[klaudius]

I don't understand unions. If they don't like certain behaviors that are legal like selling to government or paying high salaries, why are they working there in the first place? Just quit. Different people like different things, so go work somewhere that suits you.

[WitCanStain]

The point of unions is that individual workers can be easily screwed over with no repercussions for the company because of the power differential between companies and their workers. Unions seek to level the field a little bit by giving the workers collective bargaining power which allows them to secure better pay/benefits/influence the direction the company is going. When they work it is a very rational arrangement for the workers, so companies tend to not like them as it decreases their power over their workers.

[mrweasel]

Precisely, you can end up having people working for a company under terms that are technically legal, but still exploiting the weakest. The strongest people easily move on to better positions, but some, single parents, less skilled, psychologically weaker individuals and so on are more easily pressed into working conditions they may not like, because they fear losing the job they do have.

In the US the minimum wage haven't moved in decades, at least not significantly. Denmark doesn't even have a minimum wage, yet people are better paid, that's due the Danish unions. Interestingly the Danish unions are actually oppose a minimum wage, because they believe it makes it easier to legally pay people less.

[andai]

The way I see it, if unions did nothing, Google and Amazon wouldn't be working so hard to prevent them from forming.

[zthrowaway]

Oh they do something, they help destroy a company’s ability to compete. Take a look at unionization of the auto industry in Detroit back in the 70s and 80s which basically killed our lead in the industry and gave it to Japan and Korean companies on a platter.

[Jweb_Guru]

The auto industry was unionized way before the 70s and 80s. UAW was founded in 1935. What on earth are you talking about?

[IndPhysiker]

I believe the GP is referring to the rapid depression in the area when auto companies started moving south to open-shop states (e.g. Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee), not the original unionization.

[Jweb_Guru]

If a sector unionizes, and then forty years later jobs move away, blaming everything on the unionization does not make a whole lot of sense.

[sanxiyn]

Those Japanese and Korean companies were also unionized. Mighty strange how did they compete, right?

[sethammons]

It is as if you can’t compare the two very different societies. I think it is better to keep US union talk focused on US unions.

[oh_sigh]

I think they think unions would drag down productivity and cost money. I don't know if anyone actually believes unions do nothing at all, neither good nor bad