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Overnight Open Thread

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FFL (GOP Delenda Est)2/18/2010 6:57:41 am PST

re: #166 Guanxi88

I see unions as a mixed blessing. Without them there has been massive abuse of workers by industry. With them there has also been massive abuse of workers by their own union organization. Where union and management try to develop a working relationship based on mutual respect and productivity I think you get the best of both worlds. Where the relationship becomes one where the goal is winning turf wars and points you get something that operates like the US Congress…

My personal experiences have been mixed. I’ve worked part-time in a union shop (bad experience), part-time in a non-union shop (mixed), and full-time for 20+ years as a salaried employee (in both a HQ and a research location). The relations with the union employees in the research location were (as far as I could tell) excellent. Co-operative work to get the job done, and I never saw much blue-collar/white-collar friction.