EPTOn July 24 2026 23:53 Billyboy wrote:
I would say unions are not without their warts. I’ve got plenty of friends and family in them. Their biggest complaint is that they spend too much time and money fighting for the 5% shit employees. It especially makes them mad when they fight for people who are dangerous or toxic to the other employees. They also do not like the protections for the just bad workers because it is frustrating to have to do more, and make the same as someone doing nothing.
That doesn’t mean they (most anyway) want to get rid of the union, that’s just the part they want fixed. But seems to exist in most unions.
I would say unions are not without their warts. I’ve got plenty of friends and family in them. Their biggest complaint is that they spend too much time and money fighting for the 5% shit employees. It especially makes them mad when they fight for people who are dangerous or toxic to the other employees. They also do not like the protections for the just bad workers because it is frustrating to have to do more, and make the same as someone doing nothing.
That doesn’t mean they (most anyway) want to get rid of the union, that’s just the part they want fixed. But seems to exist in most unions.
That's just shortsighted though.
I mean, I agree. I am pretty sure that I am an exemplary employee. In fact, people remind me of it at every performance review, internal award, etc. And I sometimes get frustrated with the fact that while I'm busting my ass to get the job done, someone else is slagging off and spending a week on a task that should take a day.
However, a very important thing to keep in mind is that ultimately it is up to management to decide who are the top achievers and who are the underachievers. And if the union doesn't protect everybody, it might as well protect nobody. To some extent, that even goes for people who endanger/harrass colleagues. In this case, the union needs to ensure there is a fair and impartial procedure, or once again, the employer can abuse that process against any employee. But obviously here the procedure is paramount. Nobody wants abusive colleagues to stick around because it's impossible to fire them. However, a strong union is what is needed in this case too. Too often the abuse is top down, and would be swept under the rug if there weren't a strong union to turn to.
So strong unions are not only essential for run-of-the-mill employees, but for ALL employees, because who knows when the employer decides that a "strategy change" suddenly makes excellent employees "run-of-the-mill".
