
White-collar tech staff may have it good, but their workplaces are undemocratic - huihuiilly
http://bostonreview.net/class-inequality-law-justice/brishen-rogers-solidarity-silicon-valley
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lostmymind66
"What unites these approaches is a commitment to ensuring broadly distributed
power in the workplace."

What ends up happening when you 'distribute power' is that employees that work
harder, better, or even just having negotiating skills, loses all of their
power to the collective group.

I worked in the auto industry for decades and at union shops, if you wanted a
raise, it would go before a committee and everyone in your same position would
also have to get the same raise as a collective...regardless of experience or
skillset.

It was also ridiculously difficult to get fired (many times it involved a
court case). One guy at our company missed 180 days out of the year. He was
paid by the union during this entire time and eventually was fired. He took
our company to court (represented by a lawyer provided by the union) and when
asked why he missed so many days, he gave the excuse that his friend died and
he had to go to a funeral. When questioned further, he couldn't even remember
the friend that died. Needless to say, he lost his case. This cost the company
lots of money in court fees and was just a complete waste of time for everyone
involved.

Unions also impede technological advances. The main opposition to Uber are the
Taxi unions. They would much rather have expensive cab fares with sub-par
service than actually compete in the marketplace.

I once went to a trade show in Vegas where we needed to setup a booth. We were
required to pay $1000 for someone to setup one card table and plug in our DSL
line (this was many years ago). It took the person 5 minutes. The reason?
Unions.

There are countless other examples that I have experienced first-hand, but the
bottom line is that it makes everything more expensive and less efficient. We
really don't need this in the tech industry.

