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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 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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