It's so wild. So many HN commenters have this exaggerated caricature in their heads about what a Union must be:
"Unions mean every worker gets paid the same!"
"Unions mean I will make less money!"
"Unions make it impossible to fire underperformers!"
"Unions are run by bosses whose incentives are different than workers!"
"Unions mean I can't plug in my own workstation!"
"Unions reward seniority over everything else!"
Like they've taken every spook story they've been told about unions, gathered up the worst parts, and then simply declare that unions, by law, must necessarily be all those bad things.
Is there anything that annoys you about your current workplace? Not just compensation, but really anything at all. Does it also annoy others in your workplace? If so, you found something that forming a union may be able to help with. Your ability to negotiate away that annoyance might not be strong, but with 20 other fellow employees, you might be able to do something about it.
That's really all there is to it. A "union" doesn't necessarily have to look like the Teamsters.
>Is there anything that annoys you about your current workplace? Not just compensation, but really anything at all.
Yes, of course, I'm human! But the things that mostly annoy me are the other 20 employees, not "the system".
And the little things that bother me, if it were too bad I would try and fix it or move on. I don't see how a Union helps, I suppose you assume that we all have the same annoyances and we band together.
The problem is we are all smart enough to realize how good we have it actually, and nobody wants to rock that boat.
I can't tell you that because I don't know where you work or what you do. I can only tell you the reasons you gave us that make you believe unions are bad are all bullshit.
There may be reasons union membership is wrong for you personally. That's a valid position to have.
Companies have spent a fortune paying companies just to spread lies and misrepresentations about unions to workers. I guess their money is being well spent. All their big talking points are here, being regurgitated just like they wanted.
If companies are spreading lies/misrepresentations about unions, they're leaving a lot of good material on the table! I have a lifetime of union abuse stories from family and neighbors in the trades, service work, factories, and even elementary education.
A close female relative declined to cooperate with a unionization effort at her job -- she made good tips and didn't want to pay dues. She started receiving threatening calls at night describing her indoor pets and other details of her home that heavily implied that the caller had physically surveilled it, or was perhaps currently nearby. While the unionization effort ultimately failed, the harassment she endured left psychological scars.
My best friend's brother lost his union job after refusing to work unpaid overtime for them. When he showed up at his second job (with another union) he found out he was also fired there -- the union bosses in town had collaborated to blacklist him. So he took a non-union job framing houses. Months later, some union goons caught him alone on a job site and assaulted him for being a scab. They struck him several times with a 2x4 and kicked him. He nearly died.
Other friends in town have had their tires slashed, windows broken, or had out-of-state union members show up at their house on the weekend after trying to step down as union steward.
Even when I don't know the people involved, I can see the union machinery at work around me. When my local children's hospital awarded a parking garage contract to the lowest bidder, the local carpenter's union wanted a cut of the action. So the union brought in ruffians from out of state to protest the job site, causing delays. Someone covered the downtown with defamatory posters with pictures of the man who owned the construction company, so that his family, friends, and people he'd never met would see him made out to be the devil. The hospital and construction company could have made all the sabotage and harassment go away if they paid their protection money.
All the unions my family has experienced this century are just organized crime.
LOL what. I am in a union and nobody has ever threatened my cat or beat me with a 2x4 and I've never even heard of such a thing. Unions get you double time overtime and good healthcare. It's wild how deep in the owne class propaganda some people will get. Really get in there and take a good whiff.
"Unions mean every worker gets paid the same!"
"Unions mean I will make less money!"
"Unions make it impossible to fire underperformers!"
"Unions are run by bosses whose incentives are different than workers!"
"Unions mean I can't plug in my own workstation!"
"Unions reward seniority over everything else!"
Like they've taken every spook story they've been told about unions, gathered up the worst parts, and then simply declare that unions, by law, must necessarily be all those bad things.