• tasty4skin@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    Not arguing against unions, but they don’t have teeth everywhere you go. I’m part of the IBEW and they’re great further north, but where I’m at our greatest consolation is $20 an hour (pretty good for the area) and 15 minute breaks at 8a and 10a. We also have a no strike/lockout clause in our contract.

    So, don’t just join a union. Participate. Bargain for more. The union isn’t the savior, it’s a tool so we can save ourselves.

    • BigNote@lemm.ee
      1·
      1 year ago

      Dang! IBEW journeymen are at something like $60-70/hr where I am. I’ve been told it’s $69/hr but maybe that’s bullshit.

      My local had a no strike clause after losing a strike in the 80s, but it expired a few years ago and since then we’ve won $16/hr in raises without ever officially striking and only picketing a handful of times.

      We’ve also gotten more money into our pension and healthcare trusts, which is big.

      Unions work. Unions give you dignity and recourse to unfair labor practices.

  • pound_heap@lemm.eeEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    You know that placing two charts on each other doesn’t prove a correlation, right? Good unions are probably good for workers though. Is there one for IT guys?

    • BigNote@lemm.ee
      1·
      1 year ago

      There’s been a ton of research on this and the effect of higher unionization is pretty well documented and understood. There’s a reason why anti-union “consulting” companies are so lucrative.

    • OldWoodFrame@lemm.ee
      0·
      1 year ago

      I’d say this does show correlation, they go up and down at similar rates at similar times. The question is if it’s causal, which causes the other or what is causing both?