Unions Options

[*Steven*]

So pretty much I think unions are pieces of shit. What with all the screwing companies over, having their members pay dues at the end of each month, making demands to the company that a similar company without a union would not have to meet, etc etc.

With minimum wage increases, unions instantly jumped all over that and demanded the same amount in the form of a raise for their employees.

Can anyone offer anything positive about a union, other than the "protecting employees from the evil bad guy who is going to lock them in a building with poor escape plans so when something catches on fire hundreds of employees die, companies"?

[sheridan_whitesi...]

So basically companies bottom lines are more important than the families of workers? Union members pay dues, yes. However, they are not a very large percentage of the wages, wages that would be considerably lower if it wasn't for collective bargaining agreements. Unions are also behind the push for safety in the workplaces. Accidents on the jobsite are considerably higher in "right-to-work" states. Unions often subsidize or provide health insurance and generous pension plans for workers, benefits that workers in the same income bracket wouldn't receive if not for pressure applied by collective bargaining agreements. Lest we forget about the 8-hour work day, the 40 hour work week, OSHA, and laws against child labor, all these things definitely "screwed" the companies out of money they could have lined the exectuive board's pockets with.

Can anyone really give me a good reason for right to work laws besides the "more innovative and competitive companies will provide more value to the shareholders and big labor is stealing money from American business leaders, stifiling economic growth and making the children of CEOS sleep on inferior thread-count sheets?"