In my ever-so-humble opinion (also that of a few international human rights groups), human beings have a right to form unions. It's not fair for management of huge corporations to impose decisions on their employees with no way for the actual workers to negotiate for something better, especially since in many towns (or at many people's educational levels) there is nothing better.
Let's look at it this way, in regards to retail work: Any retail company wants to compete on prices. One way to make things cheaper is to lower wages, benefits, etc. Well, if one place does it, than the next store has to, to stay competitive. This is what's known as a quick race to the bottom. Now, if all the floor employees unionize and start a union that covers the employees of all the stores, they can bargain as a unit for higher wages, since no one place will pay less.
This is one reason why Wal-Mart can destroy towns. Their stuff is so cheap because they pay their people so crappy and give them such shitty benefits (usually, none). So when they move in, everyone shops there, and the unionized stores can't compete and go out of business, making it so everyone has to work at a place that pays like Wal-Mart.
Fred Meyer's union sucks. UFCW is one of the most pansy-ass unions on teh planet. But part of that is because none of the people seem to give a rat's ass about their union, which doesn't make any sense considering how much it affects their jobs. Bink and I went to a UFCW meeting. It was for voting on teh contract for all non-food workers, in a district spanning from teh Willamette river to Seaside. There were thirty people there, tops. How many hundreds and hundreds of people was that affecting? It was a sucky contract, too.
Speaking of dues, look at it this way: Fred Meyer didn't make you pay a dime of your health care premiums (assuming you could get it, but wtf-ever). Mine are free where I work, but if I had a dependent it would cost me more than $300 a month for even our shitty insurance.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Phone jobs like customer service and tech support, need a goddamn union.
Dood. The history of labor unions is kinda awe-inspiring. People actually died for the forty hour workweek (as opposed to seventy or more). People in other countries can still be shot outright for trying to unionize factories that make shoes etc. Fucking sucks.
Technically it's illegal to fire someone for unionizing. I looked it up, as long as I'm not interfering with work, I'm legally allowed to wear union buttons, pass out union literature, and talk up the union in general. But companies find all sorts of fun ways around that one, which is one reason why there aren't a lot of unionized Wal-Marts.
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Let's look at it this way, in regards to retail work: Any retail company wants to compete on prices. One way to make things cheaper is to lower wages, benefits, etc. Well, if one place does it, than the next store has to, to stay competitive. This is what's known as a quick race to the bottom. Now, if all the floor employees unionize and start a union that covers the employees of all the stores, they can bargain as a unit for higher wages, since no one place will pay less.
This is one reason why Wal-Mart can destroy towns. Their stuff is so cheap because they pay their people so crappy and give them such shitty benefits (usually, none). So when they move in, everyone shops there, and the unionized stores can't compete and go out of business, making it so everyone has to work at a place that pays like Wal-Mart.
Fred Meyer's union sucks. UFCW is one of the most pansy-ass unions on teh planet. But part of that is because none of the people seem to give a rat's ass about their union, which doesn't make any sense considering how much it affects their jobs. Bink and I went to a UFCW meeting. It was for voting on teh contract for all non-food workers, in a district spanning from teh Willamette river to Seaside. There were thirty people there, tops. How many hundreds and hundreds of people was that affecting? It was a sucky contract, too.
Speaking of dues, look at it this way: Fred Meyer didn't make you pay a dime of your health care premiums (assuming you could get it, but wtf-ever). Mine are free where I work, but if I had a dependent it would cost me more than $300 a month for even our shitty insurance.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Phone jobs like customer service and tech support, need a goddamn union.
Dood. The history of labor unions is kinda awe-inspiring. People actually died for the forty hour workweek (as opposed to seventy or more). People in other countries can still be shot outright for trying to unionize factories that make shoes etc. Fucking sucks.
Technically it's illegal to fire someone for unionizing. I looked it up, as long as I'm not interfering with work, I'm legally allowed to wear union buttons, pass out union literature, and talk up the union in general. But companies find all sorts of fun ways around that one, which is one reason why there aren't a lot of unionized Wal-Marts.