Just read this about Amazon workers winning a unionization battle. Amazon however plans to sue, challenge, contest…Do they feel that their power is being eroded? Why are some companies so anti union?
Union workers cost the company money.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Amazon closed that distribution center and layed all the workers off.
Union workers cost the company money.
This plus reduces efficiency
With everyone getting the same pay, there is no incentive to be better than the worst employee.
Just read this about Amazon workers winning a unionization battle. Amazon however plans to sue, challenge, contest…Do they feel that their power is being eroded? Why are some companies so anti union?
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-60944677
Unions suck. They only benefit themselves (not the workers, but the union itself).
I’ve got some stories, although some are second hand, but suffice it to say their usefulness jumped the shark better than 50 years ago.
I’d close the distribution center and move it immediately. Fuck unions and their self-entitled bullshit.
- Jeff
Read up on Activision Blizzard sexual harassment case. They were also hiring 1099 contractors at $10-$11/hour QA, almost 12 hours a day work for people to have a chance to work at the prestigious company Blizzard.
Unions use collective bargaining to negotiate for better pay, benefits and working conditions. Unions change the power dynamic.
Remember when 6 workers were killed at a St. Louis Amazon warehouse in 2021? The storm that caused the building to collapse was predicted by the National Weather Service.
Employees who want a union argue that Amazon needs to have an extreme weather policy that will shut down warehouses during extreme weather to potentially save workers’ lives. Without being able to bargain collectively, employees have less influence to get the policy. From Amazon’s perspective, shutting warehouses down during tornadoes or heat or whatever will cost Amazon $. The tornadoes might not even kill anyone.
Amazon apparently has/had a policy forbidding employees from carrying their phones on warehouse floors, requiring them to leave them in vehicles or employee lockers.
Access to phones is a safety issue (such as when a tornado is heading toward a warehouse and employees need to know so they can decide if they should leave). But phones are a distraction and likely cost Amazon $ from lost productivity.
I think it’s hilarious that people think unions are unnecessary or too powerful. Give me a break. We’re talking about Amazon here.
I think it’s hilarious that people think unions are unnecessary or too powerful. Give me a break. We’re talking about Amazon here.
They are unnecessary in most employers; maybe not the big ones that have all the power. But whether they are too powerful depends on the union, the company, and the circumstances. My problem is public sector unions. Public sector employers are service providers whose first loyalty should be to their constituents. While they do need to pay employees a livable wage and provide benefits, unions tend to force public employers to spend more money on employees with less available to provide the services for the citizens.
My other big problem with unions in general is that they make it much, much harder for employers to remove bad employees. All the levels of due process may be great for job security, but it causes a lot of consternation in trying to weed out dead weight and poor performers.
Can you name a company as innovative as Amazon that relies primarily on union labor? Seems to me that, with the exception of government organizations & regulated monopolies, unions do a great job of killing US industries/shipping jobs overseas.
My other big problem with unions in general is that they make it much, much harder for employers to remove bad employees. All the levels of due process may be great for job security, but it causes a lot of consternation in trying to weed out dead weight and poor performers.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/investigations/police-fired-rehired/
Defund the (police) union!
Can you name a company as innovative as Amazon that relies primarily on union labor? Seems to me that, with the exception of government organizations & regulated monopolies, unions do a great job of killing US industries/shipping jobs overseas.
Yes they do. Just look at the automotive industry through the years. Steel industry too.
With everyone getting the same pay, there is no incentive to be better than the worst employee.
There some unions that are better than others. Most will cost the company money as they change the balance of power. But not all of them are bad. Our company has a union and they don’t insist on equal pay. They may reduce efficiency a tad in that management can’t change the rules on a whim. But for the most part they simply try to represent what the average staff values. And in a way they improve employee moral.
Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of bad, dumb and power hungry unions out there.
Unions are blocking making ports more efficient through automation and running 24/7. You can blame some of the supply chain issues on the union.
Union workers cost the company money.
This plus reduces efficiency
Well in this case efficiency means grinding your employees. Reducing efficiency is the entire point.
I think it’s hilarious that people think unions are unnecessary or too powerful. Give me a break. We’re talking about Amazon here.
They are unnecessary in most employers; maybe not the big ones that have all the power. But whether they are too powerful depends on the union, the company, and the circumstances. My problem is public sector unions. Public sector employers are service providers whose first loyalty should be to their constituents. While they do need to pay employees a livable wage and provide benefits, unions tend to force public employers to spend more money on employees with less available to provide the services for the citizens.
My other big problem with unions in general is that they make it much, much harder for employers to remove bad employees. All the levels of due process may be great for job security, but it causes a lot of consternation in trying to weed out dead weight and poor performers.
When did unions become unnecessary?
Historically, they have been very necessary. Unions are incredibly important in the history of workers’ rights. They are important in the history of our right to free speech. When unions became integrated, they were a force in the civil rights movement.
For my part, I think new business models create new demand for unions. Businesses invent new ways to exploit workers (like the “gig economy†scheme), and unions are the way workers respond.
If funding both employees and public services is a problem, then we should solve the funding problem. Why shouldn’t public service employees make decent wages? Why can’t we adequately fund public services?
If a union is too powerful, I don’t think the solution is eliminating the union. There’s a balance that needs to be maintained. I’m not saying all unions are perfect— but we can and should change laws that throw the balance out of whack.
No opinion, but for years you all give me shit for anecdotes but that is all I read here……I hear, I know a guy, do you know a company….etc….at least up your damn game to the level you demand others.
No opinion, but for years you all give me shit for anecdotes but that is all I read here……I hear, I know a guy, do you know a company….etc….at least up your damn game to the level you demand others.
Try again. Your post makes no sense.
When did unions become unnecessary?
Around the mid-1970s.
Historically, they have been very necessary. Unions are incredibly important in the history of workers’ rights. They are important in the history of our right to free speech. When unions became integrated, they were a force in the civil rights movement.
All of those issues are legislated now . . . maybe because of unions, but they’re no longer necessary to force that change.
For my part, I think new business models create new demand for unions. Businesses invent new ways to exploit workers (like the “gig economy†scheme), and unions are the way workers respond.
This is largely a false narrative. Good employers know that keeping employees happy is a key to success, and for most employees, higher wages aren’t the main issue. There are SOME new business models that might exploit workers, but unions aren’t the answer to that; more creative legislation is. It would be very helpful if they would update the FLSA. There hasn’t been a meaningful change to that law since the 1930s.
If funding both employees and public services is a problem, then we should solve the funding problem. Why shouldn’t public service employees make decent wages? Why can’t we adequately fund public services?
Because people won’t vote to have their taxes raised and that’s the only way we can fund public services.
If a union is too powerful, I don’t think the solution is eliminating the union. There’s a balance that needs to be maintained. I’m not saying all unions are perfect— but we can and should change laws that throw the balance out of whack.
We can’t even find consensus on an overqualified Supreme Court nominee. I have no illusions that we can find consensus on unions.
Union workers cost the company money.
This plus reduces efficiency
Well in this case efficiency means grinding your employees. Reducing efficiency is the entire point.
No or means terminating bad employees
No opinion, but for years you all give me shit for anecdotes but that is all I read here……I hear, I know a guy, do you know a company….etc….at least up your damn game to the level you demand others.
Try again. Your post makes no sense.
Let me spell it out for the slow ones: present data as to why you think unions are such shit. Not the childish remarks otherwise presented.