Is labour unions still a good investment for the working class?

Tecumsehsbones

Tecumsehsbones

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Liberalman said:
Is labour unions still a good investment for the working class?

The labour union movement has been around since the late 1800s and in 2015 is it still a good investment for the working people?
Is time to slowly phase labour unions out?

What do you think?


Highlights in Canadian labour history - Canada - CBC News

Do unions have a future? - The Globe and Mail


www.youtube.com/watch?v=_59pP_Xcw0g&feature=youtu.be
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Much of what the unions were formed to fight and fight for is now a matter of law: wages, hours, safety, pensions, &c. While some unions have modernised and shifted their focus to training, worker development, and cooperation with management in moving the company forward, most have stuck with the old adversarial relationship. I don't think there's no place for an independent workers' organisation, but maybe it's time to scrub the blackboard and start over to get away from the adversarial relationship.
 
Cannuck

Cannuck

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Tecumsehsbones said:
Much of what the unions were formed to fight and fight for is now a matter of law: wages, hours, safety, pensions, &c. While some unions have modernised and shifted their focus to training, worker development, and cooperation with management in moving the company forward, most have stuck with the old adversarial relationship. I don't think there's no place for an independent workers' organisation, but maybe it's time to scrub the blackboard and start over to get away from the adversarial relationship.
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I agree. I'm in a union and would gladly be out of it simply because of the adversarial relationship that exist. This is the only union I've ever been involved in so I can't compare but what I will say is 90+% of the adversarial bull**** comes from council and administration. They're mostly know-it-all farmers that don't know the half of it.
 
Angstrom

Angstrom

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Canada is a Union....
United States of America is also a Union.
It's even in the country's name....

Union is the fundamental building block of North America.
 
JLM

JLM

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I was a Union member for 25+ years & my experience wasn't all that positive, but I can't speak for others. I think there is a role for them to play regarding safety issues. My objections were too much bullying, (you buck the majority you're a scab) and most benefits mainly benefitted the under achievers. J.M.H.O. (Don't want to get into arguments as others' experiences may be different).
 
Angstrom

Angstrom

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JLM said:
I was a Union member for 25+ years & my experience wasn't all that positive, but I can't speak for others. I think there is a role for them to play regarding safety issues. My objections were too much bullying, (you buck the majority you're a scab) and most benefits mainly benefitted the under achievers. J.M.H.O. (Don't want to get into arguments as others' experiences may be different).
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Lets ask ourselves the question the tread is asking.

Would you rather live in a country like ours that allows people to Unite together for a common cause?
Or live in a country like China where it is strictly forbidden to have a meeting of more then 2 to discuss a common cause?

What country would you rather live in?

After you have decided it's only a matter of moving to that country and accepting the good with the bad of you're decision.
 
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Tecumsehsbones

Tecumsehsbones

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Angstrom said:
Lets ask ourselves the question the tread is asking.

Would you rather live in a country like ours that allows people to Unite together for a common cause?
Or live in a country like China where it is strictly forbidden to have a meeting of more then 2 to discuss a common cause?

What country would you rather live in?

After you have decided it's only a matter of moving to that country and accepting the good with the bad of you're decision.
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False dichotomy. How unoriginal.
 
captain morgan

captain morgan

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The days of a Union looking out for it's members are long gone. They exist solely as a business unit of which the membership pays the salaries of the management, who in turn, operate to collect fees and manage those monies for additional fees.

This would be a great model if the employee base actually saw a benefit, however, with the increasing demands on government from public unions to bail-out the pension funds, it appears that the effectiveness of the union admin is baseless
 
Nuggler

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I have no dog in the fight anymore, but wouldn't have wanted to work for Canada Post without a union.

In the grand scheme of things, unions are ordered back to work more often than not these days, BUT, in the running of the day
to day stuff, management will try to slip it to ya if you have no way to fight back.

Inco was about the same. DuPont also.

I'm in that stage of riding off into the sunset, and the sunset gets closer, but you folks fight the good fight with whatever you want
to do........blah blah blah. I'm hard pressed to give a fukk.

Not to be a grammar nazi, but "Are labour unions" wouldn't make you sound like such an uneducated non union street urchin.
 
Angstrom

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Even if they are false & dichotomy's, it doesn't take away the fact they work great to put things into prospective.
 
Zipperfish

Zipperfish

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Tecumsehsbones said:
Much of what the unions were formed to fight and fight for is now a matter of law: wages, hours, safety, pensions, &c. While some unions have modernised and shifted their focus to training, worker development, and cooperation with management in moving the company forward, most have stuck with the old adversarial relationship. I don't think there's no place for an independent workers' organisation, but maybe it's time to scrub the blackboard and start over to get away from the adversarial relationship.
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I think what you're seeing now is a rollback or circumvention of those laws. Minimum wage, in real terms, has continued to drop, at least where I live. Minimum wage doesn't even exist for large swaths of the workforce, who often work for free or even pay to work (that's the "intern" market). Same with the laws restricting hours--they are ridiculously easy to circumvent. Importing temporary foreign workers is another way to drive down workers' rights.

As for the unions adversarial role, as someone who has dealt in labour relations in a union environment many times, it's my considered opinion that a company gets the union it deserves, and vice versa.

Most of the stuff we use everyday was made in conditions we wouldn't accept in Canada, in factories in Asia. That is what happens when workers have no rights.

I wish the unions would spend a little more time providing support for their members, rather than endlessly wading into politics though.
 
taxslave

taxslave

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Having belonged to several different unions I have mixed feelings about them. It is convenient to have a central bargaining unit, especially for multi billion dollar projects. What I resent most is unions sticking up for employees that clearly deserve to be fired.
Today in construction in BC they are little more than an employment agency and supplier of benefits. This is largely because our current government has legislated away their iron grip on industry.
 
Liberalman

Liberalman

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lone wolf said:
Unions lost focus on people in their search for profit. They HAD a use. Now, they've gone big business.
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Since union dues are calculated on 2 -3 hours of pay a person gets per month it is advantages for a union to negotiate the best hourly wage and benefits package possible from the company and protection from over zealous management that's what union members pay for.
 
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