Quote:
Originally Posted by faithful_servant
You just filled me with a whole new level of affection for you, Zoo.  |
I'm not 100% anti-union. Unions deserve credit for giving us the 40 hour workweeks and other humane workplace requirements that we are now granted by law. In some careers unions are probably still a good thing, improving on safety and regulation... things like underwater welding, underground mining, and the guys that move steel around 100 stories in the air on a 8-inch wide girder.
But for the vast majority of people employed under unions, they are unecessary and sometimes even counter-productive in this day and age.
Even in the instances where they are extraneous and counter-productive - I support the right of workers to unite. But modern unions aren't about solidarity, the worker doesn't have a right not to unite, not to be a part of the union, modern unions are nothing but mafia style extortion, to both the employers and the employees. It should be illegal for closed-shop unions to exist, all union membership should be 100% voluntary, period.
At some point when union necessity declined to a minimum, the unions became more about strong-arming the workers into membership, to keep union dues paid and the unions in business, and less about solidarity between workers and giving the workers a fair platform to reconsile greivances with employers.
Unions suck, I hate them. Most union employees would profit if the unions disbanded, as they wouldn't have to pay dues for which they get nothing in return. My wife is FORCED to join a union, otherwise she can't hold a job with the county - it's ridiculous, she benefits not from being a member, and has no CHOICE in the matter. Legalized extortion by non-profit agencies. It's outrageous. Unfortunately, I believe as a state employee, in the future (when I finish school and become a Full-time employee, and not an intern) I'll be required to join a union - which is bull$h!t. Though I don't think it will be the same union as my wife, her's being the "Montana Public Employees Association" - even though I'd be a public employee in the state of Montana... it makes no sense to me.
If forced to be a member, I will excercise my right as a member and attend every union meeting, making a motion to vote for disbanding the union, or at the very least, making union membership optional.