Originally published at: New US Treasury report confirms that unions are good for everybody | Boing Boing
…
7 Likes
This is a huge point. I am a non-unionized worker, but not only do I enjoy these benefits but would not be where I am without unions. All three of my grandparents who worked were union workers (bus driver, electrician, nurse). My parents were both union teachers (and were in the first generation of 4-year college graduates in their respective families). It’s unlikely I would be an engineer if not for unions.
Whenever I talk about unions with anti-union colleagues, I remind them that they better be prepared to say goodbye to the carryover benefits that non-union workers get if unions go extinct.
24 Likes
The residents of MAGA-Land don’t care if the policies of their leaders make things bad for them, as long as those policies make things WORSE for everyone else.
13 Likes
New US Treasury report confirms that unions are good for everybody
Which is why Republicans hate them. They only want what is good for them. Anyone else, getting a square deal, diminishes the pleasure of the Red Menace.
10 Likes
Unionized workplaces also increase the salaries and benefits for all levels of non-union management. Managers should quietly encourage the rank and file workers they supervise to unionize to improve their own lot.
10 Likes
15 Likes
Probably not all levels, as I suspect that the fat cats at the top have a little less grift to carry away, but the levels that might actually do some work probably benefit.
5 Likes
That’s where you’d be wrong. Studies from such liberal, commie sources as (checks notes) Harvard Business Review and The Economist show that shareholders get better returns from at least partly-unionized companies.
The reason Republicans hate unions is just as @euansmith said - they’d rather take a pay cut than for everyone else to make even slightly more than what they were.
11 Likes
Huh, well TIL.
7 Likes
I certainly don’t disagree with this, but can I just say that this is a weird document from the Treasury? It looks almost like a political document by the Biden-Harris campaign tooting its own horn. I suppose the Treasury is a political entity though, so… eh. Not like Trump didn’t do the same.
This kind of policy paper is actually pretty common. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Department of Energy put out reports on how awesome coal is during the Trump years. In fact, I would be surprised if they hadn’t.
6 Likes
No shit, Sherlock
I’m in a similar situation. My father was a union mechanic for a couple of large corporations and my mother was a teacher’s aide in special education classes. Unions helped them get wages that they could live on and support our family. They were able to get my brother and I through college with minimal loans. I’m a white collar worker that certainly benefited from unions. They are vital in creating a counterbalance to unfettered capitalism.
And one thing that really angers me is when anti-union people talk about how union workers are lazy and don’t work hard. I try to calmly explain about my father’s long hours, working nights and how many times I saw him come home with bruises or cut hands and how he had to get the meniscus in his knee scoped because of the crawling around under conveyors and other machinery. Sometimes I’m not very good at being calm.
6 Likes
You and me both!
3 Likes
I have often been irate at people telling me that teachers have it easy because they only work 9 months a year for 6 hours a day.
One point about the topic is many states have laws allowing people to chose to not be in the union even when their workplace is unionized-thus getting the benefits of the union but without paying dues. Then they complain about how union protections are unnecessary, how the union does nothing but collect dues, etc.etc. All the while complaining that the new contract is shit.
2 Likes
My wife is the assistant to the music teacher/director at our local middle school. He works WAY more than 6 hours a day, 9 months a year. Being a teacher is more like a lifestyle.
My dad was an hourly worker for an industrial conglomerate in the 60s through the 80s. He didn’t talk much about it (just like about his experiences in WW2), but he had a distrust of the unions. He was quite the cynical type, I think, and maybe he was skeptical because of the corruption in organized labor (I want to say stuff about jimmy hoffa, but I admit I don’t know much about it). He (and we, his family) enjoyed the benefits of his unionized workplace, but I’m not sure if he was a paying member due to that mistrust. Now that I’m older and (supposedly) more aware of stuff, I wish he was still around so I could ask him So. Many. Questions. about a lot of stuff.
2 Likes
3 Likes
I wonder if part of it is that most people’s experience with unions these days might be like mine; I worked two union jobs but they were at Safeway and at UPS, neither of which were something where it seemed all that relevant. As a young person, I was mostly like ‘wait why do I have to pay money to this thing?’ and the union reps were kind of all assholes.
As I’ve gotten older and somewhat wiser and I have a better appreciation I view that more as ‘well, human organizations are bad sometimes’ and less ‘unions are inherently terrible’ but I think that it’s a lot easier to appreciate these things when you live through the improvements and don’t just inherit them.
1 Like
How times change, eh?
6 Likes
