Unions had a use early on, but that's no longer the case. Now if a unions pops up, even if the employer straitens up and doesn't abuse their employees at all, pays them fair, etc. that union will still exist, except it will start to get scared. Unions need abusive business to exist, if they fix the business they're meant to fix, people start to leave after a while because they don't need them, and new employees will not join because they don't see the point. If people leave either the union or the job (and new employees refuse to unionize), they don't pay their dues, and it they don't pay their dues, the union employees don't get their fat paycheck anymore. There are two union responses to this.
One is to cause problems, to make mountains out of mole hills, so that the employees will always be gaslit into thinking they're being saved from the evil company and they keep their money flow. This can drastically impact the income or productivity of the business, allowing them to be drug down and over come by their rivals more easily, and potentially going under completely, costing everyone their jobs, a massively negative impact on the national economy, the individuals that worked there, and the company owner.
The other, is to get into bed with the company. Every now and again there will be an incident and the union will "save" the individual from the evil company, in exchange if there is ever something the company truly NEEDS and won't budge on, you will see the union suddenly go soft, not willing to push of go to court over anything, because that's not the give and take agreement the union and the business have agreed on to drive fear into the worker in order to further exploit him. One of the best examples I've personally seen of this is there are some jobs you are REQUIRED to join a union to work at, they literally won't let you work there unless YOU pay THEM to work there and as such are enslaved to pay them for whatever they feel like doing in the moment, they don't need to fight for you, because they've already got you in a position you can't leave them unless you quite outright.
In effect, a very small union can be good but a medium to large union will instantly transform into a business of itself, and as such will protect it's income stream which unfortunately for the worker is derived purely from his own fear of being exploited.
Dues are supposed to go to three main things, strike fund, benefits / insurance, and pension. The dues where I work are relatively cheap because the pension changed from a MEP to a SEP several contracts back, and we voted to use company insurance because it was cheaper at the time. Now it turns out we don't have a strike fund, so why in the nine hells are we paying dues in the first fucking place?
Unions had a use early on, but that's no longer the case. Now if a unions pops up, even if the employer straitens up and doesn't abuse their employees at all, pays them fair, etc. that union will still exist, except it will start to get scared. Unions need abusive business to exist, if they fix the business they're meant to fix, people start to leave after a while because they don't need them, and new employees will not join because they don't see the point. If people leave either the union or the job (and new employees refuse to unionize), they don't pay their dues, and it they don't pay their dues, the union employees don't get their fat paycheck anymore. There are two union responses to this.
One is to cause problems, to make mountains out of mole hills, so that the employees will always be gaslit into thinking they're being saved from the evil company and they keep their money flow. This can drastically impact the income or productivity of the business, allowing them to be drug down and over come by their rivals more easily, and potentially going under completely, costing everyone their jobs, a massively negative impact on the national economy, the individuals that worked there, and the company owner.
The other, is to get into bed with the company. Every now and again there will be an incident and the union will "save" the individual from the evil company, in exchange if there is ever something the company truly NEEDS and won't budge on, you will see the union suddenly go soft, not willing to push of go to court over anything, because that's not the give and take agreement the union and the business have agreed on to drive fear into the worker in order to further exploit him. One of the best examples I've personally seen of this is there are some jobs you are REQUIRED to join a union to work at, they literally won't let you work there unless YOU pay THEM to work there and as such are enslaved to pay them for whatever they feel like doing in the moment, they don't need to fight for you, because they've already got you in a position you can't leave them unless you quite outright.
In effect, a very small union can be good but a medium to large union will instantly transform into a business of itself, and as such will protect it's income stream which unfortunately for the worker is derived purely from his own fear of being exploited.
Maybe they shouldn't be allowed to collect dues.
Dues are supposed to go to three main things, strike fund, benefits / insurance, and pension. The dues where I work are relatively cheap because the pension changed from a MEP to a SEP several contracts back, and we voted to use company insurance because it was cheaper at the time. Now it turns out we don't have a strike fund, so why in the nine hells are we paying dues in the first fucking place?