[captainmuon]

I'm generally very pro-union, but I've found unions in the US are a bit... strange.

I think union membersip is more widespread in western Europe than in the US, but I feel they could even be a bit more powerful here. They can barely keep the power balance in most industries, and have to fight long for modest raises (compensating inflation at best). Even when the economy is prosperous like in Germany, it seems they can't get many concessions.

But still there is some power balance between unions and employers, and this balance is considered the normal system how wages are negotiated in many fields.

In the US, unions seem a bit like rackets. For example, some places are only allowed to hire union members (per deal with the union). Woah, I wouldn't think this is allowed in Europe. Instead of painfully negotiating a 1% raise over a couple of years (by hinting at the possibility of announcing a warning strike), they seem to dictate ridiculous policies to make a few people rich.

Can someone explain this difference? Is it just anti-union propaganda that makes them look bad in the US? Or did they kill off the European style unions a long time ago and just left the rackets?

[rayiner]

In the US, everything is war. Businesses went to war with the unions, and the unions that are left are the ones that won the war in their industries.

[crdoconnor]

>Can someone explain this difference? Is it just anti-union propaganda that makes them look bad in the US?

Nobody does propaganda quite as well as Americans.