I'll refrain from ruder responses and point to the weekend as a lovely innovation powered by unions.
How did you get so intensely in thrall of the people holding your collar?
How did you get so intensely in thrall of the people holding your collar?
No, this is powered by the law. If it wasn’t the evaporation of unions that we’ve seen over the last 20 years would have taken weekends with them.
A thing unions were supportive of in the past is not evidence of the value of unions now.
It’s like pointing out the importance of American troops in France because world war 2.
Those laws were a consequence of industrial action by unions. Here's a backgrounder on the progress made by unions in Australia.
<https://www.australianunions.org.au/about-unions/union-achie...>
Every year, Australian employees are entitled to 4 weeks of paid annual leave, two weeks of paid sick leave, 6 months of paid long service leave after 10 years of employment, about 10% of their salary paid into their retirement investments (superannuation).
Unions even up the negotiation power imbalance between employers and workers. Union power has been severely curtailed over the last few decades and as a consequence workers have seen stagnant wages, rising inequality of compensation and the rise of insecure work.
There's plenty of evidence to support the assertion that collective bargaining leads to better outcomes for workers. A rising tide lifts all boats.
Links chosen from a cursory web search:
<https://www.ehstoday.com/safety/article/21918297/new-study-s...>
<https://www.epi.org/blog/union-decline-rising-inequality-cha...>
You didn’t read my message, because this is what I already said. Unions helped push it into law. The unions are all but dead in the US, but weekends are still here because it is a law. What value do the unions provide now?
On the basis of your logic that's a consequence of the lack of union and organised labour
There are similar splits in professional level work. There are jobs available where you ~never work six days a week and others where it’s routine. Trust me when I say no one at Nike or Booking in Shanghai is working 996.
My logic does not suggest the lack of unions and organized labor causes six day weeks. Six or seven day working weeks are the natural condition. Economic growth allows for different consumption leisure trade offs. Unions can only very indirectly effect economic growth. They matter much less than the ability to quit your job and find a new one easily. Firms desperate for workers are what make working conditions better, much more than unions.