My province incredibly anti-union government got around that by outlawing working to rule when they legislated teachers into a new contract after a recent job action. People are still WTFing about thad and waiting for the court cases about it to settle out.
Yep! Wrote them a "contract" with the standard "other duties as required" boilerplate, legislated it into essential take-it-or-quit law which also forbids future job action, and called it a day.
The kind of sucks for Tom Holland too, since Sony will very likely reboot Spider-Man, and Holland was definitely ready to play that character for a very long time.
The UAW suffered a blow just as new negotiations are slated to start.
A former and the current president of the UAW were arrested today. In addition, other UAW sites were raided as the FBI steps up an investigation into bribes, kickbacks, and money laundering. The investigation is nothing new, as it is at this point over four years old. However, the real kicker is that this comes on the heels of a strike authorization vote held in Detroit by the workers at Chrysler-Fiat. Nothing appears to have been officially announced as the outcome but the online buzz is that there's a good chance we might be seeing a walk off the line soon. Take that with a pinch of salt as always.
All opinions are my own and in no way reflect that of my employer.
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CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
https://www.reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceUK/comments/axmnj5/facing_coordinated_attack_on_my_business_by_trade/ - predictably, when he fired people due to an organized strike, he faced legal claims because of it, calling it a "coordinated attack" on his business. This one is particularly choice because he had lawyers AND he had r/LegalAdviceUK telling him not to do it, and he did it anyway. But this is a coordinated attack, sure. In the comments, r/LegalAdviceUK assure him that this is actually his fault, not the TU's fault. They also tell him to start listening to his lawyer(s).
https://www.reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceUK/comments/b7as6p/did_not_give_section_1003_voluntary_striking_off/ - He tries to avoid his legal responsibilities by declaring bankruptcy for the company without notifying the workers, and he's legally obligated to notify the workers. His lawyer specifically tells him not to do this, but his accountants said he should do it. He knows this is an indictable offense but hopes the workers won't notice. He calls it a "victimless crime" despite the fact that his workers are victims. The comments, again, tell him to STOP IGNORING HIS LAWYER.
https://www.reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceUK/comments/bnol9x/facing_investigation_from_beis_invited_under/ - Chickens come home to roost. He filed what I gather is the equivalent of a bar complaint on his lawyer, which lost him his lawyer. He missed a court date because he wasn't allowed to bring his accountant. He used previously liquidated assets to start a new company which is unlawful in the UK, that's what a "Phoenix company" is. He says he's utterly fucked, and the commentors agree.
I don't know if anyone else besides me remembered this shining example to bosses everywhere, but I remembered him and wanted to see if he'd posted anything recently.
All the teacher strikes from last year ended with a better education budget getting passed by the state legislature and signed by the governor.
I didn't think that was something the strikes would have been capable of. That's cool. And fundamentally undermines my assumptions :P
Teachers have disproportionate power because, ironically, it requires going far and above what is required by the job description just to adequately prepare their students. Because of this, all teachers have to do is start "working to rule" and the entire state's education system begins to collapse. And since teachers are already fleeing the workforce in huge numbers while teacher programs are seeing massive decreases in enrollment, it's not like their is a huge population of workers ready to step into their jobs, and you can't threaten to fire people who are about to quit anyway.
That's not to say conservative legislatures haven't tried to eliminate the need for professionally certified teachers. It's just the number of states where that works is limited to a handful of deeply conservative areas, since voters have revolted over it elsewhere.
A big part of the reason why it doesn't work, is that professional teachers will effectively discount themselves because they care about their students. Uncaring buffoons will not.
Hired a babysitter lately? $15 an hour EASY, and thats for a teen for a couple of hours and 7 days warning that you need them. Try to find someone to look after 30 kids at once? Thats going to be a solid $100 an hour no question. And you need those kids looked after 8 hours a day so you can go to work? 48 weeks a year? So you need to pay your buffoons 240k a year.
It's also why teachers strikes always win. Because replacing caring well trained professionals who want to get paid 50th percentile wages rather than 10th percentile is vastly cheaper than...
a) Bringing in scabs
b) Just saying, "Screw schools, we're going to deal with looking after these kids at home..."
