I dunno if you ask me, an employee of a company deserves no more or no less then what their employeer decides to give them. While this would obviously lead to employees getting short changed alot on just about everything. if they dont like the job as it is, go work somewhere else. and if its that bad, dont work there. i really hate it when i hear on the news about unions having alot of power over the way that some companies are run, and can bring that company to its knees if they choose.
There are times when unions can act irresponsibly, but at other times they’re a very very very very very very very very very good thing. Why do you think the right to unionize is almost something sacrosanct to every democratic nation in the world today?
Think about it, all employers want to bring down costs as much as possible. So:
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They will all conspire to lower wages as much as possible without even realising they are conspiring (a huge price fixing arrangement basically)
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As soon as there’s a job market where there are more workers than there are jobs employers can just play workers off each other, driving done wages until people only have enough to survive and go to work (after all you’ve got to keep them alive to work). And the employer could then be making a HUGE profit margin. And all because he could afford to buy a factory, while everyone else couldn’t.
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The only workers with any power are those whose skills are in demand, but companies will try and change their processes so the don’t need skilled workers, creating boring unchallenging jobs in place of highly skilled ones, reducing the quality of life in a quest for profitabilty.
Unions balance the power, they allow collective bargaining power. Ocasionally it is used irresponsibly, especially in public services where there’s no real market competition so by demanding better pay they won’t put their jobs at risk as their company has a monopoly in that field. However workers striking in a competitive market have to be careful that they don’t put the company they work for out of business, so they only have a certain amount of power.
If you want to see what happens when you have a non-unionized work force, look at the fast-food industry in America. No union, minimum wage, no job security, no insurance, no prospects. That’s what happens when you get rid of unions.
Individuals have every right to form labor unions, yes, but so do employers have every right to refuse to hire union members.
Nothing wrong with that…it’s their money to pay or not as they see fit.
See above.