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It is soo good. A tech company i just got offer from. In their onboarding app, they let me join the union on the first day.
This is what you see in the company with strong union.
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this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2024
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Work Reform
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A place to discuss positive changes that can make work more equitable, and to vent about current practices. We are NOT against work; we just want the fruits of our labor to be recognized better.
Our Philosophies:
- All workers must be paid a living wage for their labor.
- Income inequality is the main cause of lower living standards.
- Workers must join together and fight back for what is rightfully theirs.
- We must not be divided and conquered. Workers gain the most when they focus on unifying issues.
Our Goals
- Higher wages for underpaid workers.
- Better worker representation, including but not limited to unions.
- Better and fewer working hours.
- Stimulating a massive wave of worker organizing in the United States and beyond.
- Organizing and supporting political causes and campaigns that put workers first.
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No joke, I see this becoming more common. They’re even doing it the way I imagined: straight up integrated with onboarding.
Maybe it’s an outspoken prediction, that in the future many more businesses will prefer a unionized workforce, but I think a number of current societal and market vectors would suggest that trend. In particular, consider the variety of HR-related logistics, liabilities, and relational concerns of a modern business that amount to operational overhead. You can likely imagine ways that unions might simplify, stabilize, or fully externalize that friction, such that the increased productivity outweighs higher labor expenses, similar to the way efficiency wages in labor economics can ultimately reduce turnover related expenses. That’s just one way unions could become an attractive solution to employers and employees alike.
At any rate, it’s what I would prefer if I needed to hire W2s, to the extent that I’d be willing to help spin up local chapters if necessary, and it only takes a handful of successful examples to accelerate labor trends.
Unions have long made businesses run better. They don't fight unionization efforts because of profit. They do it because of control.
Unions help to fight inflation and price gouging as well. Unions are good for the entirety of any economy in which they exist. There are decades upon decades of independent and government funded research that supports this.
https://theconversation.com/unions-do-hurt-profits-but-not-productivity-and-they-remain-a-bulwark-against-a-widening-wealth-gap-107139
https://home.treasury.gov/news/featured-stories/labor-unions-and-the-us-economy
https://www.epi.org/publication/unions-and-well-being/
At the expense of profit? If control is preferable to operational stability, why do so many businesses use IT vendors?
They still have a leaver on outside vendors. And yes, power is ultimately their goal. If there's a conflict between power and profit, they choose power.
OK just so we’re crystal, I’m only interested in fixing what’s broken. I have no time for doomerism, tedious conspiracies, or despair.
What I'm saying is that you can't go to businesses and say "a union will make this whole place run better for everyone" and expect them to take that for an answer. Unions have to fight. Some of those fights have been bloody.
That's not doomerism, tedious conspiracies, or despair. It's what has happened already in the history of unions.
Edit: You’re angry, hurt, jaded, and need others to feel your misery. I understand the feeling. What comes next, however, is the work. Angsty rage-baiting is a dead end.
Of course, union battles are a matter of history. And yes, today the rational agents of global economies often see unionization as a threat, clearly.
I argue that it’s only a threat insofar as it’s a disruptive paradigm. On the whole it’s a more fiscally advantageous schema for all but the monolithic “vertically integrated” international corporations that profit largely from self-dealing (and probably need to be broken up anyway).
You said businesses prioritize “Control” and “Power” over profit — i.e. they are not rational economic agents but despots. It’s a bleak perspective since despots can’t be reasoned with, only overthrown, and moreover it dismisses economic theory entirely.
I’m just weary of the defeatism. I know we’ve been through a lot and many of us are terribly jaded, but giving up is not an option. I want to win.
Yes.
I don't see it as a defeat. I'm not saying give up. I'm saying know what we're up against.
It's important to remember that "they" is specific people with varying goals. Similarly, merely saying "profit" doesn't tell us anything about where the money is going.
Seriously in Europe many investment funds activly go to the unions and ask which problems the company have. They are often better informed and honest then the normal management. They also have an obvious intresst in keeping the company around.
That is fascinating. It makes a lot of sense. They’re safe to point out when the emperor has no clothes.