Speaking to a tech worker here in SW Ontario the other day they expressed their distrust of unions. “I think it’s good to have a fear that you might be fired. It makes you work harder. These union workers are lazy because they know they won’t be fired.”
“My wife’s a unionized nurse and she works very hard. She makes decisions based on scientific evidence in an attempt to save people’s lives. Couldn’t a fear of being fired introduce bias into scientific results? Or result in avoidance of certain scientific investigations altogether?”, I asked him.
My colleague simply stared at me, unable to formulate a coherent response that wasn’t simply a talking point he’d heard on the nightly news. He has an advanced degree and understands the fundamental principles of capitalism, but he has been indoctrinated so as not to criticize that self-same system.
It’s going to have to get worse, before it gets any better.
