re: Unions are outdated. It is 2023 not 1923

I agree with every word you said



But I also look at this graph…
…(which is corporate profits as a percent of GDP)… and I look at this graph… …(which is inflation adjusted income broken up by quintile)…and I am forced to consider what other solutions there are. Something about our economic system is fundamentally is broken when corporate profits are growing from 1% of gdp to 15%, while at the same time, the middle income quintile and below has seen functionally no real income growth at all.



I agree that unions aren’t the correct answer, for all the reasons you outlined above. But the status quo isn’t acceptable either. And absent a compelling alternative finally getting proposed, at the least, the recent push for more Union activity isn’t surprising to me. Workers are desperate to find a way to stay afloat, even if that means turning to corrupt institutions to try and get help. And the shite flows downstream from there.

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Without a union, please explain how employees speak up in unison to let a company know they are tone deaf and overworking their staff?

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You work from home you fricking baby.

I am not a fan of unions but I hate the "It's the current year" form of arguments. It is beyond fricking lazy and one of the reasons that I hate that antler-mouthed frickface John Oliver.

Unions are the reason you get weekends off.

well said.

I have had a few clients that are unionized and the union is actually helpful in weeding out bad employees. Usually, these are companies that work in a dangerous business and, for safety reasons, the union employees don't want to work around employees who are incompetent.

ETA: In the late 80's, I represented a unionized plant. The contract wages were significantly less than what was paid at other local plants (which were non-unionized). So, the plant had a poor quality labor pool. The plant manager was instrumental in getting higher contract wages because he wanted a better plant labor force.

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Thomas Jefferson warned about "monied corporations" controlling America. Unions are a necessary evil to combat this. There are strength in numbers (whether it be a group of workers or a few corporations that basically have a monopoly on a certain industry), and that is the whole idea.

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Might be the whole idea but Unions have overstepped their bounds. They no longer make sure the average employee is treated fairly. They make sure the worst employee can't get fired for literally sleeping on the job. They make sure the good employee doesn't get a raise because that would be unfair to the worst employee.

In some rare instances, unions might actually help like the writers and actors strike. But by and large, they do nothing but make the work place worse for people actually trying to do their jobs.

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You work from home you fricking baby.

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I work in about 100 different locations a year in the US and 15-25 different cities in 7-10 other countries a year. I fly out to aircraft carriers and sometimes don't sleep for two days.

Yeah, I'm a real fricking slacker.

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You are generalizing that all unions are the same. Some have their place and do a lot of good for their brothers. Others not so much. The same can be said for many things.

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losing battle with this bunch, baw

Glad I am.

Frick unions. I will never buy a union made vehicle.