08-11-2019, 08:37 PM
(08-11-2019, 06:30 PM)David Horn Wrote: I don't have a lot of faith in the union movement, to be frank about it. Unions haven't been all that different from the capitalists they nominally oppose:Why join if its an exercise in futility -- especially in light of Right to Work and At Will employment laws, that make them impotent. It may finally be time for the public sector to set rules that level the playing field, all squawking by capital to the contrary.
- Membership has been restrictive, with outright favoritism common and rejection for leadership common
- Corruption has been far too common, as has involvement by organized crime
- The interests of the union leadership often take precedence over the welfare of the members, and many times to their detriment
- They are becoming less and less effective at any level.
Unions are big business. They often handle large amounts of money in welfare and strike funds, not to mention pension funds in which they are invested.
Corruption in unions reflects corruption in both government and Big Business.
Less effective? As manufacturing declines as a share of the economy, and a rush to the bottom in pay and working conditions becomes the norm in many businesses (unions imply that a worker has a stake in sticking around, which might be so in a well-paying job in an assembly plant but not in a fast-food place), unions lose their relevance. If the solution to poor pay and few opportunities is to get a college degree and start some other career, then one needs no union.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.