Because subs also care about children in general and want to support them. Subs are also rare and overbooked, because of the desire to artificially decrease their wages. Try to replace a whole network of teachers with random uncaring buffoons who are still responsible for the welfare of the kids working for them and see how much it costs.
"That is cool" - Abraham Lincoln
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MayabirdPecking at the keyboardRegistered Userregular
Another day, another successful teacher's strike - or rather, the teachers didn't actually go on strike because the school district met the teachers' demands before the strike could happen; the district managers might be starting to wise up roundabouts. This one was for Clark County, Nevada, aka the one that Las Vegas is in, aka the one with nearly 3/4 the state's population, so it's another big win.
“Workers at HCL deserve far more than they have received in terms of compensation, transparency and consideration, and it has gone on like this for much too long,” said HCL employee Renata Nelson per the statement. “While on-site management tries to do what they can, where they can, their hands are often tied by arbitrary corporate policy.”
HCL employees “work side-by-side with those of the giant corporation for far less compensation and few, if any, of the perks,” according to the press release. They’ve been called Google’s “shadow workforce”: a contingent of temps, vendors, and contractors that, by some estimates, make up half of Google’s total employees. Despite this, this group’s only recently been able to secure basic benefits and a $15 per hour minimum wage, and many of the employees who fought for these improvements will never get to enjoy them.
Some organized labour action going on over here in Canada. TL;DR version: A factory that supplies engine blocks for GM is going to be shut down here so the union representing the workers has decided to shut down the place instead arguing that Nemak had agreed to keep the plant open until 2022.
D’Agnolo said there’s a bigger issue at stake here than just wage imbalances and production costs.
“What’s a contract worth if corporations can just pick up, leave and ignore them?” D’Agnolo said. “We’re asking for problems if that’s allowed.
“First GM and now Nemak. We’re expected to adhere to contracts and we expect the same from Nemak.”
The move to shut down production came after D’Agnolo and Unifor national president Jerry Dias travelled to Mexico last week to meet with Nemak CEO Armando Tamez. The company informed Unifor of its timetable to shut down its Windsor operations.
Ultimately, I think it's highly unlikely anything will come of it, but they are at least going down with a fight so props to them.
The truck plant workers got injunctured in 2008 for a blockade for the same thing. Well except in 08 GM had just signed a contract with production promises and then a literal week later announced plant closure.
So yeah nothing's going to come of out our government especially Ontario's is way to beholden to corporations
There is literally nothing a union or even a province (in the extremely rare cases where governments side with labour) can do when the corporation can just fuck off with all its wealth and assets back to the states
They were not asking for much, they were making around or less then $15 an hour for skilled labor jobs for high quality parts used in military and government vehicles. Problem was, in 2007 a new company bought the factory and has been very antagonistic pretty much ever since. The workers were asking for a $0.75 an hour raise and health insurance with a $15,000 out of pocket maximum as opposed to $20,000. Not really a lot.
This is what happens when you have a state with crap union laws, if Indiana were better there wouldn't have been a close non-union shop to move production to.
HacksawJ. Duggan Esq.Wrestler at LawRegistered Userregular
Indiana is a miserable hellscape. Always remember that they fly the Confederate flag proudly (despite being in the North) and willingly vote to gut their own worker protection laws every chance the get. They have an incurable cultural affliction and cannot be helped, evidenced most keenly by the fact that Mike Pence won both gubernatorial AND Congressional elections there.
Indiana is a miserable hellscape. Always remember that they fly the Confederate flag proudly (despite being in the North) and willingly vote to gut their own worker protection laws every chance the get. They have an incurable cultural affliction and cannot be helped, evidenced most keenly by the fact that Mike Pence won both gubernatorial AND Congressional elections there.
Indiana is...rough. I worked at Kroger and my "union rep" was a direct employ of Kroger, which seemed like a conflict. My fiance's current union rep is...the department lead at the school she works at. It is causing issues. And every person I've come across has the attitude of "All they do is take money, they aren't needed anymore."
