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A comment on G.M. Strike: 50k Union Workers Walk Out Over Wages and Idled Plants. Parent comment

Re:G.M. Strike: 50k Union Workers Walk Out Over Wages and Id... by AlexTWithBeard on Monday September 16, 2019 @11:41AM (#20985173)
It's close to impossible to make a justified, informed decision when both sides are hiding behind pompous phrases and heavily standardized press releases.

But in absence of other information my uneducated sympathy would tilt a bit towards the company and away from the union for one simple reason: many unions are essentially monopolies.

Yes, we all know a good union is a good thing and it can be beneficial for both the corporation and the workers. But what if a union happens to be "bad" it seems like the corporation has very little leverage.

We do have all sorts of laws and regulations preventing formation of large monopolies in corporate world. Do we have anything to prevent a de facto monopolization of workforce by a union?

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Re:G.M. Strike: 50k Union Workers Walk Out Over Wages and Id... by excursionist on Monday September 16, 2019 @11:54AM (#20985340)
What's the difference between 'monopolization of workforce' by a union, vs by a corporation? A union should be democratic, but if the workforce is split into many smaller unions it loses negotiating power.
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Re:G.M. Strike: 50k Union Workers Walk Out Over Wages and Id... by cperciva on Monday September 16, 2019 @12:15PM (#20985587)
There wouldn't be a difference, but that's not the case here. Workers in the auto sector have several different employers to choose from.

In terms of equalizing bargaining power, unions make sense in a few narrow contexts -- say, single-employer mining towns -- but far less in cities where workers have many options open to them.

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Re:G.M. Strike: 50k Union Workers Walk Out Over Wages and Id... by pytester on Monday September 16, 2019 @01:06PM (#20986181)
In terms of equalizing bargaining power, not having unions maybe makes sense if there 3,000 highly competitive companies in the auto sector instead of only three.
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Re:G.M. Strike: 50k Union Workers Walk Out Over Wages and Id... by excursionist on Monday September 16, 2019 @01:06PM (#20986167)
'Choosing' a union or whether to be part of one is not any harder than 'choosing' an employer.
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Re:G.M. Strike: 50k Union Workers Walk Out Over Wages and Id... by jschwartzi on Monday September 16, 2019 @12:24PM (#20985702)
> We do have all sorts of laws and regulations preventing formation of large monopolies in corporate world. Do we have anything to prevent a de facto monopolization of workforce by a union?

It's called "right-to-work" law. Some states have it and some states don't. But it prevents a union from requiring you to join as a condition of working for a company.

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Re:G.M. Strike: 50k Union Workers Walk Out Over Wages and Id... by charwalker on Monday September 16, 2019 @02:57PM (#20987359)
And in some cases translates to the ability to fire you same day with no reason given. Perk is you can do the same, quit with no reason or notice. The imbalance seems clear.
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Re:G.M. Strike: 50k Union Workers Walk Out Over Wages and Id... by WrtCdEvrydy on Monday September 16, 2019 @11:53AM (#20985323)
> it seems like the corporation has very little leverage

Create a less crooked union...?

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Re:G.M. Strike: 50k Union Workers Walk Out Over Wages and Id... by TremendousJudge on Monday September 16, 2019 @11:51AM (#20985290)
Oh wow, yeah, won't anybody think of the poor corporations
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Re:G.M. Strike: 50k Union Workers Walk Out Over Wages and Id... by EpicEng on Monday September 16, 2019 @12:49PM (#20985978)
Without those evil coprorations your union members are out of a job, so yes, we should probably at least consider that there are two sides to this.
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