the horse and buggy? Some of the demands of the unions back in the day are now federal law. Do we really need the unions now? Especially in the public sector? Think about the UAW union, every time the contracts came up for re-negotiation they demanded more and more, look what happened. I am not a union man but I am curious what others think.
Unions are what vastly expanded the middle class and protected our jobs from going overseas. Once Reagan and his cabal of right wingers destroyed unions, jobs were exported overseas and the auto industry went to hell. No surprise that once thriving locales became cesspools and Reaganvilles emerged everywhere.
They make labor too expensive. Prevailing wage in my industry is at least double my normal hourly rate, sometimes near triple, and thats just for the apprentice level equivalent, and I have 10 years experience.
Lech Walesa ~ Polish UNION agitator whose actions brought down the Stalinist regime that was terrorizing his country. It will be recalled that it was Wall Street Republicans who financed and imposed the Bolshevik regimes.
If you work six twelves, union or not, you are going to get one hell of a paycheck. All of the old complaints of the early 20th century have been well taken care of by legislation. Now it's all about mickey mouse work rules, who can grab the wrench, who can't, etc. And unions are now a big problem in government. It's the salaried corporate lower level people who are being taken advantage of now and should unionize -- been there seen it.
IBEW here is having a big job fair, advertising on TV. They have contractors ready to hire off the street with no experience. The contractors supply the jobs; IBEW will supply the classroom apprenticeship training. Seems like one heck of a good deal for young people. I have no idea what the wages will be, but haven't seen the economy this good in many decades.
As I said they were good for their time. What is next though? 3 day work weeks for the same pay? It has to stop somewhere.
Unions had a good purpose at once, but power corrupts, and they have become corrupt. I was an officer in a student government organization at the University of Miami. We bought and installed (by ourselves) a dart board for the university commons area. One of the unions noticed it, and the student government association was forced to pay union workers to first take it down, and then put it back up. In other words, pay over double what it should have cost us to punish us. This was silly and just showed the corruption in the system.
They are the ONLY thing in our society giving workers any chance of having any rights from their employeer depending of course on the union contract the employer agrees to.Most workers in America are stuck with these words in their employer agreements,WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO TERMINATE OR AMEND THIS AGREEMENT AT ANY TIME WE SEE FIT.Most employees have ZERO rights with their employer.You can be terminated without cause.
I’m a 26 year union member, and I can fire the union members that work for me for any reason or no reason, I can even put a do not rehire code against them so they will never be dispatched to my company again.
We need unions now more than ever, arguably. But unions today as they are have been changed by law and by greed. Hence the tepid enthusiasm for them. They need to organize a-fresh, and the organization of them needs to be designed to keep members informed on all matters and have power to manage union leaders' pay. Many government restrictions need to be rejected and if necessary, a strike may be needed to oppose government regulations on them. NOBODY, -no person, no government, -NOBODY should determine the business and functioning of any union except union members. Wage contracts should keep the rate of change of wages in sync with the rate of increase and decrease in the gross revenue of a business. That should be a union principle and a requirement in contracts.
"What are your thoughts on unions?" If they are run honestly they are the best thing since pizza. But if they become corrupt, well ......
I know someone who works for a charitable organization who gets paid minimum wage for all overtime hours.
I used to occasionally see Jimmy at the Red Fox during lunch time. My money says he's in a cement piling that goes deep in the soil under the Detroit river as part of the then new Cobo Hall construction.
The American auto industry is subpar because of unions. American cars lack the quality potential because ineffient costly unions add so much cost to the product. I've tried to help my son find a low budget car the last few weeks and the only cars worth looking at have been older Honda's and Toyotas. Newer American cars are shi#t. It's amazing the lack of quality that comes to light when American cars are 8 to 10 years old. When you pay workers to stay at home because you can't lay them off that's what you get.
Then just fine us to recompense for lost work, not punish us by making us pay for removal and reinstallation. It's corruption.
Some industries need unions especially food servers and those in hospitality they put up with lots of crap they shouldn't including substandard pay and getting taxed on a 'expected tipping rate' regardless of whether they got tipped to that level or not. Others the Unions have too much power teachers for example get their noses stuck all over education outside of the rights of their members to fair wages and working conditions why do they get any say in how much is spent on school districts for support people or number of students in a classroom they should limit themselves to are they being paid sufficiently for the stresses of larger class sizes.
American auto plants had unions from the 1920s to 1980s and the industry prospered. Once the unions went to hell so did the industry. That is fact whether you choose to believe it or not.
Once imports started coming over...better made, more gas efficient, reliable...the American car industry was bogged down by unions from competing. Unions care nil about the consumer or profitability. Unions care only about what they can get for the worker to the extreme. Must be nice to have a job for life even when you aren't needed by the company but ultimately that type of thing doesn't sustain an industry when the more streamlined, efficient competition who can focus more on the consumer comes into play.