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comment by user-inactivated
user-inactivated  ·  2309 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Where Millennials Come From

    And can someone explain to me why many Americans think that unions is a bad thing? (Or why unions are a bad thing in the US)

Depends on the union, but they've gone from being perceived as being beneficial to the working man to any combination of weak and ineffective, leeching off the hard work of individuals, bureaucratic systems that just create more obstacles to overcome, old boy networks that protect the old guard and/or provide preferential and protectionist treatment to people who abuse the system and their power in it. I mean, I could keep going on, but you get the idea. Regardless, whether or not that's the reality of the situation, that's how they're often viewed.





user-inactivated  ·  2309 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    I hate the union, they've done nothing for me. It's stupid!

-- The lady at work in a cushy seniority bid position after having life saving surgery for free on the union health plan.

    And can someone explain to me why many Americans think that unions is a bad thing? (Or why unions are a bad thing in the US)

I feel like this is another thing that millennials might kill, but the "git 'er done" work ethic in the US is real and deeply ingrained.

The NLRB is also structured in a way that weakens unions. We've have a few cases in my local in the past year where the company was clearly violating the contract, but the cases still managed to got sent off to Arbitration. Never heard about them again, so I assume they decided against the union. One of these cases was black and white where the company was selectively handing out extra-contract bonuses to employees. If we'd won that, it would have easily put thousands of dollars in lots and lots and lots of pockets.

We've also inflicted a lot of wounds against ourselves. See Hoffa, Hoffa Jr, Ron Carey, etc, ect.

Cumol  ·  2309 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I wonder why such problems didn't show up in Germany where unions are generally seen as something good for the people.

This story has been interesting to watch, Tesla vs. IG Metall in Germany