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this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2025
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I'm not in a union. Once in a while unions try to convince me I should organize, but everything I see says if I vote to organize it will not be a new union that I could have power in. Instead I will be forced into one of the large existing unions that I will be a tiny player in and unable to get a high leadership position in.
Besides, I'm an engineer. I can lead people, but that isn't what I want to do. Thus even if I could run for a leadership position I find that a thankless job that I don't want. I have only so much time on earth and so I have to choose what I spend my time on.
Are you? Are you actually a Professional Engineer who is in a position of authority within the business and has the leverage of a license stamp to compensate for the lack of a union? Or are you a glorified technician who, like so many other "engineers," absolutely needs a union but doesn't believe it because your engineering degree inflates your sense of rugged individualism?
I am not legally a professional engineer. However I do have a degree from my universities school of engineering. I could go through the paperwork to get that professional engineer certification, it just hasn't been a useful thing for me to do. (professional engineer doesn't really cover computer science topics even though my code can kill just as much as a bridge collapsing could kill)
I can respect some aspects of that. Not everyone is meant to or even cut out to lead. Good on you for realizing that about yourself.
What I don't understand is how you see the obvious benefits of a union, and how a small portion of your pay check could go a long way to making your own benefits better including increasing your overall pay so that union due are less of a burden on your budget. No one said you had to be in charge. Find one other person who agrees that unions can be/do better and get them to run, because not ever person out there wants to be a greedy mob boss style union leader. A union is about to be the only thing standing between you, and that CEO thinking you're little more than slave labor, because this administration is dismantling as many consumer and worker protections as it can.
What I don't understand is why you don't see the obvious downsides of unions. The small cost to my paycheck is nothing. However the focus on seniority over objective who is better at their job, and refusing to allow tracking metrics (I legally probably shouldn't even say that much about the contract I'm thinking of: to those who want evidence I'm not allowed to give it) about he is better has always bothered me.
The union is not the only thing standing between me and the CEO. I can find a new job. I have done it before. Overall I find my company treats me well - not perfect, but better than other places I've worked. My power to walk away and find a new job gives me a lot more power than the union would. (in fact in many unions I'd have less power because then I'd be required to work only for that union and so if the union has a mod boss I can't do anything about it)
More power to yah, my friend. I imagine you can only point to anecdotal evidence to support any of your claims. Let me know if you need me to do some research for you on all the studies that show unions have an overall positive effect for all it's members, and non members who just complain. I get that some union leadership might suck, but I would point you back to the first post where maybe you should do something about it.
I won't even make you pay dues for the first link
https://www.epi.org/publication/unions-and-well-being/
Can you point to anything/situation that would require you work only for that union. Because I can't think of one and frankly I don't think you know what you're talking about with that claim. If you are talking about hiring halls then your claim is false. You do not have to be a union member to use a hiring hall.