Bringing back the strike

[initforme]

With the various cases of workers taking stand in the airline industry perhaps we shall see strikes popping up? Perhaps this becomes more common for issues such as pay and benefits and such instead of just a vax mandate. Interesting thought.

 

[occupied]

America is by far the most hostile western nation for labor organizing. We invented the very concept of worker solidarity but it has been systematically dismantled. Apparently some parties equate fighting for your livelihood with communism.

 

[WinterBorn]

Unions provided many of the benefits we take for granted today. 40 hour work weeks, overtime, worker safety regulations and the like all had to be fought for. The owners and bosses did not offer them.

"Poor folks ain't got a chance, unless they organize" (from the song Which Side Are You On)


Granted, the unions shot themselves in the foot with some foolish power plays. But they are not the evil they are made out to be. Just another way the catchphrase "socialism" has been used to foment fear.

 

[initforme]

Where did the anti labor sentiment originate?

 

[WinterBorn]

Where did the anti labor sentiment originate?

It was always based on the hatred by the owners and the powerful. How dare the peasants organize for their own good? The media helped portray it as greedy and based in communism.

 

[Crepitus]

With the various cases of workers taking stand in the airline industry perhaps we shall see strikes popping up? Perhaps this becomes more common for issues such as pay and benefits and such instead of just a vax mandate. Interesting thought.

No no no! You conservative types are against labor organizing! Please try to keep it straight.

 

[CowboyTed]

This story really shows you how bad it gets in US..

Volkswagen's factory workers in the US reject union

Workers at Volkswagen's only US factory narrowly defeated an effort by the United Auto Workers union to organize the Chattanooga, Tennessee plant.

edition.cnn.com

They US workers voted against union representation despite being paid 25% less than the same workers in Ford and GM...

Here is the real kicker, the German Autoworkers union have an actual seat on the board of directors. Germany considers there workers as stakeholders in there business who can contribute just like Customers, Shareholders, Management, Dealers....

 

[initforme]

Yes they want less wages while the top takes it all.

 

[WinterBorn]

Yes they want less wages while the top takes it all.

That is true enough. But the unions are not blameless.

I was adamantly anti-union for many years. Mainly because I saw what the power-plays had done.

In the mid-1970, Gulf States papermill in Tuscaloosa was a major employer. The union pushed for a strike. Jack Warner, CEO of Gulf States, told the union he would give them what they wanted, but that he had to refurbish and upgrade the papermill first. The union didn't like that. So they took a vote among the members for a strike. Jack Warner had warned the union that he would close the mill if they went on strike. The union called for a vote 5 times. The first 4 times there were not enough votes for the strike. The 5th vote had enough for the strike. So the workers went on strike. After attempts at negotiations failed, Jack Warner closed the plant. The upper levels of the union transferred elsewhere. The workers were left without jobs. Many of the workers had been there for their entire careers. I knew many of them. My neighbor went from being a foreman to pumping gas at a full service gas station. We all know where that job led. There were a dozen former papermill workers working for Pinkerton Security at the hospital when I worked as a guard in college. They were all beaten old men who never recovered.

 

[CowboyTed]

That is true enough. But the unions are not blameless.

I was adamantly anti-union for many years. Mainly because I saw what the power-plays had done.

In the mid-1970, Gulf States papermill in Tuscaloosa was a major employer. The union pushed for a strike. Jack Warner, CEO of Gulf States, told the union he would give them what they wanted, but that he had to refurbish and upgrade the papermill first. The union didn't like that. So they took a vote among the members for a strike. Jack Warner had warned the union that he would close the mill if they went on strike. The union called for a vote 5 times. The first 4 times there were not enough votes for the strike. The 5th vote had enough for the strike. So the workers went on strike. After attempts at negotiations failed, Jack Warner closed the plant. The upper levels of the union transferred elsewhere. The workers were left without jobs. Many of the workers had been there for their entire careers. I knew many of them. My neighbor went from being a foreman to pumping gas at a full service gas station. We all know where that job led. There were a dozen former papermill workers working for Pinkerton Security at the hospital when I worked as a guard in college. They were all beaten old men who never recovered.

There has been plenty of examples of union bad behaviour by there is plenty of bad corporation behaviour as well...

How many people went to jail for the 2008 financial crisis?

Thing is we didn't say get rid of Corporations...

Weaker Unions generally mean weaker employee rights..

Good Unions protect their members, Corporations will always paint them as greedy and incompetent. It is part of the game..

Mistakes are made as well...

Unions in US have a very different view than in Europe... In Germany they are considered stakeholders and have a seat on the board of directors... It is used as a way to encourage worker participation..