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Anti-union activity is heating up ahead of Google contractor's vote to unionize

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Re: Anti-union activity is heating up ahead of Google contractor's vote to unionize

#401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On average unions work better for the most people. People on the upper end will not stop contributing or trying, people on the lower end don't matter much anyway. It's the middle that provides most of the advancement.

At least two other data points - I have a friend who worked in a govt agency - doing cool and important work - she left because of the unfirable lifers - while the stories are funny you can’t go to work and perform well in that situation. In high school teacher X was notorious for giving no work and no s*its. He missed lots of his classes so always subs. We thought it was cool (usually easy A). He was there years but…

Cool, you have two stories of slackers on a job. What relevance does that have to the discussion?

Re: Anti-union activity is heating up ahead of Google contractor's vote to unionize

#402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So if an employee steals from their employer, is it the employers fault for hiring them? Unions always enforce expensive, outdated work. The taxi cab unions fought Uber and Lyft, a vastly superior taxi system, all to prop up an existing outdated system.

"* The taxi cab unions fought Uber and Lyft, a vastly superior taxi system...*" Vastly superior for who?

Uber and Lyft are vastly superior than the existing taxi system and better for everyone. It got rid of the medallian system that prevented many people from driving a cab and used technology to make it very convenient to find a ride at any time.

Good things won't last forever. The taxi cab unions are already fighting these companies back in many cities.

They kind of remind me of the record industry and file sharing in the 90s: fighting technology, so they can keep their outdated and expensive system in place.

Most unions are like this. As another example, they will fight automation and force companies to hire multiple, overpaid workers, for a job that can be done by a single person. This only holds companies back and puts them at a disadvantage.

Re: Anti-union activity is heating up ahead of Google contractor's vote to unionize

#403
post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It's become clear", could you please follow up with some examples so that what you are saying become more clear?

Well, people voting for republican party are a good example... When you observe their policies, always intended to help corporate interests, you understand their voters are more interested in pissing of black people and the poors than improve their own condition.

[deleted]

Re: Anti-union activity is heating up ahead of Google contractor's vote to unionize

#404
post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It's become clear", could you please follow up with some examples so that what you are saying become more clear?

Well, people voting for republican party are a good example... When you observe their policies, always intended to help corporate interests, you understand their voters are more interested in pissing of black people and the poors than improve their own condition.

Not exactly a recent development, though.

Re: Anti-union activity is heating up ahead of Google contractor's vote to unionize

#405
post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No way. Unpaid overtime sucks. Burnout sucks. What I meant was that that USPS job description sounded to me like a cushy, untouchable asshole replying to emails passive aggressively every other day from 1200-1235hrs. I'm not for exploiting people if that's what you mean. Sorry if that wasn't clear.

Assuming someone's job is easy, without knowing much about it, and therefore believing they must lazy isn't a good look.

Well, I'm just drawing from my own experience here. Usually when I worked with people that behaved that way it turned out that that behaviour steemed from their untouchable-ish status.

Is it possible that someone behaving that way has legitimate reasons to do so? Sure. I mean I've been wrong before :P It's that I (personal experience, anecdata) didn't encounter many situations like that is all.

Re: Anti-union activity is heating up ahead of Google contractor's vote to unionize

#406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess we can test that. How many USPS developers are open source mavens? EDIT: Did I misunderstand a joke or something? Doesn't seem like I said anything particularly controversial.

Several are unpaid Linux kernel contributors.

And many thanks to those guys for their work!

Re: Anti-union activity is heating up ahead of Google contractor's vote to unionize

#407
post #363
post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know, that it's a well known quote is essentially my point. They frame their personal politics as some well-earned enlightenment, far from the ignorant anti-union baseline, while quoting a Nobel prize winning author whose works most people are forced to read as teenagers.

So your main objection is that the quote betrays its speaker as uppity?

No, it betrays that they're, at best, equally guilty of sitting on a pro-union baseline themselves.

Re: Anti-union activity is heating up ahead of Google contractor's vote to unionize

#408
post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It's become clear", could you please follow up with some examples so that what you are saying become more clear?

Well, people voting for republican party are a good example... When you observe their policies, always intended to help corporate interests, you understand their voters are more interested in pissing of black people and the poors than improve their own condition.

[dead]

Re: Anti-union activity is heating up ahead of Google contractor's vote to unionize

#409
post #196
post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pension, more then two weeks holiday, and 9am-5pm workdays sounds like a normal working conditions for an employee?

For many Americans, they are not.

It used to be. There are a ton of popular songs from the 60s, 70s and 80s, especially in country music, about "9 to 5" jobs being the gold standard and basically how you had it made if you got one.

Re: Anti-union activity is heating up ahead of Google contractor's vote to unionize

#410
post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The “temporarily embarrassed millionaire” is a trope of the left. It constructs a strawman argument of how people on the right think to discount the reasons they actually vote against entitlements and anti-business legislature. I know of nobody on the right that has voted with that mindset.

The only convincing alternative that I've heard from someone in that world is that conservatives are so afraid of getting screwed over by the rich and powerful that they'll do whatever they can to placate them while scraping to themselves what they need to survive. A, "Pray I don't alter it any further," situation. Of course, this "TEM" thing is partly a face-saving move for our white, right neighbors by progressives…

No offense, but you’ve clearly never talked to a conservative to ask them why they support policies good for business. It has nothing to do with being afraid of rich people.
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