[buscoquadnary]

Not to argue for or against unions.

But in the US the history of unions often ended up with ties to organized crime. In addition unions seemed to become more interested in serving the needs of the union rather than the well being of the workers. One example is a buddy of mine that had to be party of a bag boys union who had to end up paying basically the entirety of a pay check in union dues each month simply to be employed, without him getting anything from it.

From what I understand there is a literal and figurative ocean of difference between the unions in the EU and the US.

I'll further add that trying to conflate the two is a tactic I've often seen used by dishonest people to manipulate the conversation.

[karpierz]

> But in the US the history of unions often ended up with ties to organized crime.

Organized crime takes root in groups that don't benefit from government protection. Do you think that unions would've turned to organized crime if the authorities and privatized security groups didn't regularly attack them without any intervention by the US government to protect them?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_union_busting_in_th...

[manuelabeledo]

> But in the US the history of unions often ended up with ties to organized crime.

Is this true, or just another case of historical revisionism based on pop culture?

Not denying that there aren't examples of this, but it does seem a bit like people like to go back to a few famous criminal individuals to justify that unions are "bad".

[cool_dude85]

Your buddy was a bag boy paying "basically the entirety of his pay check" in union dues? Let's be specific here. How much in pay and how much in dues?

[Melatonic]

I highly doubt this - everytime I have heard people complain about this it terns out to be a percentage of their paycheck (which is pretty standard for all unions - rarely it is a flat fee).

What potentially could be a whole paycheck are the payments for healthcare that is provided by the union

[ericd]

That’s pretty bad, though - if I’m in my 20s and in good health, I’d definitely prioritize, say, rent over high-end health insurance.

[pjmlp]

Age doesn't prevent an accident to happen, and then someone has to pay those hospital fees or the recovery months without being able to work.

[Melatonic]

As far as I know it would be optional like any healthcare

[bombcar]

Or the "union signup" fee that is charged on your first paycheck, and eats your paycheck if you're minwage.

[cool_dude85]

I've never heard of a "union signup" fee (that's not to say it doesn't exist) but the person who posted it claims his buddy was paying every month.

edit: Looked it up in my state, they are limited here to $15.

[bombcar]

Apparently they call it an "initiation fee" for some people.

[commandlinefan]

I kind of feel the same way - I think that, in the long run, unionization will be bad for everybody involved... but the employers have really, really, really brought this on themselves. All they had to do was try to be human beings from time to time, but apparently that was too much to ask.