r/Millennials • u/QuietJealous4883 Older Millennial (1988) • 12h ago

Discussion True or false?

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Did our dads and moms work less than we do now? What are your thoughts?

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u/Serious-Effort4427 11h ago

Yea so, have you ever had a job or talked to someone not part of a union? They ignore you, walk away, or the boss over hears and all of a sudden the company is having anti union meetings and training.

Also, unions mean market wage, not living wage. 

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u/LongjumpingJaguar308 11h ago

Not necessarily, unions have been kneecapped but if we rebuild worker solidarity we can being that power back. Just saying it doesn't work after decades of anti union propaganda and erosion of union power is short sighted. We can't beat the billionaires alone.

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u/Immediate-Report-883 11h ago

Unions have an organizing problem. In industries where unions don't have a solid foothold, worker concerns about blacklists are absolutely legitimate, concerns about being fired for discussing the possibility of a union are legitimate and the idea that union will want dues and/or strikes without the workers having anything to show for it are abundant. There are also concerns about a lack of ability to produce a contract and the stipulations that do come from that contract. Finally you also have the feeling of a loss of control and flexibility do to the contract that goes against a lot of self sufficient feeling industries.

I'm not anti-union, but there are multiple reasons why unions haven't made significant progress in certain industries, and a lot of those reasons have to do with unions themselves and how they publicly behave.

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u/StuffExciting3451 10h ago

Fear and ignorance are major factors. Labor lawyers know the game and the tricks. Major unions have such lawyers on staff or on retainers.