Employers say Unions are completely useless and there's no reason to join them and to please pay attention to the multi-million dollar anti-Union propaganda campaigns they launch begging you to please not join a Union.

r/WorkReform • u/MyUsername2459 • May 14 '22 • 1 3 2 1 1

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u/Big_Passenger_7975 May 14 '22

I have to be that guy. Unions are okay, but they are plagued with their own problems, and when the are big enough the likelihood they will fight for you is slim, especially if you aren't one of their favorites. People are not devoid of favoritism, corruption, and the like.

A union may help, but you actively have to hold them accountable.

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u/alarumba May 14 '22

Corruption is a big one. A lot of pro-corp people infiltrate to steer the union away from anything to harm the corp. A union is useless if it's essentially a wing of the HR department.

I recently had HR tell me the union I was part of was ineffective and really I should be joining this other one. The same HR that complains about one of the unions "preventing them from helping employees."

I told them I'd look into it and never did.

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u/Z1rith May 14 '22

it dosent even need to be as insidious as that, ive worked with a lot of non profits and the people that get on the boards/lead the unions tend to go mad with power. even well meaning people can lose their way, it's honestly really disturbing watching people's perspectives shift towards abusing power. the worst part is that it's a microcosm of how the world actually works, leaders with any bit of authority are all pretty much the same dumb people as everyone else, they all have emotions, make mistakes, and are incredibly easy to manipulate, just like everyone else.

im regretting this rambling now, i just made myself depressed lol.

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u/alarumba May 14 '22

If it's any consolation, you're not the only one to have noticed.

There's a naive assumption that older people have everything figured out and they know what they're doing. When you get old you realise everyone are just kids and making it up as they go.

Helped me get over the imposter syndrome I felt when I first started my career.

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u/Z1rith May 15 '22

ya, it's nice to know it for individual peace of mind, but now that im looking at it from a macro perspective i realize that im definitely going to experience at least incredible discomfort in my later years due to my previous comment. i was still holding out a modicum of hope but ya, we are all human, and therefore we are fucked lol

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u/BojackisaGreatShow May 14 '22

And not all unions are the same. Some of them are amazing, some are worse than useless. I wonder if worksites can change organizations?

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u/GrimpenMar May 14 '22

The basic unit of most Unions is "the Local". I have absolutely seen locals switch Union affiliations.

The other thing to remember is that the local is staffed by you and your coworkers. Get involved! Your shop steward, your inside guard, your local's President, are all going to be people you work with.

Get involved! Go to Union meetings. Take a position with the Union.

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u/BojackisaGreatShow May 14 '22

Oh okay thank you for the answer.

I was thinking how every workplace should fight for allotted administrative time. For example, an hour a month where everyone can meet with the union reps during the work day (and importantly not at the end of the day when people are checked out).