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Comment by lfischer | Hacker News Reader

Do multiple competing unions happen in the same workplace happen in the US ? As far as I have seen, that seems fairly common in the countries where I have lived (Europe only). And are there some cross-category unions (where workers in different areas and jobs are members of the same overarching organization, which sometimes organizes nation-wide demonstrations or even strikes)?

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> Do multiple competing unions happen in the same workplace happen in the US ?

No, and that's basically by law. Unions lobbied (successfully) for laws which grant them permanent, exclusive access to the bargaining unit once 50% + 1 vote in favor of it.

Pretty much the only cases where you'd have separate unions are where they're representing different types of workers altogether (ie, nurses vs janitors) or when they're not actually employed by the same organization (ie, two different sets of subcontractors).

> And are there some cross-category unions (where workers in different areas and jobs are members of the same overarching organization

Yes, in fact almost every union is affiliated with a federation like the AFL, UAW, Teamsters, etc.

This is the main problem. Unionization is a valuable tool, but a monopoly held by one union is as bad as any other monopoly. The monopolist union is infringing on the freedoms of the members who want to choose better representation.

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