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Originally Posted by hip hop bunny hop
I like the idea of unions, but I am not a fan of the AFL-CIO at all. Change to Win are more palatable, simply because they are into actual organizing, as opposed to just being all but a part of the Democratic party as the AFL-CIO is.
When I worked for the Government in Missouri, I was union, and it always incredibly frustrating to see how union dues would wind up being spent on political campaigns, and often times on campaigns that ran directly contrary to my interests.
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This is a tough subject. Working for a union is great. BUT like you said, too often union dues are spent frivolously.
Additionally most unions have written in their bylaws or whatever, that the minimum wage for their union workers will be anywhere from 1.5 to 5 times the national minimum wage, depending on WHICH union.
So you want to be compassionate and raise the minimum wage? Fine, but now just about everything these minimum wage earners buy will cost more, as every union worker also just got a pay increase, which will naturally drive up the cost of their products. So in reality the problem has not been solved, everything just costs more and the minimum wage earner still doesn't have enough left at the end of the month...
Then there are those like the Teacher's Union, that are just ridiculous. Having SO MUCH influence on "educational" issues & decisions, when it is very clear that education, nor the children, are the priority of that union, their priority and focus is protecting the teachers, which is really not surprising because that IS their function after all.
I'm sure there are some very good unions out there. The kind that are actually there to protect the worker and are not greedy and power hungry, but I would bet that most are not so great for the big picture.
Yes. The same could be said for the greedy executives of most companies too. So I don't think there is any easy answers here.