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A comment on MIT graduate students vote to unionize. Parent comment

Re:MIT graduate students vote to unionize by whimsicalism on Saturday April 09, 2022 @12:18PM (#30969336)
This is a bad idea for a number of different reasons. I'll highlight one.

The actual "competition" wouldn't be among which union the employees joined - rather they would compete to undercut each other on contract negotiation, which would only bolster the employer's hand.

There are good reasons why this is not common practice - but there is also no law preventing multiple unions.

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Re:MIT graduate students vote to unionize by Manuel_D on Saturday April 09, 2022 @11:12PM (#30974180)
Unions are competing both for contracts with employers, but also for employees among other unions. If Union A is demanding but gives good pay, Union B is more laid back but has less reward, and Union C is both demanding and gives poor bay then it will fail as A or B grows.

If there are no competing unions and you're in union C, then you've got no options but to quit or try and topple the union (impossible, effectively).

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