How Amazon turned a generation against labor
harpers.org
harpers.org
- government agencies
- construction
- public transportation
- the people at the post office
Every time i interacted with people in these fields i silently thought this person would have been fired if they worked in the private sector
-teachers
-police
-firefighters
-professional athletes
-engineers
How would you have even know these people were "Unions" if it wasn't already a mindset going in.
Anecdotally, my area of the country recently changed from government postal workers to contractors. The service has gotten much, much worse since the change. So while it may be true that it's easier to be fired in the private sector, I'm not sure that corresponds to better service.
Incentives are what lead to the outcome being good or bad. The trouble is that it's virtually impossible for governments and unions to have the kind of incentive structure we want. With the private sector, it's possible, due to competition. Remove the competition, and private business will instantly get as bad or worse.
In fairness to unions, I'd say most of the services the OP listed are bad mainly because they're the government, and not mainly because they're unionized. Obviously government cannot have any competition (when they do, that's called "war"). Therefore they have the most perverse incentive structures of any organization. Unions tend to oppose competition, but not with anything like the same effectiveness as governments.
But I disagree that it's "virtually impossible" for unions to have the right incentives in the private sector. I previously worked in the automotive sector and the unions were incentivized to come to the table and adjust their previously agreed upon contract for the feasibility of the business back during the financial crisis. They knew if they took too hard of a line, it meant the company would not survive and that contract was worthless. Public unions, it seems, are a different animal though.
Yeah, I might have gone too far with that statement.
Just for example, any discussion of Agile SCRUM on this board illuminates startling differences in efficiency and drive between various companies
As a capitalism myself, I’m always dissatisfied on how everything produced in mass turns into the untrustworthy mess of dollar shops, and good capitalism seems to require a bit of concentration.
Those are all just public sector jobs you named, not even necessarily unionized.
The majority of construction work is also generally done by private companies, even the project is funded with tax dollars.
These opinion pieces that imply that Amazon workers were brainwashed or were simply wrong are distasteful. Let’s start having an honest conversation about why these people chose what they chose and stop pretending that they’re too dumb to have considered other options.
If you want to start that conversation, let's start it. I don't think it's gonna look good for conservative, anti-public-safety-net types...
Those employees against unionization arent stupid. They are often in dying industrial towns and they know they may scare away further industry by unionizing. Meaning, they (and their town) will ultimately be worse off. Its a pragmatic assessment between the lesser of two evils.
There’s also a moral component. They generally take these jobs because it’s better than the alternative offers they have in the table and that it’s fair given the circumstances. They may feel it’s ungrateful to push back just because they can. It’s possible to vote against your own self interest on moral grounds (see: wealthy people who vote for more progressive taxation).
While I may not agree with those perspectives, it would give me pause to think I am uniquely more qualified to assess their own situation. So why do you think you know more than they do about their own circumstances?
Having to feel like putting up with terrible conditions is the best option available because otherwise business will up and leave for a different set of suckers is a bad thing, full stop.
Desperate people will accept lots of things. Let's make them not desperate. I'm not arguing here with someone in that situation who voted against a union, saying they were wrong; I'm arguing with someone who's using "they voted against it, they aren't stupid" as a defense of US society at large. The moral responsibility is on US, not them, so that they aren't in a "take this abusive shit or have nothing at all" situation.
Today, an unskilled worker doesn't face the prospect of being blue collar for life. There is no permanent employment at the steelworks or the motor vehicle company. Companies aren't permanent - they come and go. So instead of relatively secure, low paid blue collar careers, they are funnelled into warehouses, call centres, and sales, which is a pathway to entrepreneurship, however bleak or mild, or promising or exciting.
Today's unskilled workers look out into the future and sees sink or swim - it's all up to themselves. That's not a recipe for collective bargaining - it's a recipe for looking after number 1.
After coming to US I became less enthusiastic. Unions seem to frequently go overboard. For example only union workers being allowed to plug power cords into the outlets at trade-shows - at great cost - and similar shenanigans that basically seem to only increase cost and reduce productivity.
Some of the resentment against unions is self-inflicted. Perhaps that was and is historically needed here in the US...?
The fee for the electrician union member includes an inspection component, and imho it’s worth it.
This fee may sound unreasonable until you hear the story about some dipshit with huge power requirements and/or a daisy-chained nightmare plug their stuff in and cause problems for everyone — in a worst case scenario, cause a fire.
Source: a friend of mine who is an electrician who explained this to me.
Your idea that unions go overboard in the US may hold water, but I don’t think that this example is the poster child.
The actual requirement from the trade-show venue was likely for a "licensed electrician" -- and was likely added for safety reasons to prevent the possibility of fires from the general attendees creating a nasty mess of interconnected power splitters.