Interesting. I used to have some involvement in a union. In fact, I was a regional VP for a huge union at one point and time. And while I agree with the union premise of organizing, I believe it’s an antiquated solution. The union I belonged to also delved a lot into social issues which I didn’t believe had any place in what I was fighting for…which was fair wages, decent working hours and getting the tools we needed for our jobs.
Instead they focused on social issues that had nothing to do with my work environment. They ran me out of that union. I used to be excited about going to meetings and getting people involved. They quickly showed me what their ulterior motives were. I figured out what the leader of that union was making. I saw how they wined and dined me at fancy dinners and hotels at Las Vegas hotels and casinos. I could see how they were grooming me. All they cared about was membership numbers. They don’t care how I signed them up. Tell these employees anything they wanted to hear. Sign that card.
Eventually, I had enough. I resigned my position and took an early retirement (I’m working in a different field now). Not a single one of them asked me why. Not a single one of them were sorry to see me go. Not a single one of them gave shit. I wasn’t useful to them anymore. I had a big influence on the workplace. They knew that and they exploited that. I do feel bad for the people I misled into signing up for that union that I believed in (brainwashed) at the time. Meanwhile I was being flown across the nation and being wined and dined on their dime.
So yes. While I believe organizing and pushing back on employers to make working environments better, I also believe that unions have become the very thing they claim to fight against.
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. We were actively told that if they weren’t with us then they are against us. I wanted to show the non union members.what we were capable of. However, I wasn’t able to due to holding this hostile attitude towards non members. Plus, we were not able to show any real progress. Basically just “sign up and you’ll see. Be in the club.”
TBH I get what you are saying about unions. They are hard to do right. The problem is that without them we’re pretty much cooked. It’s not even management in most cases, but the owners.
At one company, I contributed to cancer research, we were saving actual people. But the owners decided that selling the whole thing to the Americans who can put it into their ponzi scheme of health insurance makes more money. That’s because the average American pays 50x as much for this particular service than an EU citizen.
The people who were contracting and were thus not covered by the union were immediately canned. The rest we could fight and get a dignified way to leave for.
And I was one of their hard working people. I got one particular process that took days down to taking minutes. And not even for the money, but for the satisfaction of getting shit done. Someone from the new owners who probably didn’t even know what we were doing was trying to outsource everything to India, so everything we did went in the trash.
And this was one of my better jobs. I’ve had way worse. And I’m not the kind of person to wallow in my shit either, so I went and got therapy and changed careers so let’s see how that works out.
But going back to the original argument, I know a ton of people who would make something nice for the sake of it, like the GoldenEye devs. They are usually on the younger side, they usually get punished for it, and they usually end up needing and usually not getting therapy. Workers in general get absolutely no input into their work by policy.
Interesting. I used to have some involvement in a union. In fact, I was a regional VP for a huge union at one point and time. And while I agree with the union premise of organizing, I believe it’s an antiquated solution. The union I belonged to also delved a lot into social issues which I didn’t believe had any place in what I was fighting for…which was fair wages, decent working hours and getting the tools we needed for our jobs.
Instead they focused on social issues that had nothing to do with my work environment. They ran me out of that union. I used to be excited about going to meetings and getting people involved. They quickly showed me what their ulterior motives were. I figured out what the leader of that union was making. I saw how they wined and dined me at fancy dinners and hotels at Las Vegas hotels and casinos. I could see how they were grooming me. All they cared about was membership numbers. They don’t care how I signed them up. Tell these employees anything they wanted to hear. Sign that card.
Eventually, I had enough. I resigned my position and took an early retirement (I’m working in a different field now). Not a single one of them asked me why. Not a single one of them were sorry to see me go. Not a single one of them gave shit. I wasn’t useful to them anymore. I had a big influence on the workplace. They knew that and they exploited that. I do feel bad for the people I misled into signing up for that union that I believed in (brainwashed) at the time. Meanwhile I was being flown across the nation and being wined and dined on their dime.
So yes. While I believe organizing and pushing back on employers to make working environments better, I also believe that unions have become the very thing they claim to fight against.
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. We were actively told that if they weren’t with us then they are against us. I wanted to show the non union members.what we were capable of. However, I wasn’t able to due to holding this hostile attitude towards non members. Plus, we were not able to show any real progress. Basically just “sign up and you’ll see. Be in the club.”
TBH I get what you are saying about unions. They are hard to do right. The problem is that without them we’re pretty much cooked. It’s not even management in most cases, but the owners.
At one company, I contributed to cancer research, we were saving actual people. But the owners decided that selling the whole thing to the Americans who can put it into their ponzi scheme of health insurance makes more money. That’s because the average American pays 50x as much for this particular service than an EU citizen.
The people who were contracting and were thus not covered by the union were immediately canned. The rest we could fight and get a dignified way to leave for.
And I was one of their hard working people. I got one particular process that took days down to taking minutes. And not even for the money, but for the satisfaction of getting shit done. Someone from the new owners who probably didn’t even know what we were doing was trying to outsource everything to India, so everything we did went in the trash.
And this was one of my better jobs. I’ve had way worse. And I’m not the kind of person to wallow in my shit either, so I went and got therapy and changed careers so let’s see how that works out.
But going back to the original argument, I know a ton of people who would make something nice for the sake of it, like the GoldenEye devs. They are usually on the younger side, they usually get punished for it, and they usually end up needing and usually not getting therapy. Workers in general get absolutely no input into their work by policy.