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HacksawJ. Duggan Esq.Wrestler at LawRegistered Userregular
Indiana is a miserable hellscape. Always remember that they fly the Confederate flag proudly (despite being in the North) and willingly vote to gut their own worker protection laws every chance the get. They have an incurable cultural affliction and cannot be helped, evidenced most keenly by the fact that Mike Pence won both gubernatorial AND Congressional elections there.
Indiana is...rough. I worked at Kroger and my "union rep" was a direct employ of Kroger, which seemed like a conflict. My fiance's current union rep is...the department lead at the school she works at. It is causing issues. And every person I've come across has the attitude of "All they do is take money, they aren't needed anymore."
By "union rep" do you mean your "shop steward" or the de facto "first among equals" in your store's bargaining unit?
EDIT: This is probably gonna be one of those things where it is once again apparent that no two unions are run the same, nor even any two locals within one union.
Hacksaw on
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silence1186Character shields down!As a wingmanRegistered Userregular
Indiana is a miserable hellscape. Always remember that they fly the Confederate flag proudly (despite being in the North) and willingly vote to gut their own worker protection laws every chance the get. They have an incurable cultural affliction and cannot be helped, evidenced most keenly by the fact that Mike Pence won both gubernatorial AND Congressional elections there.
Indiana is...rough. I worked at Kroger and my "union rep" was a direct employ of Kroger, which seemed like a conflict. My fiance's current union rep is...the department lead at the school she works at. It is causing issues. And every person I've come across has the attitude of "All they do is take money, they aren't needed anymore."
Heck, even people IN my union that I work with just think the Union is a business out for its own profit, not the workers.
Yes, the elected officials of a union (reps, stewards, officers, or whatever your shop calls them) are typically your coworkers at the business you work. That's what a union is, an organization of employees. Only if you have a really big union will it be financially feasible to have the union itself employ staff that does not work for the employer. That sort of thing is expensive.
And here is the most important thing to remember about a union, especially if you are unhappy with your representative. Unions are democratic. These aren't appointees raiding your paychecks. They are (typically) coworkers that you elect. If you don't like them, vote in someone else. Or even better, start attending meetings, learn how the shop works, and then run for a rep position yourself.
I don't want to hear nothing about "these reps are no good" followed by "I don't want the hassle of being a rep." Solidarity means you step up. Unions live and die by the active participation of their members.
Indiana is a miserable hellscape. Always remember that they fly the Confederate flag proudly (despite being in the North) and willingly vote to gut their own worker protection laws every chance the get. They have an incurable cultural affliction and cannot be helped, evidenced most keenly by the fact that Mike Pence won both gubernatorial AND Congressional elections there.
Indiana is...rough. I worked at Kroger and my "union rep" was a direct employ of Kroger, which seemed like a conflict. My fiance's current union rep is...the department lead at the school she works at. It is causing issues. And every person I've come across has the attitude of "All they do is take money, they aren't needed anymore."
By "union rep" do you mean your "shop steward" or the de facto "first among equals" in your store's bargaining unit?
EDIT: This is probably gonna be one of those things where it is once again apparent that no two unions are run the same, nor even any two locals within one union.
In both instances, they were the only people her and I were directed to as contacts for airing grievances. Literally no other info was given.
The unions here that I have been a part of or have heard about in depth function for almost a single purpose: to keep people their jobs. Not a bad thing, to be fair, but I dunno, making sure the guy who has literally caused a dozen broken bones in as many coworkers due to reckless work behavior always has a job seems like the opposite of protecting people.
Having said that, I'd take a union any day when given the option. A shitty union can be changed with a lot of work, creating one would be even harder.
Indiana is a miserable hellscape. Always remember that they fly the Confederate flag proudly (despite being in the North) and willingly vote to gut their own worker protection laws every chance the get. They have an incurable cultural affliction and cannot be helped, evidenced most keenly by the fact that Mike Pence won both gubernatorial AND Congressional elections there.
