Private sector unions should get the best deal they can through negotiations, collective bargaining, whatever. Public unions are not needed, not now not ever.
I believe in unions. I believe in free collective bargaining. I do not believe in the closed shop. I do not believe anyone should be forced to join a union but I also believe that anyone who does not join a union does not have the right to benefit from any pay increase or improvement of conditions campaigned for and negotiated by the unions in a company. The unions manage to increase paternity leave from 2 to 4 weeks, for example, then only union members should benefit from that change. Stands to reason.
That's a good point, I hadn't thought about it like that. If you don't pay dues or contribute to an organization, you shouldn't benefit from what it negotiates. Without that stipulation, people could just not pay the money or make the effort and get the benefits for free.
I'm against some unions. The UAW for example is a cancer and was a significant part of the reason why GM and Chrysler went bankrupt.
Yes that's why I'm on the fence: the issue of free-ridership. However, in practical terms how can you make an individual worker not benefit from improved or safer working conditions?
Couldn't have anything to do with the crap cars they were designing, could it? What did the UAW do to make the Chrysler 200 a pale imitation of a Mercedes? Or a Chevrolet a re-badged Korean Daewoo? I know the big corporations are desperate to find someone to pin their monumental failures on, but the unions aren't it. Poor management, profit milking, lack of investment in product development, entrenched lock-step relations with the oil industry and poor competitor monitoring are the reasons the US motor manufacturers went belly-up. Don't blame it on the unions just because it's the fashionable thing to do these days - blame the wrongs of the world on the unions, not on crap capitalists.
Yes that's why I'm on the fence: the issue of free-ridership. However, in practical terms how can you make an individual worker not benefit from improved or safer working conditions?
I'm against public sector unions, and against closed shop private unions. I don't believe people should be forced to join a union in order to have a job.
I disagree. Some public unions represent people we hire to go into harm's way. I don't think there's anything wrong with them getting together to ensure their interests are protected.
I'm against some unions. The UAW for example is a cancer and was a significant part of the reason why GM and Chrysler went bankrupt. Others I'm more torn about. Teacher's unions do some good things (such as mandated minimum student to teacher ratios) and some bad (hiring and firing based strictly on seniority for example).
I do not believe anyone should ever have to join a union or pay union dues to get a job, and I support anonymous votes on union issues so workers can't be intimidated into voting a certain way.
Couldn't have anything to do with the crap cars they were designing, could it? What did the UAW do to make the Chrysler 200 a pale imitation of a Mercedes? Or a Chevrolet a re-badged Korean Daewoo? I know the big corporations are desperate to find someone to pin their monumental failures on, but the unions aren't it. Poor management, profit milking, lack of investment in product development, entrenched lock-step relations with the oil industry and poor competitor monitoring are the reasons the US motor manufacturers went belly-up. Don't blame it on the unions just because it's the fashionable thing to do these days - blame the wrongs of the world on the unions, not on crap capitalists.
I am no fan of the UAW and it is the union I twice voted against having represent where I worked, however...
Blaming the UAW for GM/Chrysler going bankrupt is incredibly incomplete. First, remember that Ford also has UAW but did not go bankrupt. Toyota is not unionized, but had serious problems over the same time period. What caused GM/Chrysler to go bankrupt was a bad economy and very poor management decisions, plus the UAW contract.
Secondly, you cannot really blame the UAW for the contract. Their job was to get as much as they can for their workers. They succeeded.
Lastly, realize that pointing the finger to any one or two things as the reason a company the size of GM or Chrysler goes bankrupt is vastly oversimplifying things. This post vastly oversimplifies things. Details like problems with tier 1 and 2 suppliers, snowballing negative press, and many many other things played significant roles in GM and Chrysler going bankrupt. Blaming the UAW, even as "a significant reason" is simply looking for scapegoats and not looking at the real situation.
Trust me, I realize all of this. I work in the automotive industry. To pretend that the UAW doesn't share at least some of the blame though is very naive.
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