Simple Point Missing in the Union threads

[ClosedCaption]

Why We Need Unions

If you've ever asked for a raise at work, you should understand the concept of leverage: to the extent that your employer needs you, you have it, and you're able to get something (increased wages) for it; to the extent that your employer considers you replaceable, you lack it, and therefore have no way to improve your own position. In the retail and service industries, employees lack leverage almost by definition. Anyone who makes trouble can simply be tossed out and replaced. Unions give those employees leverage. That leverage is a means to a fair wage. Not an outrageous, outsized wage; a fair wage. Any union that bankrupts the parent company is a failure, because all the union members end up unemployed. It is in the interest of unions to achieve the best possible conditions for workers that still allow the company to flourish. A union does not throw off the balance of power in the workplace—lack of a union does.

Large corporations are machines designed to make money for shareholders. They do it well. To expect them to do anything but minimize wages and maximize profit is to misunderstand their nature. The most basic sense of decency and respect for human rights dictates that there must be some mechanism by which the workers—the humans—can assert their interests. Otherwise they will be crushed by the machine. It's all very plain to see.

A farmer who had a quarrelsome family called his sons and told them to lay a bunch of sticks before him.

Then, after laying the sticks parallel to one another and binding them, he challenged his sons, one after one, to pick up the bundle and break it.

They all tried, but in vain.

Then, untying the bundle, he gave them the sticks to break one by one. This they did with the greatest ease.

Then said the father, "Thus, my sons, as long as you remain united, you are a match for anything, but differ and separate, and you are undone."

Take two posts and make one a bundle of sticks and the other one stick. Which do you think will be strongest?

 

[Oddball]

People ain't sticks and bureaucrat unions are purely parasitic.

BTW, what do we call a bundle of sticks?...What is that a symbol of?

 

[Truthseeker420]

People ain't sticks and bureaucrat unions are purely parasitic.

BTW, what do we call a bundle of sticks?...What is that a symbol of?

 

[Oddball]

Way to not answer the questions, buttpipe.

 

[Leweman]

You act as though people need unions as they are ... not as they were. That's the thing you don't understand, the middle.

 

[ClosedCaption]

You act as though people need unions as they are ... not as they were. That's the thing you don't understand, the middle.

Why dont you explain it then?

 

[del]

it's called a fasces, and it's a symbol of the roman republic, specifically their magistrates and the power of the law.

some really dim bulbs conflate it with fascism

 

[Lakhota]

 

[Leweman]

You act as though people need unions as they are ... not as they were. That's the thing you don't understand, the middle.

Why dont you explain it then?

exactly! see, when I explain it you, you will bitch ... I can tell.

 

[hortysir]

You act as though people need unions as they are ... not as they were. That's the thing you don't understand, the middle.

Why dont you explain it then?

To deaf ears as apparent by your OP?

You've been told time and again that unions are antiquated.
They've served their purpose.

 

[hortysir]

Ahh!!

The reliable "all or nothing" argument

 

[LordBrownTrout]

Is this some type of parable trying to explain why we should enjoy giving our taxes to state employees who retire early while we keep on slaving away?

 

[ClosedCaption]

You act as though people need unions as they are ... not as they were. That's the thing you don't understand, the middle.

Why dont you explain it then?

exactly! see, when I explain it you, you will bitch ... I can tell.

Yeah yeah.... Let me guess, bitching scares you from making a point? I know, I know...

 

[del]

Is this some type of parable trying to explain why we should enjoy giving our taxes to state employees who retire early while we keep on slaving away?

it's the kind of parable that's supposed to make you happy you're not related to that dumbass farmer.

worked for me

 

[ClosedCaption]

Is this some type of parable trying to explain why we should enjoy giving our taxes to state employees who retire early while we keep on slaving away?

So make everyone slave away is the answer! Race to the bottom!

 

[Zoom-boing]

it's called a fasces, and it's a symbol of the roman republic, specifically their magistrates and the power of the law.

some really dim bulbs conflate it with fascism

You're like a Wikipedia del .. you're a Delpedia! I was going to say kindling.

 

[Lakhota]

Out of every dollar that funds Wisconsin's pension and health insurance plans for state workers, 100 cents comes from the state workers.

How can that be? Because the "contributions" consist of money that employees chose to take as deferred wages – as pensions when they retire – rather than take immediately in cash. The same is true with the health care plan. If this were not so a serious crime would be taking place, the gift of public funds rather than payment for services.

Thus, state workers are not being asked to simply "contribute more" to Wisconsin' s retirement system (or as the argument goes, "pay their fair share" of retirement costs as do employees in Wisconsin' s private sector who still have pensions and health insurance). They are being asked to accept a cut in their salaries so that the state of Wisconsin can use the money to fill the hole left by tax cuts and reduced audits of corporations in Wisconsin.

More: The Big Myth in Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's Union-Busting Crusade - Robert Schlesinger (usnews.com)

 

[Oddball]

it's called a fasces, and it's a symbol of the roman republic, specifically their magistrates and the power of the law.

some really dim bulbs conflate it with fascism

Especially dim bulbs like Mussolini.

 

[LordBrownTrout]

Is this some type of parable trying to explain why we should enjoy giving our taxes to state employees who retire early while we keep on slaving away?

So make everyone slave away is the answer! Race to the bottom!

I invest in my own retirement. Why should I pay for someone else's retirement?

 

[del]

worked out well for him, didn't it?