Trump escalates trade war with Canada: imposes tariffs on Canadian milk, lumber

[pbrower2a]

Unions offer two things that many workers need if they are to have any dignity on the job: (1) a grievance process, and (2) collective bargaining.

Union rules can keep bosses from playing favorites. Collective bargaining ensures that workers do not get their wages set by their incompetence at bargaining with an employer who can grind them down and inculcate fear of job loss on pay alone. For machine-paced work, a union contract ensures that people doing the same sort of work get the same pay, with an allowance for seniority.

In some activities a union can protect a worker from pressure from the organizations that misuse their authority. I am a teacher, and I set high standards for students. That is good teaching practice, but some kids think that I demean their culture by pushing them. (Uh, there are plenty of models of highly-successful black people, but as a rule today those are well-educated black people... if I were a real racist I would let bad behavior slide due to low expectations).