What are your experiences with Unions?

42 comments

  2. I am not necessarily against unions but I am against forced unions where you have no choice and have mo ey taken out of your paycheck if you don’t want it

  3. I used to work for Walmart and there was a period of time a group was trying to start a union. They made us all watch an anti-union video.

    Afterwards I joked “Ooh I wanna join a union” and a coworker angrily said “DON’T EVEN JOKE”

  4. Like all things. There are good things and bad sides. I live in a country that was once brought almost to it’s knees by unions. There’s also a lot of union Strikes going on right now that are causing me major headaches at work. There are also some jobs that unions have pushed the salaries up way higher than then should be which is a contributing factor to a major spike in the cost of the service. (Some union train drivers are paid as much as some Doctors for example).

    BUT at the same time, they exist to make sure salary is fair and companies posting record profits don’t try and screw over their employees which seems to be happening more and more often.

  5. Not all are created equal. Some have tight run monopolies that take advantage of people trying to get in for dues money and it isn’t as simple as “then just vote them out”. That being said some of them genuinely try to go above and beyond for their members.

  6. Fallible (as is every human organization) but a potentially powerful voice for worker’s rights and the human element in an environment where big business does it’s best to treat people as expendable, low paid cogs that naturally burn out when you maximize profit. I’m also pro regulation and consumer and worker protection legislation.

  7. I worked for several years as a trade union organiser. I absolutely support them in principle, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find one that isn’t exceedingly corrupt.

  8. My experience with them is that they foster complacency. You can be the best technician in a union shop, but you’re not going to max out on pay until you’ve been there 20 years.

  9. They are better than non-union jobs by a long shot, but need to be a lot better.

    I grew up with my mom being a Culinary Union member- second largest union in the US below Teamsters. Insurance was great, work tried to cycle through workers to deny long term benefits but couldn’t, hell she even got fired and ended up getting her manager fired instead due to it being for bogus reasons.

    That said, it becomes a business itself past a point. It fought Obamacare due to it threatening the money they make on insurance, they advertise fear monger hard to Mexicans to scare them into voting for things they support, larger demographics like maids get much more attention than smaller groups, and most contract agreements are made for mutual profits- worker benefits are secondary.

    Imo, unions need strict legal guidelines, and companies should be required to set up an independent worker union if it employees over X amount of workers. Like a required HR branch that functions independent of it.

  11. They’re a great idea that don’t quite work as well as they do on paper. Not a reason to stop trying.

  12. My first-hand experience being in a Union: too few good workers supporting a whole lot of shit doing very little to keep the boat moving forward.

  13. I like unions in general here in Australia. Dislike that part of their job is to make up and enforce awards that dictate your rate of pay. That’s fine for entry/low level positions but more experienced/efficient etc workers should be able to negotiate their own rate of pay above the award based on how good a job they do. Eg I’m the best retail manager at my level in my company based on volume of work done and how I run my team. But my award salary is barely higher than the staff under me and lower than other managers in the company who are absolutely useless.

  14. we can thank democratic socialists + unions for most of the labor laws and protections that workers enjoy, these people literally fought and died for worker rights, including the right to strike and collective bargaining.

    we don’t owe our employers anything. they owe us everything. if anything, we need a whole lot more unions, like adjunct professor unions, bartenders, servers/bussers, all cargo drivers and warehouse workers (like amazon), etc

    hell even grocery baggers have a union, rightfully so

  16. People should be able to negotiate however they want. But companies and governments should also be able to fire people for whatever reason they want.

  17. By the ideals: helpful and necessary.

    By reality: a tool by which one may ascend to power and influence by mere seniority.

  18. I think they’re great for small businesses where the employees don’t have much of a voice, but terrible for big businesses. My biggest issue with them is seniority, I hate the concept of seniority in any job environment.

  19. Unions have mostly outlived their purpose. In the past, work conditions could be dangerous and abusive to employees. Thanks to Unions that changed. But now, Unions are ruining companies and industries. Had a summer job once in a grocery warehouse with a buddy. We would compete with each other on how quickly we could fill orders for the stores. Turns out we were being “too productive ” for the Union rep. Merit pay increases don’t exist in a union environment. You couldn’t be fired for poor performance. When it was break time, you had to stop immediately and take your break.
    Another example, Airline hubs are a result of unions running the airlines and are less efficient, costing the airlines more money.

  21. We have the unions to thank for a minimum wage, maternity and paternity rights, pension provision, holiday and sickness entitlements, weekends, abolition of child Labour, safer workplaces, more equality. They can help a single worker stand up to the might of the largest organisation.