Indiana is...rough. I worked at Kroger and my "union rep" was a direct employ of Kroger, which seemed like a conflict. My fiance's current union rep is...the department lead at the school she works at. It is causing issues. And every person I've come across has the attitude of "All they do is take money, they aren't needed anymore."
Heck, even people IN my union that I work with just think the Union is a business out for its own profit, not the workers.
I admit I felt that way too. It took a lot of time for me to come back around on unions because the one I was in was so bad. Well, the branch of it I was in (I am now in a different city, same union, so much better).
As a 20-something paying dues during the recession it was just awful. Our union heads, all in their 50's and 60's with generous savings accounts stored up of course, agreed to a 2-week unpaid furlough, and told us it was an "act of good faith" for future negotiations. I had to borrow money for rent that month and see their facebook pictures of their random vacations those 2 weeks.
Then in the negotiations, they eliminated merit-based pay raises in exchange for a flat, cost of living adjustment each year and 1 weeks extra vacation "for those who have worked here 15 years or more". Which, shockingly, covered only them and a few others.
Every election my friends and I would try to get on the union board and lose, due to just general apathy and no one voting.
It was a mess and really made me very anti-union until I moved out of state and saw how necessary unions are when run properly. Knowing my union dues went to those idiots to go out to dinner for "meetings" and stuff still makes me mad.
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You might have all heard about CAP shutting down Talking Points Memo, a popular left wing outlet, well news today is that theyre reopening it and it looks like the entire thing was just a gambit to ditch the unionized workers.
HacksawJ. Duggan Esq.Wrestler at LawRegistered Userregular
I'm not surprised. So-called "liberal" academia also takes part in super shitty anti-labor and anti-union practices whenever any part of their exploited workforce has the temerity to unionize. The publisher of the LA Times, one of the most liberal big newspapers in the country, is similarly trying its damnedest to bust its workers attempts to unionize. It's a revolting action to take, and I always make a personal note to myself to avoid patronizing organizations that refuse to recognize their workers attempts to get a square deal for themselves.
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FencingsaxIt is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understandingGNU Terry PratchettRegistered Userregular
You might have all heard about CAP shutting down Talking Points Memo, a popular left wing outlet, well news today is that theyre reopening it and it looks like the entire thing was just a gambit to ditch the unionized workers.
You might have all heard about CAP shutting down Talking Points Memo, a popular left wing outlet, well news today is that theyre reopening it and it looks like the entire thing was just a gambit to ditch the unionized workers.
I'm not surprised. So-called "liberal" academia also takes part in super shitty anti-labor and anti-union practices whenever any part of their exploited workforce has the temerity to unionize. The publisher of the LA Times, one of the most liberal big newspapers in the country, is similarly trying its damnedest to bust its workers attempts to unionize. It's a revolting action to take, and I always make a personal note to myself to avoid patronizing organizations that refuse to recognize their workers attempts to get a square deal for themselves.
You might have all heard about CAP shutting down Talking Points Memo, a popular left wing outlet, well news today is that theyre reopening it and it looks like the entire thing was just a gambit to ditch the unionized workers.
I'm not surprised. So-called "liberal" academia also takes part in super shitty anti-labor and anti-union practices whenever any part of their exploited workforce has the temerity to unionize. The publisher of the LA Times, one of the most liberal big newspapers in the country, is similarly trying its damnedest to bust its workers attempts to unionize. It's a revolting action to take, and I always make a personal note to myself to avoid patronizing organizations that refuse to recognize their workers attempts to get a square deal for themselves.
Is news media academia?
In that they're both ostensibly liberal and understood to be an important part of the cornerstones of Myth of American Exceptionalism? Yeah.
Center for American Progress, a major liberal think tank led by Neera Tanden and Tom Daschle. They have a huge amount of influence behind the scenes with Democrats and push the worst neo liberal nonsense.
Center for American Progress, a major liberal think tank led by Neera Tanden and Tom Daschle. They have a huge amount of influence behind the scenes with Democrats and push the worst neo liberal nonsense.
So.... would I be wrong in thinking CAP and ThinkProgress can go fuck themselves, and not provide viewership where avoidable?
