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Re:Is the four-day workweek finally within our grasp? by datavirtue on Wednesday December 01, 2021 @01:55PM (#29407620)
This is the very reason unions exist. To protect all workers from the bad deal that other workers will accept. You have little appreciation for how much people can undervalue themselves. It is enough to where people think working at an Amazon warehouse for $15 an hour is a good deal. Sounds like a great deal for Amazon and Walmart. The workers making that wage don't know that it's a bad deal. Same way people pull out money from thier retirement accounts to buy cars "because they don't want a payment." Dumb personal choice.
Re:Is the four-day workweek finally within our grasp? by trcarney on Wednesday December 01, 2021 @02:02PM (#29407714)
I am all for unions as long as they aren't mandated.

In some areas an Amazon warehouse job is an exceptionally good job. I grew up in a place where one of the best job you could get was working at a Walmart distribution center. Basically like an Amazon warehouse but the whole this is a freezer.

Also the government can't and shouldn't try to govern bad choices away from people. This would lead to a very authoritarian society.

Re:Is the four-day workweek finally within our grasp? by pessimizer on Wednesday December 01, 2021 @02:41PM (#29408202)
Unions are not allowed to negotiate benefits and wages exclusively for their members. Non-union employees are forced by this to become free riders.

https://www.nlrb.gov/about-nlrb/rights-we-protect/the-law/em...

Re:Is the four-day workweek finally within our grasp? by mlyle on Wednesday December 01, 2021 @03:38PM (#29408841)
> > I am all for unions as long as they aren't mandated.

> Unions are not allowed to negotiate benefits and wages exclusively for their members.

Parent is talking about "closed shops" where a union uses its bargaining power to ensure the employer will only employ people represented by the union. On the one hand this prevents the free-rider problem you mention. On the other, this is coercive and can erode employees' ability to negotiate about things important to them.

It can also be inefficient-- I've been in workplaces where I got in trouble for moving a desk in my office a few feet, because moving furniture was a closed-shop union job, and I wasn't a member.