1. Mandatory notice periods (3 months is customary, mimumum 1 month)
2. "Social selection", i.e. you're not allowed to lay off a pregnant person etc. unless you have demonstrated that there were no other people you could have let go instead
3. There needs to be cause. Downsizing can still mean you get laid off, but you can't just fire a team or an individual because you don't like them etc.
Of course, if you left a company because you didn't agree to their rules instead of being laid off, none of these protections apply to you - why would they?
Being in a union involves give and take.
1. "Firms and Layoffs: The Impact of Unionization on Involuntary Job Loss" - (2003 with data from 1997) https://ideas.repec.org/p/cen/wpaper/03-09.html
> Results show that the impact of unionization is not significant except for (1) establishments that operate in the non-manufacturing sector; and (2) establishments operating in industries that have major collective bargaining agreements which contain moderate employment security provisions. Under those conditions, unionization decreases layoff rates; otherwise, unionization has no effect on layoff rates.
Does anyone have anything more recent about this?
I am in a non-union workspace. There's no transparency on how bonuses or stock refreshers are handed out. A union contract could codify it.
The owner class wants workers to think unions will hurt our earnings because when workers are structurally unable to shape company policy the bosses can do whatever they want...and what they want is to maximize profits. (Like Elon Musk said: You don't need a union, I'll put in an soft serve machine for you.)
Do you give Netflix 180 days notice or additional payments when you quit their service?
I am a W2/FTE and I have a job that I can leave with zero notice or consequence. If I was to get laid off I would imagine I would get some type of severance - even if only two weeks as that would be more than agreed upon.
There is no whip if I fail. No debt incurred if I fail to deliver on my "promises". I could definitely harm my employer with substantial consequences and I think the worst they could do is report my activities to the authorities.
Preparation isn’t free, and even if you’re prepared, you’re still harmed. This isn’t some moral lesson on independence and discipline. Companies don’t need any single employee as much as that employee needs their job.
I am a lucky person, but I see it for what it is, not that I am special or exceptional. A lottery ticket is not something you can base broad policy on, most especially considering the aggregate harm being incurred.
If you are not interested in a union, that is fine, it only takes a majority to win a union and 30% to hold a vote. Do you think 51% are making outsized comp and vote no? I'm interested to find out too as someone very curious.
https://www.nlrb.gov/about-nlrb/rights-we-protect/the-law/em...
https://www.nlrb.gov/about-nlrb/what-we-do/conduct-elections
https://newrepublic.com/post/175274/gallup-poll-two-thirds-a...
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-closing-gender-...
So yeah, my bank account might be lower, but I don’t need nearly as much as I did in the US so it feels like I actually have more.
I'd like to have "fuck you" (or even "screw you") money, but the healthcare system makes it pretty tough.
Edit: A healthy society is a high-trust society where the employee-employer relationship is more balanced due to the regular old humanity that you would expect by default from humans, rather than pure economics. You can't regulate the fundamentals of societal health. When people have less and less cultural attachment to each other and to the societies in which they operate; and less and less respect for the idea of plain humanity; this is the result. The US seems to have been historically above average in this regard, but is coming down fast. A few European countries seem to be at the top of this (highly subjective) ranking.