Dang! He sounds like one of ours.
TheSanSabaSongbird
joined 2 years ago
Because you evidently feel entitled to an opinion on it.
I learned a long time ago to keep my mouth shut if I don't know what I am talking about.
My local went on strike once in 2019, it lasted one day and everyone who picketed got $200.
Last year we threatened to strike, had an authorization vote, but our signatory contractors association wanted nothing to do with it and we basically got everything we asked for with no work stoppage.
The deal in my part of the country is that what with the CHIPS Act, there's literally billions of dollars on the table and our signatory contractors can't afford to get bogged down in labor disputes.
The upshot is that it leaves the unions sitting pretty since they can't access these incredibly lucrative contracts without using highly-trained union labor.
There's more to do with EMRs and the like, but I won't bore you with the details.
Yes, I am aware of what JD stands for. Glad that we can agree that it's not really equivalent to a PhD.
A little known fact is that provided one can pass their local bar exam, they're still a lawyer/officer of the court, regardless of whether they attended law school or not.
It's not really a thing anymore, but historically a lot of lawyers served a kind of apprenticeship in lieu of law-school.
Abraham Lincoln is a great example, for instance.
Interesting.
It sounds like you have a completely different system from that which exists in the Anglophone countries.
Here in the US and Canada we would never dream of having our union reps on the payroll of ownership.
That makes zero sense since it would mean that they would be relying on our signatory contractors for their paycheck when what we want is precisely the opposite; an independent union that can bargain on behalf of the membership
Having our unions funded and paid for by the membership is precisely the point since it means that it's our union, not the company's.
Gonna have to invoke Poe's Law on this one. Honestly can't tell if it's serious or satire.
Yes. Union staff needs to make a living too. It's also how we pay members when we strike.
My union is also in Canada. How do you do it in your country?
100 percent true. Going to the union is the last thing I want any of my people to do. It just complicates things.
Fortunately, I and my fellow supervisors are all union members too and we all know and are on good terms with the union officers down at the hall, so even if someone does go straight to them, it's usually worked out with a phone call. The key is to be fair and not be a dick.
That's something to worry about in every arena that involves money, not just unions. It's just a fact of life that there are crooks and liars in the world.
The downside is that you won't get paid as much as you would working. My union pays $200 a day to anyone on a picket line, but as a strike goes on, the money starts to run out.
Fortunately it hasn't come to that for us.
As I said in another comment, my dues are automatically paid through my PTO account which in turn is paid into by my employer. So yeah, it's still my money, but it's not coming out of my paycheck at all and I honestly don't even notice it.
At least in my area, most of your big trade unions have this as an option for members through the IBEW credit union.
I don't have a strong opinion either way, but it does kind of make sense that loading an unfunded mandate on already under-funded public schools isn't the best way to come at this problem.