Comment by kennend3 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by kennend3 | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

THIS!

i use to like r/antiwork on Reddit but dumped it over a year ago. It isnt about "antiwork" but "union drives". The answer to almost any workplace issue seems to be "join a union" but what about the major Union failures?

Here (Canada) we had an issues with a meat processing plant in Alberta. It didnt take long for the striking workers to lash out at their union as well for lack of support. The union felt there were not enough people for them to get involved. while they were content to take their union dues, they were reluctant to get involved in costly legal battles?

Unions are also a business as well, subject to the exact same "corruption" charges as any other organization, so it is ironic that r/Antiwork advocates them?

Look at the recent news from the head of the very powerful auto workers union (which also includes clergy?) here and his mystery $25,00. Naturally his excuse is his "prescription medication and alcohol abuse made me do it".

People complain about the "CEO" pay, but how much do union leaders earn?

Unions were very good in the past and did a lot for the country, but people would be far better off changing laws instead of joining unions.

This is what really kills me about r/anitwork. Not everyone can join a union, but legal changes apply to everyone. I actually had someone tell me once "why should my union fight to help ohters"?

Thanks. You have experience with unions in the real world, which the vast majority of American "progressives" don't.

The union often turns into another bureaucracy which has forgotten its original mission, and now exists just to feed itself. Your meat processing plant example is a good one -- the union leaders apparently just want to keep their cushy life and avoid trouble.

Nonetheless, as I said, if you're an Amazon warehouse worker and the company doesn't give a shit about you, then yeah, a union could look like the least-bad alternative.

Not sure where you are, but spend a few mins and see all the not-so-good things the unions have done here (Ontario, canada).

The idea of "forgotten its missing" really rings true here.

Every election they create some sort of "working family coalition" or such and spend millions on attack-ads. They have their guy in government and want them to win?

Why exactly are unions involved in politics? Why is this even allowed? Is this something the dues-paying members support, having millions of their dollars used on attack-ads?

Finally the party the unions seem dislike won a majority and passed laws to prevent this in the future: https://www.blakes.com/insights/bulletins/2021/ontario-passe...

The law was struck down as "unconstitutional" so the leading party used the "notwithstanding" clause to make it pass.

Look who was fighting it - "Working Families Ontario " This is not families, but unions. I dont know why they dont simply say "Ontario unions" instead of "working families"?

I think a common reply to this would be that it’s hard to change laws when an oligarchy has so much power, and siphoning the money and power from the oligarchs has to come first. Unions are one approach to attempt to do this. Unions are the workers that join them, and one of the more positive developments lately is the push to have more democratic unions. The teamsters even just changed their leadership drastically in this direction.

I'm Canadian but lived in the US for several years.

One takeaway from my time in the US is they really need to address its "lobbying" rules. We have a bit of a lobbying problem here, but no where near the level we see to the south.

When you do crazy things like rule that corporations are "natural people" when clearly they are not..

I have no clue how to fix this, but Lobbying is really bad which is why it is tightly controlled in most other countries.

One proposed solution is to get rid of Sunshine laws. Make legislative votes secret again, and legislators are harder to hold to account. Cuts both ways, but it might have an outsized effect on moneyed interests' ability to buy their way.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com