Living in Europe means it was my boss who helped me get into a union for my first job. Unions are important.
I’ve got a proper union gig for the first time. I love it! Good benefits, decent pay. But the best part is having a union rep in your corner. I recently had a disagreement with management, took it to my rep, and viola! A reasonable result was achieved with a minimum of fuss. Was like a breath of fresh air. Everyone should unionize!!!
Not that I was ever anti-union, but rather I work in an industry that has none. After coming back to work after a layoff, the daily grind has been an exercise in constant, agonizing, anxiety, as I have now experienced the horror of free-fall into an society with no safety net. I have seen the light. Having some additional insurance would feel really amazing right now.
What additional insurance does being non union offer? I’ve never had better insurance.
Other than more job opportunities, zero. To be clear, I still would love the added insurance of having a Union at my back.
You pay 700 $ for the Union but get yearly pay raises and work benefits. For most people the benefits give you immidiatly more money than it takes.
I live in a country where over 90% of people work in an unionized environment.
No time to play video games (or any), but already unionized.
sighs in sad Brazilian unions
For context, we have unions, but many of them have been co-opted by politicians or their flunkies.
If only people were taught that unions raise members wages.
would you rather have infinite video games and no union or no video games and no video games?
Unionize and then you can buy more games.
AND have more time to play them!!!
In Germany there are unions that have it so if you join them the company pays you more. Even though the union already has a fair payment contract in place.
Unions always have paid there way for me by better pay and conditions. Also, in Australia Union fees are tax deductible.
Their*
Still blows my mind that people confuse they’re, their, and there (along with your and you’re).
I have a learning disability, yet I figured this out 20 years ago; why hasn’t anyone else? I just don’t get it. Sorry for being a dick but it is beyond frustrating that people are still fucking this up somehow.
For some people english is there 3rd or 4th language. Their can be a mistake here and they’re.
Upvoted butt this is sum hard two reed shit write hear.
Tbf it’s mostly native speakers making this mistake I think
There are about 2000 working hours a year if you’re full time, so $700 works out to 35¢ an hour. If your union only gets you a 50¢/hr raise, it pays for itself.
The only job I ever had that was unionized, I really didn’t even notice the dues. I made so much more money than every other job I had, and I wasn’t even spending it because it was on a cruise ship where they fed me, clothed me, and gave me a place to sleep the whole 5 months. I had more money than I ever had at one time when I finally disembarked.
Yeah I’ve heard stories about cruise ships. Who absolutely do not want to work on one where the crew are not in a union. You are effectively trapped in the office 24 hours a day for months on end, there’s a lot of scope for abuse of personnel in that scenario.
My union dues are 1.5%.
But, my union:
Makes sure I don’t have to take my work home with me.
Says when it’s ok to be contacted by work at home.
Got us a nice pay raise that more than covers any dues.
Makes sure any training events are monitored, correctly administered and can’t be used to get rid of employees.
Provides additional insurance that make up for shortfalls in employer coverage - particularly disability.
Substance abuse and mental health help so that you can get help and not lose your job.
And plenty more.
All of it worth more to the entire group than any pain from the dues I pay. Love being in a union shop, worth it even with the few downsides.
lucky. my union reps are in the pocket of management and don’t do shit for us.
My school bus driver union (Teamsters) are not in anybody’s pocket but they still don’t do much for us. They did go to bat for our shop steward who was pulled over for DUI and blew a .32 and then was at work driving a bus full of kids three hours later. She was eventually fired but it took more than two weeks for the situation to be resolved. I’m very pro-union but the shit is not a panacea by any means.
I have sadly heard this about many unions from the workers at Kroger and the Metro in Houston, TX particularly.
I can speak firsthand that this is the case for Kroger in Illinois. Their unions fight to cap wages below living wage levels, pick some of the most expensive insurance on the market, and work with Kroger corporate to eat away your hourly rate with sliding payscales based on incredibly arbitrary criteria (overnight premium, but it only counts for 4 hours of a graveyard shift as an example that happened to me).
They are actually worse than not having a union, because then they could make more than $23 an hour in Chicago.
Oh, did I mention the union contract specifically prohibits strikes and any form of worker retaliation?
Awful company.
union contract specifically prohibits strikes
That sounds ripe for a walk-out. Eveyone just GTFO and lets them shut down. All those perishables going to rot. Not much a job to leave either.
I think that’s called a wildcat strike.
Do it!
I assume that to be employed by Kroger you have to be in the union? Sounds like everything that can go wrong is going wrong.
Everyone except management.
It’s beyond fucked.
I’ve worked somewhere like that. Someone was having a disciplinary and the rep sat on the same side of the table as management.
That does suck, and I have never been with a union where that isn’t a possibility. That’s one of the downsides whether or not they’re management’s tools. Top leadership tends to take care of itself first.
Ah, the anti union tactic of assuming your employees are dumb losers.
I mean that seems like it would be pretty effective.
Looking at the political situation in the US and many other places, that unfortunately seems to be a winning strategy.
The GOP for decades has targeted a fifth-grade level of discourse and been very successful with that. Trump’s big political innovation was targeting a third-grade level.
Honestly, I read it as kind of similar to Putin’s “outlandish lying on purpose to show dominance” strategy.
They are to someone’s face telling them that they’re so dumb that they think living wages aren’t as important as being able to buy a new game system and play their stupid games while they shovel burgers into their fat working-class faces. It’s negging as a way of emphasizing that they’ll never be capable or organized enough to play at the big people’s table, so go play your games, loser.
That’s how I read it. Maybe they think the people seeing this poster are dumb enough that they’ll think “You know, he’s right, I do want a new game system.” But I feel like it’s a deliberate insult to remind the underlings of their place. That’s how I read it.
My last employee orientation really didn’t like me saying to the group of 10 or so “anti-union speeches should be just as illegal as insinuating we aren’t allowed to discuss wages”
And also I have called a new employee a fucking idiot for saying “guys we aren’t supposed to talk about wages” when the topic came up one day and “I’m gonna get a manager” when the discussion continued.
Yeah I’ve been told by quite a few jobs not to discuss pay rise offers. I’ve always said “yeah sure” and then completely ignored them the moment I left the office.
If they hadn’t said anything at all I would have just assumed that everyone was getting the same offer the fact that they told me not to discuss it meant they were probably screwing us over. Best to find out about that.
