In the wake of its historic strike victory, the United Auto Workers says thousands of nonunion autoworkers have reached out asking for support in organizing their plants. The UAW already has plans in motion to unionize the whole US auto sector.
(Unions in general are definitely good and obviously it makes more impact with more workers at once. I just had the thought of ’monopolies == bad’ and wondered how/if that applies to unions)
Unions are a form of government. Their leadership is voted in by its members. It’d be weird to say governments are monopolies. Yes there’s only one government, but the representatives are democratically elected. Individuals still have a voice.
A great way I’ve seen this summarized is that a union is not made of people you have to agree with or share beliefs or even ideology with, they’re people who you have a shared economic interest as part of a single labor body.
I think the more pro-capitalist view of unions would say that “one big union” is definitely a bad idea. The socialist or anarcho-syndicalist would likely see the one big union as a way to collectively fight the bosses, specifically in the context of class struggle. The communist or Marxist-Leninist would maybe say the union is a barrier to revolution by sustaining the class structure.
The biggest “one big union” org was/is the IWW or “wobblies” as they were known and it was their primary mission to unionize all workers under the IWW banner.
I can chime in as an anarcho-syndicalist! Personally, vanguard unions seem like a bad idea to me for the same reason as a vanguard party. I think unions should stick to their industry, and coordinate production between industries, i.e. the union representing a factory making zippers coordinates with the union representing a factory making pants to make sure all pants have zippers.
I’m not strictly opposed to a vanguard union because I don’t think it would have the same potential for harm, however. Hell, I’m a member of the IWW. I just generally feel like production would be far less wasteful if the workers can project their voice through their union without meeting internal resistance from members outside their industry.
You do have a good point there and I agree with you
Workers should have the choice of what union they want to join and not he forced into the choice of join this one union in the automotive industry or not being in a union
Nah, union involvement in certain if not all sectors should absolutely not be discretionary, particularly in safety-sensitive industries although this really shouldn’t be limited to individual industries.
Otherwise you get idiots bitching its “safe enuff for muh” and get others or themselves hurt. Nope, sorry, they can be fishermen or forage in the woods if they want thuh freedom
There needs to be one unified union or else their bargaining power is greatly reduced. The cooperations will only hire from the union that benefits them most. Remember a union is not a private corporation. A union is a representative negotiating body. Every member of a union votes on and has a say in how the union acts.
Is it good to have 1 union?
(Unions in general are definitely good and obviously it makes more impact with more workers at once. I just had the thought of ’monopolies == bad’ and wondered how/if that applies to unions)
Unions are a form of government. Their leadership is voted in by its members. It’d be weird to say governments are monopolies. Yes there’s only one government, but the representatives are democratically elected. Individuals still have a voice.
A great way I’ve seen this summarized is that a union is not made of people you have to agree with or share beliefs or even ideology with, they’re people who you have a shared economic interest as part of a single labor body.
I think the more pro-capitalist view of unions would say that “one big union” is definitely a bad idea. The socialist or anarcho-syndicalist would likely see the one big union as a way to collectively fight the bosses, specifically in the context of class struggle. The communist or Marxist-Leninist would maybe say the union is a barrier to revolution by sustaining the class structure.
The biggest “one big union” org was/is the IWW or “wobblies” as they were known and it was their primary mission to unionize all workers under the IWW banner.
I can chime in as an anarcho-syndicalist! Personally, vanguard unions seem like a bad idea to me for the same reason as a vanguard party. I think unions should stick to their industry, and coordinate production between industries, i.e. the union representing a factory making zippers coordinates with the union representing a factory making pants to make sure all pants have zippers.
I’m not strictly opposed to a vanguard union because I don’t think it would have the same potential for harm, however. Hell, I’m a member of the IWW. I just generally feel like production would be far less wasteful if the workers can project their voice through their union without meeting internal resistance from members outside their industry.
That’s the point of a union.
You do have a good point there and I agree with you
Workers should have the choice of what union they want to join and not he forced into the choice of join this one union in the automotive industry or not being in a union
Nah, union involvement in certain if not all sectors should absolutely not be discretionary, particularly in safety-sensitive industries although this really shouldn’t be limited to individual industries.
Otherwise you get idiots bitching its “safe enuff for muh” and get others or themselves hurt. Nope, sorry, they can be fishermen or forage in the woods if they want thuh freedom
There needs to be one unified union or else their bargaining power is greatly reduced. The cooperations will only hire from the union that benefits them most. Remember a union is not a private corporation. A union is a representative negotiating body. Every member of a union votes on and has a say in how the union acts.
The employer would just hire scabs in that arrangement like the main idea of a union is to have that single collective power.