Beet
Atlas Star
Posts: 29,061
|
 |
« on: February 10, 2009, 04:23:34 PM » |
|
Eh, part of the problem is that when the union movement was at its most needed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, they existed to bargain for things like wages, hours and working conditions, and then pensions and health care, whereas these days the government usually takes care of 'bargaining' for these things.
The greatest irony is that tolerance for CIO unions came into being at around the same time as tolerance for the welfare state, rendering unions redundant almost as soon as they became accepted (if by 'almost as soon' one means a couple of decades). Their greatest usefulness to workers now may be in political lobbying, as opposed to collective bargaining. When was the last time you saw a big strike?
|
