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naraburns  nihil supernum  2yr ago (text post)   32426 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 31, 2022

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I completely agree that's what a union should be. But in practice why do they always spent so much of their negotiating power on protecting employees who should be fired?

Signaling to the rest of union members and the employer. Staking out a strong position for an incompetent worker indicates obstinate adherence to certain principles. Importantly, it makes observers think that genuinely predatory or abusive actions won't be tolerated, scaring the employer and giving assurances to members.

It has obvious costs, but it appears somewhat effective.

Do they? Or is it that working conditions and wages are hammered out only every so-many years during contract negotiations, and that, by intent and structure, isn’t going to be something that can occur just whenever.

  1. Unions are fiercely protective of brutal employees

  2. This costs the employer a lot of money, and they would pay to remove this stipulation

"We'll let you fire some guys, but you have to pay the rest of us more" -no union leader ever

They also have to maintain solidarity. The union is an organization and the business is an organization.

When the MİT murders some mouthy Kurds in Turkey, the PKK doesn’t want the heat that a retaliatory killing is going to bring, but if they don’t offer one up every now and again they will lose support from their base.

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