is it your idea that the unions have now done everything they need to do and so can go away? Yes, I think so. Especially for public employees, who in many states are protected by civil service frameworks.
in the lower levels of the British workforce that strong unions are needed Not so much here, where sanitation workers are among the highest paid people. The US has federal and state minimum wage laws which help. Unions here don't tend to do much for minimum wage workers or youth workers.
Union leaders who enjoy lavish CEO-style lifestyles, if they exist, are abusing their personal power and their members should call them on it Absolutely. But their members don't have the power to do so. Sometimes one leader can oust another (do you know about Jimmy Hoffa?) but that just replaces one abuser with another.
You've now used teachers as an example of public employees twice I was just trying to be consistent, apples to apples. In the US, teachers are definitely not among the highest paid public employees. That honor goes to firefighters, police, executives (like the Governor) and legislators. Some college professors, such as those who teach surgery, are up there, but the numbers I quoted do not include higher education.
Oh...and I would have said "Had there been Muslim union officials back then, we might have had a 4-day work week." "May have" implies that possibly we did, you aren't sure. Minor niggle, but as I've remarked before, it kind of bugs me. "Might have" is correct, thanks. It says the possibility would have existed under those circumstances. And I hope I was respectfully pointing out that the number of days in the work weekend is an artifact of an earlier time in history when there was a very tiny percentage of American workers who call Friday the Sabbath.
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Date: 2011-02-20 02:36 am (UTC)Yes, I think so. Especially for public employees, who in many states are protected by civil service frameworks.
in the lower levels of the British workforce that strong unions are needed
Not so much here, where sanitation workers are among the highest paid people. The US has federal and state minimum wage laws which help. Unions here don't tend to do much for minimum wage workers or youth workers.
Union leaders who enjoy lavish CEO-style lifestyles, if they exist, are abusing their personal power and their members should call them on it
Absolutely. But their members don't have the power to do so. Sometimes one leader can oust another (do you know about Jimmy Hoffa?) but that just replaces one abuser with another.
You've now used teachers as an example of public employees twice
I was just trying to be consistent, apples to apples. In the US, teachers are definitely not among the highest paid public employees. That honor goes to firefighters, police, executives (like the Governor) and legislators. Some college professors, such as those who teach surgery, are up there, but the numbers I quoted do not include higher education.
Oh...and I would have said "Had there been Muslim union officials back then, we might have had a 4-day work week." "May have" implies that possibly we did, you aren't sure. Minor niggle, but as I've remarked before, it kind of bugs me.
"Might have" is correct, thanks. It says the possibility would have existed under those circumstances. And I hope I was respectfully pointing out that the number of days in the work weekend is an artifact of an earlier time in history when there was a very tiny percentage of American workers who call Friday the Sabbath.