Forum Post: Where we're at with unions today
Posted 12 years ago on June 11, 2012, 11:56 p.m. EST by stevebol
(1269)
from Milwaukee, WI
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Republicans put their cards on the table recently and divide and conquer worked. It's clear they want to take away bargaining rights of the public employees and it seems like many people don't care. Two reasons for this as I see it; most of us can't get these jobs and most feel that the gov/state will take care of their workers, union or not. That leaves us with the private sector unions. Why would they want to keep those? A few reasons; major churches want them, there may still be a 'good-ol-boy' aspect to those unions that they're comfortable with, there just aren't that many and jobs can be exported and imported at will. What has been your personal experience in regards to unions? Where do you think we're headed?
At the start of the industrial revolution, heads of industry (early capitalists) were permitted to make their own rules regarding worker hours and conditions, to speed up the process of industrialisation.
What happened then? Child labor, with kids as young as five working twelve hour days every day of the week. Pregnant women expected to work on the day they have their babies. Men dying of emphysema at thirty years of age.
It will take a while to get back to that nightmare, but that is what happens when industry is deregulated and the unions are no more.
How exactly do you ever expect "us" to get back there, when nearly every worker in the country is empowered with freedom of communication through this thing called the "internet"?
Builder does bring up the issue of deregulation and unions, which are about working safely. This is something I did not consider.