I can understand being against unions. That's a personal choice. But fucking over a company to remove a union that chose to start there, or that was thinking about starting there, and then rebranding it, just pisses me off in an irrational manner.
Honestly what pisses me off the most was they shut down TP, waited a weekend, and announced they were reopening with scabs.
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MayabirdPecking at the keyboardRegistered Userregular
When Talking Points Memo unionized last year, Josh Marshall (the publisher) immediately recognized the union the moment he received their intent letter. He was and has been completely supportive of their union. Totally different thing from ThinkProgress.
Meanwhile, something that might not strictly be union talk, but it does involve some union members and it's absolutely collective action: a Kentucky coal train has been blockaded since the end of July. The company that owns the coal had suddenly declared bankruptcy on July 1st, immediately firing everyone, and the paychecks from June 28th all bounced. Final paychecks for the remaining time after that were never sent. Until they get paid, the blockade (made of former coal workers, some union and some not, and others joining in solidarity) covers the tracks and keeps the $1.4 million in coal from being shipped.
On Thursday morning, Kickstarter fired Taylor Moore, an employee who was one of the organizers of a unionization effort within the company. This was the second firing of a union organizer since last week, when Clarissa Redwine was also fired. Moore had been at the company for six years and Redwine since 2016, and both worked on the outreach team. Both had been heavily involved in the union effort since it began earlier this year. Moore and Redwine, according to four sources who work at the company, were both fired for what management alleged were performance-related issues.
On Thursday morning, Kickstarter fired Taylor Moore, an employee who was one of the organizers of a unionization effort within the company. This was the second firing of a union organizer since last week, when Clarissa Redwine was also fired. Moore had been at the company for six years and Redwine since 2016, and both worked on the outreach team. Both had been heavily involved in the union effort since it began earlier this year. Moore and Redwine, according to four sources who work at the company, were both fired for what management alleged were performance-related issues.
Right. Pull the other one - it has bells on it.
It's possible. I remember reading somewhere that a lot of companies pressure managers to make sure to document performance issue with all their workers, because it makes any eventual decisions to fire them easier to defend in courts. If everyone has performance issues, everyone is working at the sufferance of their managers.
On Thursday morning, Kickstarter fired Taylor Moore, an employee who was one of the organizers of a unionization effort within the company. This was the second firing of a union organizer since last week, when Clarissa Redwine was also fired. Moore had been at the company for six years and Redwine since 2016, and both worked on the outreach team. Both had been heavily involved in the union effort since it began earlier this year. Moore and Redwine, according to four sources who work at the company, were both fired for what management alleged were performance-related issues.
Right. Pull the other one - it has bells on it.
It's possible. I remember reading somewhere that a lot of companies pressure managers to make sure to document performance issue with all their workers, because it makes any eventual decisions to fire them easier to defend in courts. If everyone has performance issues, everyone is working at the sufferance of their managers.
And yet documenting worker performance so you can back up your firing decisions is one of the things most commonly complained about with unions.
On Thursday morning, Kickstarter fired Taylor Moore, an employee who was one of the organizers of a unionization effort within the company. This was the second firing of a union organizer since last week, when Clarissa Redwine was also fired. Moore had been at the company for six years and Redwine since 2016, and both worked on the outreach team. Both had been heavily involved in the union effort since it began earlier this year. Moore and Redwine, according to four sources who work at the company, were both fired for what management alleged were performance-related issues.
Right. Pull the other one - it has bells on it.
It's possible. I remember reading somewhere that a lot of companies pressure managers to make sure to document performance issue with all their workers, because it makes any eventual decisions to fire them easier to defend in courts. If everyone has performance issues, everyone is working at the sufferance of their managers.
And yet documenting worker performance so you can back up your firing decisions is one of the things most commonly complained about with unions.
These tactics don't work in unionized environments. Unions would catch on real quick if management was relying on a strategy of systematically documenting everyone.
