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Comment by clackanon | Hacker News Reader

Good, because unions have long outlived their usefulness. The time for them is OVER.

Why organize for the privelege of being able to fork over a good chunk of your paycheck for not a damn thing?

HOW DO I KNOW?? I've been a union member. CWA. It was worse than worthless and useless. A net negative in every respect. 20% of my net pay for not a damn thing. Unions are a waste of time/money/oxygen.

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Would you please not use uppercase for emphasis? It's basically yelling and there's a site guideline that specifically asks you not to: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.

Oh come on, just because your union is shit doesn't mean all unions are. Historical unions are why we have 8 hour workdays in America, and Fight for 15 in the present day is doing great work. Don't generalize, that's sloppy and emotional thinking.

20% of pay, what the fuck?

Unions here range from $50-$100 / month memberships generally (Aus)

And at least in Melbourne, construction unions haven't slowed progress at all. Look at the fucking building boom! They constantly fight for wages and hours and get a lot of demands met, yet there is no slowdown of tower construction any time soon. Now Melbs has more shopping centers, housing and the people building them can afford to live and shop there as well.

According to the public manual for CWA [0], your dues were being calculated incorrectly if they were deducting 20%. Sorry you got screwed - your union rep should have been able to help you with that.

https://www.cwa-union.org/sites/default/files/part_ix_member...

Unions have failure modes. So do businesses, bridges, bodies, and, well, most things. Having a front row seat for a failure of any of these doesn't mean the time for them is over, though it might mean there's lessons to be learned about how they should be put together and managed.

Thank you for saying a reasonable thing.

We're going to need to see some evidence that the CWA is taking 20% of your net pay in dues.

I think OP meant to say 1.3% of payment dues.

https://www.cwa-union.org/pages/what_does_cwa_mean_for_att_m...

Out of curiosity, what did your contract look like? Did it guarantee benefits, a certain pay structure, or a grievance process if you were terminated without cause?

Or, perhaps, none of these things?

CWA takes 0.5% as a base. I very much doubt your local chapter took the remaining 19.5% for themselves.

The time for doctors is over! I went to one doctor who misdiagnosed my condition. He charged a lot of money for the visit too! Nobody needs doctors based on my experience!

It's unfortunate that you had a bad experience, but I don't know how you can expect anyone to respect your view when you've made it blindingly obvious that it's based on a single experience you've had. The "unions don't have a place anymore" argument is nothing more than privileged neoliberal propaganda. Shitty apathetic views like yours are how workplace standards slip.

Sorry, I should frame my response by noting that I live in Australia - a country with way more employee-friendly hiring laws than the US. 4 weeks of paid leave with rollover, sick and carers leave, much better rights wrt getting laid off.etc. Even with these advantages over the US, I still see a need for unions.

Please don't break the HN guideline against name-calling in arguments. "Privileged neoliberal propaganda" is on the line but "shitty apathetic views like yours" is well over it, especially because it's a personal attack too.

You don't have to change your views to comment on HN, but please edit out the bits that don't make for thoughtful conversation.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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