unions

JCWisc at aol.com JCWisc at aol.com
Thu Aug 8 19:39:20 PDT 2002


joanna.bujes at ebay.sun.com writes:


> Unions agitate on behalf of a select group of workers.

rickling at softhome.net writes:


> When unions fight for minimum wage laws, exactly what select group of
> members is that? Dues paying members? Why did unions fight for Enron
> employees' severance packages? Are Enron employees members of unions? The
> list goes on and on....
>
> mark

"Actually existing" unions, like all other social institutions, are a mixed bag. There's elitism and stultifying bureaucracy and corruption, but there's also solidarity and altruism. In a very general way, when unions are strong I think that all working people benefit, even if most people are not unionized. It would be better if a much larger portion of the US workforce were unionized, but as others have pointed out, the laws are written so as to make organizing difficult.

Jacob Conrad



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