On Thursday morning, Kickstarter fired Taylor Moore, an employee who was one of the organizers of a unionization effort within the company. This was the second firing of a union organizer since last week, when Clarissa Redwine was also fired. Moore had been at the company for six years and Redwine since 2016, and both worked on the outreach team. Both had been heavily involved in the union effort since it began earlier this year. Moore and Redwine, according to four sources who work at the company, were both fired for what management alleged were performance-related issues.
Right. Pull the other one - it has bells on it.
It's possible. I remember reading somewhere that a lot of companies pressure managers to make sure to document performance issue with all their workers, because it makes any eventual decisions to fire them easier to defend in courts. If everyone has performance issues, everyone is working at the sufferance of their managers.
And yet documenting worker performance so you can back up your firing decisions is one of the things most commonly complained about with unions.
These tactics don't work in unionized environments. Unions would catch on real quick if management was relying on a strategy of systematically documenting everyone.
What?
Unions usually demand that kind of documentation. It's how you actually fire someone: with proof to back up your reason for doing so.
Posts
That doesn't even make sense.
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Sounds like it's time for a Spider-Union.
A former and the current president of the UAW were arrested today. In addition, other UAW sites were raided as the FBI steps up an investigation into bribes, kickbacks, and money laundering. The investigation is nothing new, as it is at this point over four years old. However, the real kicker is that this comes on the heels of a strike authorization vote held in Detroit by the workers at Chrysler-Fiat. Nothing appears to have been officially announced as the outcome but the online buzz is that there's a good chance we might be seeing a walk off the line soon. Take that with a pinch of salt as always.
I don't know if anyone else besides me remembered this shining example to bosses everywhere, but I remembered him and wanted to see if he'd posted anything recently.
Unfortunately, it seems that whatever UK authority exists that could make someone disqualified to be a director decided to halt prosecution against him as long as he paid whatever debts he had. So he'll be off fucking up some other business soon.
A big part of the reason why it doesn't work, is that professional teachers will effectively discount themselves because they care about their students. Uncaring buffoons will not.
Hired a babysitter lately? $15 an hour EASY, and thats for a teen for a couple of hours and 7 days warning that you need them. Try to find someone to look after 30 kids at once? Thats going to be a solid $100 an hour no question. And you need those kids looked after 8 hours a day so you can go to work? 48 weeks a year? So you need to pay your buffoons 240k a year.
It's also why teachers strikes always win. Because replacing caring well trained professionals who want to get paid 50th percentile wages rather than 10th percentile is vastly cheaper than...
a) Bringing in scabs
b) Just saying, "Screw schools, we're going to deal with looking after these kids at home..."
Because subs also care about children in general and want to support them. Subs are also rare and overbooked, because of the desire to artificially decrease their wages. Try to replace a whole network of teachers with random uncaring buffoons who are still responsible for the welfare of the kids working for them and see how much it costs.
Ultimately, I think it's highly unlikely anything will come of it, but they are at least going down with a fight so props to them.
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So yeah nothing's going to come of out our government especially Ontario's is way to beholden to corporations
There is literally nothing a union or even a province (in the extremely rare cases where governments side with labour) can do when the corporation can just fuck off with all its wealth and assets back to the states
In July a local manufacturer of helicopter and plane parts went on strike.
They were not asking for much, they were making around or less then $15 an hour for skilled labor jobs for high quality parts used in military and government vehicles. Problem was, in 2007 a new company bought the factory and has been very antagonistic pretty much ever since. The workers were asking for a $0.75 an hour raise and health insurance with a $15,000 out of pocket maximum as opposed to $20,000. Not really a lot.
Then a few weeks ago
The company said they were going to shut the plant down and move to a non-union, general parts plant owned by a different company a few hours south.
In a bid to save their jobs in anyway possible they have
gone back to work in hopes of keeping the plant open, which likely means a loss of some kind on their part and the unions part to convince them to keep it running...
This is what happens when you have a state with crap union laws, if Indiana were better there wouldn't have been a close non-union shop to move production to.
Indiana is...rough. I worked at Kroger and my "union rep" was a direct employ of Kroger, which seemed like a conflict. My fiance's current union rep is...the department lead at the school she works at. It is causing issues. And every person I've come across has the attitude of "All they do is take money, they aren't needed anymore."
