[ZeroGravitas]

> If I want to work for a company, and the company wants to hire me, we should be free to enter into a contract. A third party shouldn't have the power to say "you can't unless you pay us dues".

Seems like you only want to prevent unions from doing this, but not employers. You also want to prevent them entering into contracts with employers. It's not really a consistent argument is it?

[josephcsible]

I'm okay if a union gets someone else to voluntarily agree to a contract that requires employee membership. I'm not okay with a union unilaterally forcing this without agreement.

[ZeroGravitas]

Isn't it the authoratarian government that's enforcing these laws? Why are you blaming the poor unions, they're only doing what they legally have to do to maximise the returns for their shareholders.

[pc86]

This entire thread seems to be you willfully misinterpreting their comments, or taking the most negative possible interpretation, and then responding to that. In addition to violating the site guidelines, it's boring, stifles discussion, and is the stuff of emotional, uneducated partisan hackery.

[ZeroGravitas]

Sometimes people's positions are so absurd that you feel there's no other way to break through.

"I want people to be allowed to freely contract with each other without government intervention except when I don't" is a fundamentally ridiculous position for someone to take and pretend they're just following some noble universal law.

If I've not conveyed that message with my replies, then I've failed in my attempt to communicate. But that's the fundamental problem with their stance, quibbling within their bizarre framing is pointless if they still believe they're arguing consistently.

[josephcsible]

That's a misrepresentation of my position. I do want everyone to be able to freely contact with each other without government intervention, all the time. My complaint is that right now, companies can't freely contract with unions, because the government gave unions special powers like not letting companies walk away from the negotiating table.

[josephcsible]

I'm not blaming the unions for doing that. I am blaming the government for giving the unions the power to do that.