I remember having a chat with my Dad about unions, and he telling me about some of their excesses, and how they severely hurt his father's business. I asked, "So, unions are bad, right?"
Turns out, he thought they were needed to represent workers whose employers take unfair advantage of them. He said that unions sometimes went overboard in their demands, and sometimes their own upper management wasn't great, but they still performed a valuable service.
I think we forget that not very long ago there was no such thing as weekends off, or worker benefits, or paid sick leave. We could easily go back to that kind of life if the means to organize workers is outlawed.
Now I think we need unions for middle management. Managers are on salary, so they get more and more work piled on them. They have no choice but to work extra hours to get it all done. More work, but not more pay. It's such a good deal for upper management that they often will take this as far as they possibly can. If they can get an 80 hour work week out of one employee for no extra cost, they figure that's a pretty good deal! Can you tell I've been that manager?
Unions aren't the answer to everything, but they are one of the ways we can balance the competing priorities out there. We need to be sure that all constituencies are heard from and counted.
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