[well_ackshually]

Instead of repeating vapid arguments from the past 30 years designed to disincline people from joining unions, maybe you could look outside of your own borders and realize that it's not an inherent property of unions. Inherent to the US and your extremely unhealthy relationship with work, maybe.

[mothballed]

It's not 30 years old though, the longshore union leader a few years ago literally went on live national TV with a fucking rolex and gold chain screaming how broke he was and that (in his own words) his message to America is "I will cripple you" if people trying to import things like medicines, foodstuffs, and everything else into American ports don't pay more union money to their monopolized union instead of investing in automation and modernizing our ports.

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>"I will cripple you" must have referred to the bosses, not the entire country including his people.

No he literally threatened normal people like construction workers and car salesman that he would ensure they were laid off, he was using "cripple" to refer to normal Americans and everyone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DZQ-80PRbA

>Idk why it matters that he had a gold chain. Are people without tech jobs not allowed to have money?

If you're begging for charity in the form of trying to block automation and upgrading of ports, while arguing you need your union monopoly because you are broke, then yes it's relevant that the way you choose to present yourself on live TV is all blinged out. If you can get a gold chain without threatening others in one hand and begging with your hand out in the other then go for it. Don't cry though if people notice your bling bling and cry fowl that people actually noticed the way you went out of your way to present yourself to the world.

[ciupicri]

It's the same in Romania. Union leaders are rich.

[faidit]

"I will cripple you" must have referred to the bosses, not the entire country including his people. Idk why it matters that he had a gold chain. Are people without tech jobs not allowed to have money?

Yeah this brief out of context video is obvious proof that unions are the #1 problem in society. A prole with a Rolex?!? If we allow dockworkers to wear Rolexes then the entire social order will break down! What happened to the America I grew up with when only a vampire CEO could afford a Rolex? Oh the humanity..

[mothballed]

This guy is a "vampire CEO." He isn't a dockworker, lmao, those are the people he is parasitic off of. He's a union boss lording over the dockworkers threatening to pull them off the job, basically the CEO of the union. That's the hilarious part. He's effectively a union CEO throwing a tantrum asking America not to upgrade the technology of their ports so he can become even richer. He goes out of his way to make clear he's not in it for the benefit of the workers, he brags about threatening to put construction workers out of the job so this top 1% union boss can become even more of a fat cat. There is nothing out of context, you can watch the entire thing if you like, he is straight up threatening to cripple the entire USA.

I don't give a shit a CEO or a dock worker has a rolex and a gold chain. I do care that they bling them out on TV while with their hand out for charity in the form of asking for Luddism. Probably not a smart move for that person pretending to be a broke charity case while also coming out with threats against everyone's livelihood.

[ciupicri]

Then how about Romania, a former communist country? Let me tell how things run since 1990 when we supposedly switched to capitalism and democracy. I've heard that labor laws changed a bit around 2010, but I don't know exactly how.

The leaders of the union were part of the board, they were running the show along with the real managers. They were also practically impossible to fire. Negotiations with them were a drag. All they know is sucking the blood, err, money out of the company, nothing else. They don't care if it's not profitable and company goes bankrupt (and the government has to save it because it's owned by the state). And of course the leaders get their fair, err, fat share. The workers have lousy or good salaries, but the leaders are rich. They also worked on union staff on company time/money and I think they also had their dedicated space.

Thankfully not everyone drunk the union kool aid. I had a teacher who to my surprise wasn't a union member and couldn't care less about their shit and strikes.

I almost forgot about a law that's still in place that forces every company with more than 50 employees to have some sort of union. It has to organize elections so that the employees can elect a representative. Like wtf, managers have a business to run, not some boys' club or whatever. No one is stopping employees from sending someone to talk to the manager.