Should all jobs be unionized?

[Taverner]

Honestly - I have no idea on this one

I've been a member of unions back when I was a grocery bagger. They definitely took care of us, and if someone was fired - management had a good reason, and the Union agreed.

Granted this was back in the late 80's

When I worked in IT - I always thought a Union would really help people in that situation. Folks were canned for the flimsiest of reasons - and sometimes it had nothing to do with their manager or even the manager above them.

When I worked in Tech Support - a union would have REALLY helped. It's an hourly, nose to the grindstone job that pretty much drains you in the eight hours you work. You may laugh, but you try working 8 hours dealing only with people who are in serious jeopardy of losing their jobs.

I'm in sales now (partially due to how bad you're treated in IT and Tech Support) - and I would say there is no real reason to have a union. Although I can be swayed - have there been successful cases of unions helping salespeople?

Feel free to apply this beyond tech

[Sarah Ibarruri]

1. Not necessarily unionized but there should be federal laws that provide job security

Much the way they exist in Europe.

[rfranklin]

14. What about sales people who establish a territory and then

the management fires them or changes the commission structure to screw that salesperson? It happens all the time. You may not feel vulnerable in your sales position, but I have seen it happen again and again in various companies.

[Taverner]

15. Or the raise quota + shrink territory trick

Used all the time

And it sucks

[Sarah Ibarruri]

17. Hmm.. I definitely think unions are the only way for certain professions....

But I think in addition, what's needed, is job security laws.

I guess I didn't explain myself properly the 1st time. :toast:

I think job security laws are soo soo important.

[Deja Q]

2. K&R

Sorry freepers are wrecking it by un-recing it.

Unions are often unfairly bashed and made the scapegoats to all of society's problems. It's funny; unions have been dwindling - last I recall only 12.8% of America's workers are in a union yet they have so much power to be scapegoats... uh-huh...

Source:
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm

[A HERETIC I AM]

3. I think some groups are better served via a collective bargaining agreement than others.

Truck Drivers, for instance. I am of the opinion that every single over-the-road as well as every local trucker should be a union member.

Commissioned sales people though...I'm not too sure.

[armyowalgreens]

4. All jobs should be represented and protected by the workers.

[SoCalDem]

5. "work" should be unionized..

In most cases, management has ALL the rules, and needs not follow many of them themselves.

If you get health care insurance through work, your boss literally has life & death control over you.

we need a new definition of the workplace..

"jobs" need a thorough definition, and pay should be assigned to the job/task/work.

Your boss should not be allowed to control your off-duty life. As long as they control your health care, they have a vested interest in making you do or not do certain things.

They should pay you for work done, and pay you fairly, but your off-duty life should be of NO concern to them.

Modern bosses are like overbearing parents..demanding to know every juicy detail of your life

[Davis_X_Machina]

6. In Germany...

...retail clerks are unionized as part of Verdi, the unified services-sector union, and it's a powerful union.

[iceman66]

Working people would be much, much better off if that was the case,

but it would be too much like "socialism"!

:sarcasm:

[JuniperLea]

7. We owe a lot to our unions...

Today's labor laws are very different because of them.

We should standardize a lot of the rules unions use... and the collective bargaining aspect is a good idea to hold when thinking about healthcare!

I think our labor and healthcare laws should change to the point where we no longer need unions.

[BlooInBloo]

8. It should be up to the workers, without ANY molestation from management.

[Kid Dynamite]

11. You're getting very confused

Only by having a collective voice is there any possibility of "work place democracy" -- otherwise, as we see every day, the Boss has complete control of everything and holds all the cards

[thunder rising]

9. I have been thinking about the cross-corp IT union. Since IT is generally a tiny minority in a corp

they generally can't get a union. A union would help stop the H1-B problem by shutting down a corp with an IT strike; which as you know an "IT strike" is joke right now. Yet IT is the one department that could shut a corp down.

[Sancho]

10. YES!

:applause:

[intheflow]

12. Yes, although...

if any non-union worker(s) could bring grievances before the NLRB, and they responded out of concern to the workers' needs rather than be automatically biased in favor of the companies, we wouldn't necessarily need unions. But I'm just a dreamer that way.

[stray cat]

13. So union bosses have complete control?

I couldn't give health insurance to an employee because not everyone in the union was getting it -ie those employed by others. tough shit to the worker who has no insurance now....the union says no.

[Taverner]

16. Not all unions have a top-down structure...

[triple point]

18. Certainly not white collar jobs...

:shrug:

[jgraz]

19. Or, we could just have the workers own the means of production

I'm certain I've heard that somewhere before...

[michreject]

20. It won't wotk. Many people on DU would revolt

They love them some anti union Asian vehicles. If they were unionized, they wouldn't know what to buy.

[madokie]

21. Yes all jobs should be unionized

at least the hourly wage earner and most of the office workers too.

[troubledamerican]

22. Yes -- Checks & Balances