reddit_suxPeople espousing that unions don't work should have a look at police unions.
Unions work depending on how 'in it together' you feel.
If you resent the people standing around doing nothing they start to fail. If you resent the people who do worse work than you for the same pay they start to fail. note that on an assembly line the above isn't possible in the first place - which is why they work great there. (Bus drivers and police are also not really measureable like that)
To me, this is an area where some unions could really make up some ground with conservatives and liberals. The instinct to rally around members can be detrimental to the overall goal of the union when that member has been proven to be a bad employee. I’ve never been in a union, so I’m guessing the stereotype of lazy union workers is probably overblown; but I’m sure there are examples that reinforce it.
I suspect that some of the ‘lazy union worker’ stereotype is workers following their contract and refusing to do non-contracted work, which is, of course, essential to maintaining the value of that contract. Pride in your own work/trade doesn’t mean cleaning up after the other trades; professionalism in your own work doesn’t mean unpaid overtime to fix someone else’s fuckup.
one of the biggest tools used in america to break unions is creating a 2-tier workforce (incentivizes one group deciding to work less-hard, which builds resentment) and by purposefully lowering hiring standards. lotta unions in the US really are complacent, seemingly having forgotten that these same capitalists they regularly fail to bargain with have literally attempted to murder them multiple times within living memory.
when all you know is the farm…you don’t realize just how much better it could be, i guess.