this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2023
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Memes

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[–] WaltJRimmer@lemmy.world 87 points 1 year ago (9 children)

Sadly, with recent events, all I can think about with this is how Linus Sebastion would go on the WAN Show and say things like, "You don't need a union unless you have bad management, and I never want my employees to need a union."

[–] master5o1@lemmy.nz 54 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The counter statement is that a union is insurance for when good management goes bad.

[–] WaltJRimmer@lemmy.world 28 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I mean, a union is simply a way for workers to organize independently from management. While it's useful for countering bad management and things like that, that's not its only purpose. And anyone saying that it is either doesn't know as much about unions as they think or is anti-union while trying not to say as much directly.

[–] master5o1@lemmy.nz 12 points 1 year ago

Yes of course. I was meaning in terms as a direct response to that pretty dumb statement from Linus.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

It also gives a voice to everyone and establishes a single bargain. If you have 50 employees and you’re negotiating with each of them separately how sure are you that you’re really being fair to all of them and not having any biases impacting your treatments? How sure are you that they agree? If you agree with the union about compensation and conditions of that compensation you know it’s fairer. If every management action has a steward as a witness you know that someone else who knows the rules you agreed to will speak up if you break them. You know that you aren’t about to get hit with an accusation of misconduct behind closed doors unless the steward agrees you misbehaved.

And as you say there’s security against management changing. You get someone with a union job with a pension and it’s hard for them to willingly leave. It’s a level of security that you know you aren’t getting elsewhere even if you’d be promoted.

[–] TeckFire@lemmy.world 38 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I do actually agree with his initial statement, which was “if my workers need a union to stay safe, I will consider it a personal failure.”

…absolutely agreed. His conclusion of that his workers shouldn’t need one though, is the problem. They should have one. However, if the union needs to step in because he’s being a dick, then he has failed indeed. Guess it was a good thing they had a union though, right? Oh wait…

[–] ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Honestly it's seeming like he might have failed then.

[–] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

We should have realized when he started dropping hard "R"s.....

[–] crashoverride@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

We need an FOIA for employees. For example, if one employee thinks they're getting paid less for their job than they should be, they should be able to request what somebody else is making and then be able to know she negotiate past that.

[–] TeckFire@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That sounds like the best idea that will never happen because it only benefits the working class…

Maybe someday, though

[–] crashoverride@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

And if they don't want to give an employee something that another is getting, they have to be able to explain exactly whym

[–] Franzia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 18 points 1 year ago

My favorite counter is that unions aren't only used as protection against management. Unions democratize the workplace!

[–] seitanic@lemmy.sdf.org 16 points 1 year ago

That's like saying "You don't need democracy unless you have a bad king, and I never want my subjects to need democracy."

[–] SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Surely shouldn't he not be afraid of his employees unionizing if he treats them well?

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Hell if he treats them well and compensates them fairly a union might prove beneficial to him

[–] Rilichu@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

If a "good boss" is being an actual good boss, the worst they should have to expect from the union is having the occasional friendly meeting with them to discuss any minor workplace concerns and contract negotiations.

The fact many "good bosses" immediately start sprewing hell and brimstone at the mention of a union hints maybe they ain't as good and benevolent as they claim to be.

[–] AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 year ago

I completely agree. A good boss would likely appreciate a union, because the kinds of minor concerns that might be raised at a meeting are the kinds of things that individuals wouldn't mention because it's not worth the stress to flag it - even under a good boss who you trust would take even minor concerns seriously, it still costs time and brain energy to raise a thing, and the union being the middle man between the boss and the worker can be a boon in terms of collating concerns.

Not least of all because one of the concerns may be about a thing that is genuinely too trivial to make a thing of, if it's only affecting one person. A union has the ability to go "hey, so this is only a small thing but a few people have mentioned it to us and we went around asking and it does seem quite widespread"

[–] cooopsspace@infosec.pub 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

See how stale that comment has become with the recent news?

[–] Honytawk@lemmy.zip 7 points 1 year ago

He has a point.

The problem is that because of Capitalism, there is no such thing as good management.

[–] ddkman@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago

I always found that funny. And then he was like, IF YOU THINK THE UNION IS A BLACK AND WHITE QUESTION YOU ARE AN IDIOT. :D :D.

[–] jimmydoreisalefty@lemmus.org 6 points 1 year ago

Yes, all the stories coming out about LMG should have the workers thinking about unionizing, as a minimum.

[–] Rednax@lemmy.world 56 points 1 year ago (3 children)

This is terrible programming advice.

[–] pivot_root@lemmy.world 37 points 1 year ago

Blasphemy! Unions are just algebraic data types without any guardrails. If the programmer misuses them, that's their own fault for b$:, 9^\⊂ƒ~>[→ZzF™×#
Segmentation fault (core dumped)

[–] WaltJRimmer@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I never knew my Set Theory professor was so against workers' rights!

[–] Rednax@lemmy.world 23 points 1 year ago (1 children)

My C++ teacher taught me to be against unions. He made everything class based instead.

[–] pivot_root@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

How reckless, encouraging inheritance like that. My ~~personal demon~~ college tutor instructed me on the ways of Malbolge. In the end, life is just a list of self-modifying instructions.

[–] Undaunted@feddit.de 9 points 1 year ago

I laughed at that, thank you!

[–] Kerred@lemmy.world 48 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

When I worked at Best Buy I attended two full paid meetings about the horrors of unions when the Obama administration made it easier to create a union.

They even cancelled all our in home jobs one day for an anti union meeting

Holy crap I don't know who at Best Buy wrote all those presentations but the language they used was a master class in brainwashing. I probably would be a flat earther of they spent enough time crafting their wording 😄

[–] jimmydoreisalefty@lemmus.org 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I lot of companies have anti-union information when you do training.

Home Depot is another.

[–] Dumbkid@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 year ago

Yeah Union Busting, it's a major practice in most publicly traded companies

[–] cooopsspace@infosec.pub 27 points 1 year ago

And don't let your company fuck you without one

[–] PP_BOY_@lemmy.world 22 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I read "Onions" at first and, while I didn't disagree with the sentiment, I was somewhat confused

[–] humanplayer2@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] voidskull@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

Me too, and was wondering if there'd be any condoms on its horns, and if so, why...

[–] Stuka@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I did the same thing, also can't disagree

[–] jimmydoreisalefty@lemmus.org 2 points 1 year ago

hhhaaaa, Onions are good but not that good.

[–] Cube6392@beehaw.org 9 points 1 year ago

They might be annoying and less fun than just freewheeling without one, but when the consequences come down the line, you're going to wish you'd taken the minimal steps to be in one