For trade/maintenance workers, is union or non-union better?

Union workers are always better. Always. They take more pride in their work, they have more self-respect, and they work because they are well-paid professionals, not because they’re desperate and the least-unqualified of the people who applied to work for peanuts.

In fact, in the IWW, our policy is that Wobblies must work harder than everyone else on the site, since any shirking or slacking will be used by the bosses against us in the struggle for labour rights.

@SmashTheState In all fairness there are many skilled non-union workers, many that are better at what they do than union workers. I know many non-union trade workers that are much more skilled at what they do than many union workers are but they don’t get paid as well. I was thinking of jumping ship myself and going union, maybe IBEW. It seems many non-union companies do not want to pay their workers fair wages for their skills or qualifications and they expect 1 guy to do all the work themselves.

“Electromechanical Maintenance” the new form of low wage slave labor with a fancy sounding title.

Unless you like getting fucked in the ass by bosses, you may prefer a union job.

@dpworkin Yes I believe I agree with you, but where I live many people do not even want to hear the word “union” but yet are the same ones always complaining about their jobs (I have worked around so many of these guys).

Well, the power elite in this country has been successfully gulling working people into acting against their own best interests for a very long time. As just one example, look how they scared people away from a single-payer health plan that would have benefited the entire working class.

Instead that very class rose up as the Tea Party in fear and revolt against getting cradle-to-grave well-administered health care the equal of that offered in all other developed Western countries.

@dpworkin Ah yes, the Tea Party, isn’t that those “non-partisan” concerned citizens about government spending? I remember when I was working in a greeting card manufacturing plant 15 years ago working as a maintenance electrician when several individuals tried to get a union in that plant, the guys I worked with in maintenance (except for me) did not want the union. I was open about my stance and the other guys didn’t appreciate where I stood on this. Once the union was voted out, the company shortly after that got rid of half my crew and the ones that still had their jobs were expected to multitask for only a 50 cent raise! Double the responsibilty and half the people for a lousy 50 cent raise! Ironically I was one of the few that still had their jobs after the vote. You should of heard the few guys remaining complaining then but I did not want to hear it since those were the same dipsticks that fell for the company propaganda and didn’t support the union. I left that company shortly after that.

Yeah, well I understand the impulse to call them dipsticks, but the truth is that they have been manipulated by masters of propaganda all their lives, and they have a hard time examining what is happening to them objectively.

The same people who sell us laundry detergent and Hot Pockets and de Beers diamonds are also using their carefully honed craft to sell fear of anything that smacks of Socialism, which means anything that brings the working class greater benefits at a higher cost to the wealthy.

How long has it been since Vance Packard wrote The Hidden Persuaders? Imagine how much more persuasive they have become in all those years.

Union is always better because with a union, you have an independent voice about your working conditions and benefits. I am a physician and a proud member of my union. With the union, we can stand up much more effectively to management who want to cut services we find important for patients. We also have a stronger political voice in our city hall and state capitol when it comes to funding for health programs.

dpworkin is correct you seem to have some strange dilemma with regards to this issue. it’s a no-brainer, the fact that you are reticent says more about the completely irrational right wing anti-union vibe surrounding you. A union isn’t inherently moral, any more than any organisation, but generally speaking within the contemporary working world it addresses the imbalance between the worker and the management. Here is the perfect example”:

@mammal How was I reticent? I was anything but that if you read my posts. The link that you gave me to watch had nothing to do with the situation I was talking about, how do I have a strange dilemma? Did you accurately read my question and posts? I just wanted an opinion on whether it is better to be in a union or not and if not then why. I wasn’t looking for a philosophy lecture but I appreciate the answers anyway.