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Comment by tedunangst | Hacker News Reader

Well, the local bus drivers union isn't held in such high regard either, so maybe not the best example. And I seem to recall Verizon experiencing a sudden spike in equipment failure right around the time their telecom union went on strike.

(Happy to concede there are unions people like, but if that's your best effort at naming two good ones, I think the problem is worse than you're acknowledging.)

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You're the one who said unions lead to tire slashings and house burnings. Obviously, no they don't, but when that's pointed out, you retreat to "unions sometimes cause strikes" as if that was your position all along.

If your argument is that people have negative opinions about unions, well, respectfully, no shit. My point is that those opinions are not well-founded.

Minor point: the engineers at big telecoms aren't union members. They're "management."

How would you rank sabotage of Verizon equipment by their employees against, say, a coal company transferring all their pension and health liabilities into new company and then letting it go bust, while they retain all the profit making parts?

"Some will rob you with a six-gun, And some with a fountain pen." -- Woody Guthrie "Pretty Boy Floyd"

Did the coal union know the pension was underfunded?

Was it underfunded before the split?

Unless they somehow withdrew money from it, it can only be underfunded because it was always underfunded.

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