> We're perfectly capable of securing higher pay, and benefits through performance or threat of leaving for greener pastures.
Just because someone is brilliant with computers or electronics or any other tech job does not mean automatically that they're capable of securing the best working conditions, pay and benefits that they could have. Labor negotiation is a skill in itself.
We can also nit-pick regarding how great these entitlements are, especially when it comes to things like: vacation, job security, empowerment, how much you're at the mercy of someone that ruin your life and make it miserable.
These are areas unions can help with. "Good" benefits in the US can be pretty bad. I can take like 2x week long vacations. The rest gets used for odd days (which is nice). This is the "super deluxe" benefit I should be over the moon for?
I learned first hand in my last job that getting on the bad side of the wrong person can be miserable and career altering; guess you could argue that a union just adds one more of these people, but it also adds an advocate. They may defend "anyone", but that also includes people that have been marginalized and may be underrated, due to being unpopular.
You can be fired for any reason. Your employer might be hesitate to put you on the firing line for political, and legal reasons, but that's not a guarantee anything.
Labor unions have good social effects and bad social effects just like literally every other organization of people. Sometimes the good outweighs the bad, and sometimes the reverse.
> How about just not working for abusive workplaces?
You tell me, why do people work for abusive workplaces, sometimes despite sexual harrasment? Have they literally never thought of quitting, they are that dim?
So no one should make art, since it's exploited. Versus just unionizing, or investing in your suppliers a bit?
Minimum wage and weekends only exist because we rejected the "if you don't like it, work somewhere else" mentality... oh yeah, and because of unions, too.
> So no one should make art, since it's exploited.
That's a bit extreme. Nobody should agree to abusive working conditions - there is a difference.
And no, unions did not grant us minimum wage or weekends. There was a strong labor movement happening regardless of unions at the time.
Minimum wage - you probably don't want to use that as some sort of argument crutch anyway, because it's original intended purpose will not support your position.
People who support unions seem to believe unions are the only way to gain better employment opportunities or fix conditions they believe are wrong. Which is where the pro-union people lose the general population...
Unions have been mal-actors for decades. People see what they do... including doom an entire generation of children recently. People have largely rejected unions in modern times - for very good reasons.
Today's unions exist to serve the union. It's pretty sick how they turned out... but what do you expect from any sufficiently large and long-lived bureaucracy.
Ah, so you don't understand how abuse works. You should probably think about it, and maybe read up on the subject before talking about it?
People in abusive relationships often perceive that there's no other option. They think they will be lost without the relationship, or that they will find no one better.
People stick around for some really good reasons. Some people struggle to face uncertainty. Others lack the will to leave. Often, there was something that attracted them in the first place: love for the person, pride for ones job, ect.
What's crazy is you'll see examples where none of this seems to be present... it's not necessary. People with great support systems fall for people/jobs, that never treated them well, and are even flat out disgusting and stupid. (literally or metaphorically, eg. a job can be "disgusting" because of harassment)
We've all seen it. It's like "what do you see here"... but that's the thing about abuse. It's exactly what you're criticizing. Abusers see that the person can't and so will never leave the relationships, then they step in to do the abuse. So when the partner gets thrown down a flight of stairs and has her dog injured, he knows that she's gonna stay anyway. They've found a hack to exploit.
So your questions are nonsensical. It's not their fault some shady person figured out how to hurt them.
PS "Fan theory": I think there's probably some instinct in us to stay in bad relationships. First and foremost, any team is better than none.
If you think throughout history, lots of relationships have been exploitative. Perhaps it's useful not to be the one that leaves and tries to make their own way. You'll just get picked off or rounded up.
Very dark, especially considering how it effects women, who have had to put up with a lot to survive. It shouldn't be such a shock that so many women wind up in abusive relationships :(
Just because someone is brilliant with computers or electronics or any other tech job does not mean automatically that they're capable of securing the best working conditions, pay and benefits that they could have. Labor negotiation is a skill in itself.