“Why do Unions have to be considered Left?”
Tell me you have no idea about the history of labor rights without telling me…
Comment on Cathy, do the math.
sfu@lemm.ee 1 week ago
Why does everything have to be sooo left or right?
Some unions are good, some are bad.
Vreyan31@reddthat.com 1 week ago
sfu@lemm.ee 1 week ago
I’m not talking about the history, I’m talking about the present. And I was really talking more about the comments I was seeing. People acting like unions are totally this, or totally that.
Besides, I’ve been in 3 unions. 2 of them were bad, the union workers didn’t do anything for the members, and were literally taking all the dues paid them and wasting on themselves, like expensive vacations and buying expensive things. Both eventually were shut down. The 3rd one was much better, but a negative result of the union was members who should have lost their jobs due to poor work, not only keep their jobs, but get promotions before people who actually deserve it.
YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 1 week ago
Not left or right, it’s up and down. Only one union is getting murderers and rapists off the hook. The rest are objectively good.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 1 week ago
I would argue that the problem with police unions is that they’re too good at what they do. They’ve managed to achieve a degree of militantism that rivals any black panther or international world worker.
A single, heavily armed, deeply insular and dogmatic, horrifyingly MAGA-pilled community of workers would be bad in any sector. But to make matters worse, police have this natural affinity with media that makes them the recipient of tons of free positive publicity.
Would that everyone could claim membership in a union this strong.
suicidaleggroll@lemm.ee 1 week ago
The issue is that the purpose of a union is to give power to the powerless, but police already have all the power. Their union makes them unstoppable.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 1 week ago
That’s a superficial analysis. Police departments and other military and paramilitary organizations need to extract their revenues through the bureaucracy of the state. Your municipal PD officer isn’t showing up at your house, hat in hand, and taking collections to fund his beat. He needs the comptroller to impose taxes and the financial sector to move the money and the administration to divvy it out to employees based on rank and tenure.
What’s more, the police require the consent of the public at large. Which means a friendly media and religious community, willing to legitimize their functions. The US occupation in Afghanistan failed, while the Taliban that replaced them consolidated control, because one set of police was seen as illegitimate and another seen as representative of the public will.
Their union forms a foundation of mutual support and affords individual officers confidence in their security through collective action. But cops are notoriously lazy, stupid, and trigger-happy. When media turns on a police department and the administrative state peels away from them, these institutions disintegrate rapidly.
sfu@lemm.ee 1 week ago
No idea what you are referring to.
YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 1 week ago
Yep, I figured as much
sfu@lemm.ee 1 week ago
A union getting rapists and murders off the hook is not what the image is about.