    It’s a double edged sword that because
    Unions help all workers, many take for granted the benefits they enjoy. Employers would not give these costly benefits if they weren’t made to do it and governments often don’t act without the pressure and publicity from Unions.

    That’s not to say they’re perfect of course, but neither are the businesses or governments they keep in check.

  22. Contrary to popular belief, it’s one of the biggest reason why Norway has such a high standard of living. Sure, we have oil, but so does countries like Venezuela, Colombia and Argentina. I even heard that the US had good Unions upto the Regan administration, and just look how much rougher living there has gotten after. So in my mind strong workers Unions is one of the most vital things a country can have.

  23. Depends upon the union. Some actually help to protect workers’ health and safety and improve working conditions and pay. Others serve mostly to defend the incompetent and put their employers out of business, benefiting nobody.

  24. Unions are the backbone of America. Every worker should have the opportunity to join a union.

  25. They had their place in developing society and now have done more damage than good for a long time. I liken them to Greek life in college… Way past its justifiable useful life.

  26. I felt better about them before they vandalized a project I was invested in for not using union labor. Even worse when the cops did nothing. The teacher’s Union in my state is a political powerhouse that politicians are happy to bankrupt the state in order buy their votes.

    I’m sure all these things started with good intentions but my only experience has been negative. Then again, I’m not in a union and don’t think I’d ever be the type willing to let someone else negotiate my worth on my behalf, so clearly my worldview and principles are a big bias.

  27. They are essential or at least the threat of them is essential. Like any other institution, they can become corrupted. I’m not willing to throw out the whole idea of them just because some of them aren’t good. You fix what’s broken and keep what isn’t.

  29. Depends on the union. In some cases they are useful and necessary, but they also tend to get overtaken quickly by either the mafia or left-wing extremists, making everything even worse than before.

  30. 90% of them have outlived any usefulness. They used to be a good thing; promoting fair wages, employee safety, and providing a pension/retirement to workers who didn’t necessarily work for the same employer for years. eg. Tradesmen.
    Now most exist only to collect dues and allow lazy employees to make money by doing nothing. And before anyone comes at me, I’m not management or a business owner. That is just the way I see it.

  31. The construction trade unions like the IBEW and the Carpenter’s union are a net benefit to society as they train apprentices and provide continuing ed as well as establish a quality floor for their profession. They get political and that means democrat in the US, but the benefit to their members and the larger society balance favorably against this.

    Other unions in the US are either extremely corrupt or are non-beneficial (examples: Teamsters and the SEIU). These could disappear from our country and no one other than the union organizers and the democrat political machines that are milking these things would miss them. Their members would not be worse off.

  32. Mixed feelings. Some will do a lot to help workers but it takes a lot of energy and good management. Some will just collect union dues and not do a thing for their workers.

    Some workers are pretty toxic (intentionally getting into trouble to have the union bail them out, exceptionally lazy) so protecting them is draining.

  33. I think they’re generally a good thing with a few exceptions (police unions can fuck off). But like any organization they’re prone to corruption, and that risk grows the bigger the union gets.

  34. meh, they have their place but I think there are a lot of good hard workers that are held back because of them.

    It all depends on what percentage of the union members are doing the “do as little as possible to not get fired” thing.

  36. No personal experience but the more power workers have and the less power corporations have, the happier I’ll be.

    Edit: As for corruption, that’s a problem in any human endeavour with any kind of scale; making an especial brouhaha about it in worker unions is a red (heh) flag for me

  37. even though Im currently being shit on by my union, I am still very much pro union

    I dont like the politics, the negotiations, the *sleaze.* I feel a lot better paying someone else to do it for me

  38. Private sector ones are fine, because there’s always the control there that if they do a terrible job then they end up costing more than all the other companies in their sector and they go out of business.

    Mandating that work needs to be performed by a union reeks of a kickback and prevents that Safeguard from being effective. So that shouldn’t be allowed.

    Public sector unions are absolutely wrong. There’s no one at all looking out for the customer, which is you and I the taxpayer. It’s not management’s money, so they don’t care what it costs. And there’s zero degree of separation from politics whatsoever.

    It may as well be a system designed to encourage waste and fraud, as is proven again and again.

  41. They were way more useful before strong labor and minimum wage laws. Not that minimum wage is livable, but it used to be that children had to work in factories for peanuts.

    I don’t personally know any unions that are currently necessary.

  42. Unions in theory, I support. I’ve not had any direct experience with unions but many union trade jobs make more money than a college educated person in the same area. Currently in the United States there is a major corporate effect to prevent Unions. Walmart is notorious for this. If a union was successfully formed and it wasn’t a risk to keeping my job, I’d probably join one, but it’s dangerous in a state like Indiana where you can be fired for any reason or no reason at all.

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