I’m curious to know what your opinion is on unions today. Because in their current form, I don’t believe they are beneficial to everybody.
I’m sorry to hear about your experience and I don’t disagree with you, sadly! Unions in their current state are rather flawed!
In the public sector where I worked, the union was pretty crap as well. It was mostly run by older people who were simply coasting along to retirement, so whenever the bosses would say “We need to suspend cost of living increases” or some other detriment to everybody else (like part-timers who weren’t allowed to be union)…
The union would simply roll over and show their bellies to get rubs and treats from the establishment without a fight. Again, the union leadership were just coasting to retirement, so they couldn’t care less if they tried. Absolutely useless. “Bargaining.” Yeah, right!
I’ve always thought seniority alone is a terrible metric with which to rank leadership, and it establishes yet another bullshit unjustified hierarchy just like the job itself does.
If anybody can say “What I say goes, because I get to make the rules.”, then we’re doing it all wrong.
If there’s “wining and dining” for “campaigning”, we’re doing it all wrong.
Unions should be a democratic collective, not yet another pathetic internal power struggle.
Unions have been de-fanged by corporate lobbyists under the guise of being “recognized.” In my eyes, if they’re jumping through hoops so their bosses “allow” them, what is the point?
The purest form of a union is the workers grouping up and saying :
“We will be treated better if you want your profit machine to keep running. Otherwise, things will start getting very painful for you, financially or otherwise.”
Bosses should be afraid to piss off the people who make them money. Instead, they feel entitled to a ready and desperate wageslave pool, where they can require PHDs and pay $20 an hour and demand unpaid overtime and require “permission” to be sick.
I’ve learned organizing a strike without jumping through a ton of hoops is called a “wildcat strike” and we’ve been conned into thinking that’s “frowned upon.” I personally think it sounds badass and should happen more often.
Instead, modern unions are “permitted” to exist, so long as they don’t actually threaten profits too much, and they’re run by people who want to “be the boss” themselves.
They’re even told when it can be “illegal to strike”!
So basically, the system needs a rework, but unions as an idea must be saved and protected if we want to avoid a complete Mordor scenario. Capitalists would still resort to slavery, company stores, child labor, and more, if unions past didn’t put up a very real fight.
Things like the 40 hour work week, FMLA, and sick days were literally bought with blood. And today we’ve raised generations to be complacent and docile to cruel masters.
Especially ironic in a country established in rebellion to a monarchy, who loves to eagle-screech about how “free” it is.
“Labor day” barely has meaning anymore, and we’re only conditioned to memorialize the veterans of foreign wars. Holidays to solemnly remember the sacrifice of both are now an excuse to grift oversized pickup trucks and mattresses.
In the end, unions should be agile, cunning, and cooperative representation of the entire worker base, rather than clubs of broken old men saying “Screw you, got mine.”
Anarchist cooperation is surprisingly effective in small groups with common aims. The power-hungry know this, which is why they come down on any hint of autonomy without mercy.
I’m sorry to hear about your experience and I don’t disagree with you, sadly! Unions in their current state are rather flawed!
In the public sector where I worked, the union was pretty crap as well. It was mostly run by older people who were simply coasting along to retirement, so whenever the bosses would say “We need to suspend cost of living increases” or some other detriment to everybody else (like part-timers who weren’t allowed to be union)…
The union would simply roll over and show their bellies to get rubs and treats from the establishment without a fight. Again, the union leadership were just coasting to retirement, so they couldn’t care less if they tried. Absolutely useless. “Bargaining.” Yeah, right!
I’ve always thought seniority alone is a terrible metric with which to rank leadership, and it establishes yet another bullshit unjustified hierarchy just like the job itself does. If anybody can say “What I say goes, because I get to make the rules.”, then we’re doing it all wrong.
If there’s “wining and dining” for “campaigning”, we’re doing it all wrong.
Unions should be a democratic collective, not yet another pathetic internal power struggle.
Unions have been de-fanged by corporate lobbyists under the guise of being “recognized.” In my eyes, if they’re jumping through hoops so their bosses “allow” them, what is the point?
The purest form of a union is the workers grouping up and saying :
“We will be treated better if you want your profit machine to keep running. Otherwise, things will start getting very painful for you, financially or otherwise.”
Bosses should be afraid to piss off the people who make them money. Instead, they feel entitled to a ready and desperate wageslave pool, where they can require PHDs and pay $20 an hour and demand unpaid overtime and require “permission” to be sick.
I’ve learned organizing a strike without jumping through a ton of hoops is called a “wildcat strike” and we’ve been conned into thinking that’s “frowned upon.” I personally think it sounds badass and should happen more often.
Instead, modern unions are “permitted” to exist, so long as they don’t actually threaten profits too much, and they’re run by people who want to “be the boss” themselves. They’re even told when it can be “illegal to strike”!
So basically, the system needs a rework, but unions as an idea must be saved and protected if we want to avoid a complete Mordor scenario. Capitalists would still resort to slavery, company stores, child labor, and more, if unions past didn’t put up a very real fight.
Things like the 40 hour work week, FMLA, and sick days were literally bought with blood. And today we’ve raised generations to be complacent and docile to cruel masters.
Especially ironic in a country established in rebellion to a monarchy, who loves to eagle-screech about how “free” it is.
“Labor day” barely has meaning anymore, and we’re only conditioned to memorialize the veterans of foreign wars. Holidays to solemnly remember the sacrifice of both are now an excuse to grift oversized pickup trucks and mattresses.
The Battle of Blair Mountain isn’t even taught in history classes! (I only learned of this a few years ago!)
In the end, unions should be agile, cunning, and cooperative representation of the entire worker base, rather than clubs of broken old men saying “Screw you, got mine.”
Anarchist cooperation is surprisingly effective in small groups with common aims. The power-hungry know this, which is why they come down on any hint of autonomy without mercy.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_union_busting_in_the_United_States