91–100 of 127 posts
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Yes, instead we should have a tyranny of shareholders demanding ever more dividends, stock buybacks, acquisitions, layoffs, managing to Wall Street expectations, etc. until the company is bled dry.
It's hard to bleed a company dry if you are insisting that they pump in ever more blood. If a company dies your shares become worthless.
Are unions demonised in the US in a similar vain to socialism? i.e. made out to be an evil that don't work despite working quite well in many, many other countries? I'm seriously curious about this as I'm quite taken aback at the general hate unions are getting ITT.
- Factory layoffs HAD to be done by seniority rather than merit. We knowingly laid off top performers, just because they were newer to the company (due to union contract rules).
- Vendors at a tech conference got in trouble for moving their display tables a few feet because that was supposed to be done by union workers.
- Promotions and raises strongly tied to seniority, less flexibility.
Are unions demonised in the US in a similar vain to socialism? i.e. made out to be an evil that don't work despite working quite well in many, many other countries? I'm seriously curious about this as I'm quite taken aback at the general hate unions are getting ITT.
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While this would work well in theory, do you see either political party working to build a stronger "bill of labor rights" for Americans? Americans don't have basic labor rights like mandated vacation, paternity/maternity leave, sick leave, etc. I don't see the American political system as fixing this anytime soon.
Why is mandated vacation considered a "right?" It's a right that I don't have to work? That should be an agreement between the employer and employee and not the business of government. I'm an independent contractor and I don't get vacation paid by anyone except me. If I don't work, I don't get paid. I'm not sure why that's controversial. Should a restaurant customer pay for meals they didn't actually order just becau…
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You're being downvoted because this isn't true. No one is ever legally obligated to join a union in the U.S. You may be required to pay dues, since the union affords you protections even if you're not a member, but you'll never be required to join it. It's also not true that "don't like what your union is doing, tough luck". Unions are democratic organizations. Don't like what it's doing? Take your case to your fello…
No one is ever legally obligated to join a union in the U.S. To "join": not officially. There have been cases of workers not having applications forwarded without including signed provisional cards (known as "card check" organizing[0]). There is agency shop organizing in which workers have to pay full dues but do not have to join the union. It can be seen as a distinction without a difference to those who have to pay…
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You're being downvoted because this isn't true. No one is ever legally obligated to join a union in the U.S. You may be required to pay dues, since the union affords you protections even if you're not a member, but you'll never be required to join it. It's also not true that "don't like what your union is doing, tough luck". Unions are democratic organizations. Don't like what it's doing? Take your case to your fello…
Actually you are wrong. You can be legally obligated to join a union in any non Right to Work state. Unions almost always have a union security clause forcing employers to only accept their members who are in good standing. Unions are also not very democratic. They are democratic in principle but once again fall to the tyranny of the majority. If you are a minority in a union you are completely screwed unless you can…
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Unions ruin nearly every company they touch Government unions are even worse because the government is largely able to support a nearly unlimited budget. Let's not forget that unions are not opt-in or opt-out. If you work in a union shop you are in that union and their dues are automatically taken directly out of your pay. You don't like what your union is doing? Tough luck. Suddenly you need to negotiate with the pe…
You're being downvoted because this isn't true. No one is ever legally obligated to join a union in the U.S. You may be required to pay dues, since the union affords you protections even if you're not a member, but you'll never be required to join it. It's also not true that "don't like what your union is doing, tough luck". Unions are democratic organizations. Don't like what it's doing? Take your case to your fello…
since the union affords you protections
Here's one example I experienced directly. Normal California law at the time mandated minimum break periods and frequencies based on hours worked (e.g. 4+ hour shift = 1 rest break, 5.5+ hours mandated a meal break, 6?+ hours mandated a second rest break).
The union negotiated away all rest and meal breaks in our unit in return for either a shorter shift or slight shift premium depending on which shift one worked.
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We are past the epoch of industrialization where the worker's union was a useful tool to protect people. The modern union masquerades as a protection mechanism for the worker while crippling the growth of successful scaling companies all while incentivizing the wrong behaviors (outsourcing of labor).
I disagree. I think the union would or still do benefit many industries. For example, consider doctors. They don't have a union but there should to help regulate working conditions. There are so many abusive workplace practices in medicine like number of hours that doctor is forced to work through residences and fellowship. There are many examples of doctors dying from a car crash after their shift. We limit the hour…
A union doesn't work so well when there's sizable power differential between members, and that's the case with doctors. The political power of a senior consultant with tendrils into management is usually orders of magnitude more than that of a fresh graduate.
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"Unions are one of the main reasons we had such a huge American auto crisis just a few years ago." Or, viewed through another lens: the auto workers' union is the organization that prevented auto workers from being squeezed tighter and tighter without end. If they, the workers, hadn't banded together, the owners and shareholders could keep cutting their wages, could keep failing to uphold their obligations to the wor…
"destroying their bodies for dollars per hour" $31 per hour for a non-skilled assembly line worker. That's $31 per hour + very good benefits. http://www.npr.org/news/specials/gmvstoyota/ Perhaps we should demand government mandate a $100 per hour salary? I don't know, what's "fair" in your mind? Why not $200 per hour? The truth is that many of these auto workers make more money than many of the shareholders. It isn't…
If they can work collectively and demand it, who are we to stop them?
Isn't that a market at work? They don't own the building, but they do provide the labor. Let them negotiate, collectively, and get whatever they can.
Why is the little old lady who does literally nothing for that dividend prized over the people who go to work day after day?
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Germany's manufacturing companies have massive union presence in everything they do and they're some of the most successful in the planet. Let's stop with this ridiculous demonization of unions. American corporations have chosen a confrontational model with unions and staff. It doesn't have to be this way. There are better models around if the owners of capital are willing to cooperate with workers.
Germany's unions and US unions operate under different laws, which grant different rights and power to the unions, and apply different restrictions to the employees and companies where unions are established. Comparing the two as if they are the exact same thing is specious at best.