By "union rep" do you mean your "shop steward" or the de facto "first among equals" in your store's bargaining unit?
EDIT: This is probably gonna be one of those things where it is once again apparent that no two unions are run the same, nor even any two locals within one union.
Heck, even people IN my union that I work with just think the Union is a business out for its own profit, not the workers.
And here is the most important thing to remember about a union, especially if you are unhappy with your representative. Unions are democratic. These aren't appointees raiding your paychecks. They are (typically) coworkers that you elect. If you don't like them, vote in someone else. Or even better, start attending meetings, learn how the shop works, and then run for a rep position yourself.
I don't want to hear nothing about "these reps are no good" followed by "I don't want the hassle of being a rep." Solidarity means you step up. Unions live and die by the active participation of their members.
In both instances, they were the only people her and I were directed to as contacts for airing grievances. Literally no other info was given.
The unions here that I have been a part of or have heard about in depth function for almost a single purpose: to keep people their jobs. Not a bad thing, to be fair, but I dunno, making sure the guy who has literally caused a dozen broken bones in as many coworkers due to reckless work behavior always has a job seems like the opposite of protecting people.
Having said that, I'd take a union any day when given the option. A shitty union can be changed with a lot of work, creating one would be even harder.
I admit I felt that way too. It took a lot of time for me to come back around on unions because the one I was in was so bad. Well, the branch of it I was in (I am now in a different city, same union, so much better).
As a 20-something paying dues during the recession it was just awful. Our union heads, all in their 50's and 60's with generous savings accounts stored up of course, agreed to a 2-week unpaid furlough, and told us it was an "act of good faith" for future negotiations. I had to borrow money for rent that month and see their facebook pictures of their random vacations those 2 weeks.
Then in the negotiations, they eliminated merit-based pay raises in exchange for a flat, cost of living adjustment each year and 1 weeks extra vacation "for those who have worked here 15 years or more". Which, shockingly, covered only them and a few others.
Every election my friends and I would try to get on the union board and lose, due to just general apathy and no one voting.
It was a mess and really made me very anti-union until I moved out of state and saw how necessary unions are when run properly. Knowing my union dues went to those idiots to go out to dinner for "meetings" and stuff still makes me mad.
You mean Think Progress, TPM is a different thing.
Yeah, its been a long day
Is news media academia?
It's been a long... *gesture*, yeah
In that they're both ostensibly liberal and understood to be an important part of the cornerstones of Myth of American Exceptionalism? Yeah.
Center for American Progress, a major liberal think tank led by Neera Tanden and Tom Daschle. They have a huge amount of influence behind the scenes with Democrats and push the worst neo liberal nonsense.
So.... would I be wrong in thinking CAP and ThinkProgress can go fuck themselves, and not provide viewership where avoidable?
I can understand being against unions. That's a personal choice. But fucking over a company to remove a union that chose to start there, or that was thinking about starting there, and then rebranding it, just pisses me off in an irrational manner.
Meanwhile, something that might not strictly be union talk, but it does involve some union members and it's absolutely collective action: a Kentucky coal train has been blockaded since the end of July. The company that owns the coal had suddenly declared bankruptcy on July 1st, immediately firing everyone, and the paychecks from June 28th all bounced. Final paychecks for the remaining time after that were never sent. Until they get paid, the blockade (made of former coal workers, some union and some not, and others joining in solidarity) covers the tracks and keeps the $1.4 million in coal from being shipped.
Right. Pull the other one - it has bells on it.
It's possible. I remember reading somewhere that a lot of companies pressure managers to make sure to document performance issue with all their workers, because it makes any eventual decisions to fire them easier to defend in courts. If everyone has performance issues, everyone is working at the sufferance of their managers.
And yet documenting worker performance so you can back up your firing decisions is one of the things most commonly complained about with unions.
These tactics don't work in unionized environments. Unions would catch on real quick if management was relying on a strategy of systematically documenting everyone.
What?
Unions usually demand that kind of documentation. It's how you actually fire someone: with proof to back up your reason for doing so.