American Unions

[Autumn Red]

So my parents work for Schneider Electric (An international electric company) in the worker's relations department. I usually hear positive things from my parents about Canadian Unions but when my Mom came back from a month long stay in America I only heard bad things. She kept going on about how some Union members literally never showed up to work and the company was reluctant to fire them because the entire Union would strike. I even heard about this one union member who they caught on camera stealing Iron sheets but the Union absolutely refused to allow the company to fire/persecute the individual. I know that Unions are a worker's right and can be a force for good, but to me it seems like the workers in this case were taking advantage of their position to basically do whatever the hell they wanted. In this case, would be it proper for the company to fire them because they were stealing/not showing up to work? Are all American unions like this?

[Absolut]

I dont see how its improper to steal from your workplace or take a day off.

[syndicat]

So my parents work for Schneider Electric (An international electric company) in the worker's relations department. I usually hear positive things from my parents about Canadian Unions but when my Mom came back from a month long stay in America I only heard bad things. She kept going on about how some Union members literally never showed up to work and the company was reluctant to fire them because the entire Union would strike. I even heard about this one union member who they caught on camera stealing Iron sheets but the Union absolutely refused to allow the company to fire/persecute the individual. I know that Unions are a worker's right and can be a force for good, but to me it seems like the workers in this case were taking advantage of their position to basically do whatever the hell they wanted. In this case, would be it proper for the company to fire them because they were stealing/not showing up to work? Are all American unions like this?


sounds like company propaganda. so what does she propose, that unions act as cops for management? that would be a much worse union.

American unions do tend to be narrowly sectoral and not think a lot about what would be best to produce for society. but that is because they tend to capitulate to management.

[crashcourse]

If this is really true then it's great that those workers are so well organized.

[Red Rebel]

Schneider Electric workers are represented by the IAM. Usually the only way to get caught at a union job is stealing. And an American union threatening a strike during a contract is damn near unheard of. Even from our more progressive/radical unions (which are few and far between).

I'd guess your mother just works for management and was complaining about the union.

[redSHARP]

propagandist crap. US unions tend to be more bureaucratic (from my experience), but Unions jobs are usually done better, on time, and around the original estimate.

Management: Oh no, we have to pay them more!!! we cant have this!! we better slander a great American tradition!!!

[Jimmie Higgins]

sounds like company propaganda.Yeah, no union in the US can prevent someone from being fired for "legitimate reasons" like being caught stealing. The best unions can do is prevent unjust firings and retaliatory firings, yet in the US you constantly hear the myth go unchallenged that unions keep "bad" or "negligent" workers working.

I was reading in a California newspaper as assertions about the teachers union preventing the firing of bad teachers went unchallenged. But when you actually look at the figures, California actually fires as many and in some cases more teachers than states without unions.

There's a good counterpunch article about this:
http://www.counterpunch.org/macaray03202009.html

Maher made a huge deal of the fact that, because of the union’s protective shield, less than 1% of California’s tenured/post-probationary teachers get fired. Although this ratio clearly outraged him (he appeared visibly upset by it), had he taken five minutes to research the subject, he’d have realized that this figure represents the national average—with or without unions.



In Georgia, where 92.5% of the teachers are non-union, only 0.5% of tenured/post-probationary teachers get fired. In South Carolina, where 100% of the teachers are non-union, it’s 0.32%. And in North Carolina, where 97.7% are non-union, a miniscule .03% of tenured/post-probationary teachers get fired—the exact same percentage as California.


In truth, it's generally the companies who resist things that would be in both the worker and public's interest - like safety inspections that keep gas pipes or oil rigs from exploding; like regular breaks and decent hours and reduced time or rotation doing tedious tasks to keep workers from getting stressed or sleepy and causing accidents.

[LebenIstKrieg]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbtpNblpGh0

[anticap]

Workers often intuitively understand that they're being exploited, and so they sometimes do what they can to offset this.

Objectively, all work should stop after producing the value of that day's wage since everything beyond that is surplus labor. This is the logic behind fighting for shorter hours without loss of pay.


some Union members literally never showed up to work

Capitalists do no work, and yet they are paid.


I even heard about this one union member who they caught on camera stealing

Capitalists steal from workers by compelling them to keep working beyond the point at which they've produced the value of their wage.