Birling: […] So I refused. Said I couldn't consider it. We were paying the usual rates and if they didn't like those rates, they could go and work somewhere else. It's a free country, I told them.
Eric: It isn't if you can't go and work somewhere else.
— J. B. Priestley
Not everyone is in a position to find another job. And what do you do if the best place you can work is still rubbish? What if you're an ISP tech?
An ISP tech? Just learn to code and then bounce from job to job to job until you find one with a good manager.
Okay, sarcasm aside; I've worked for many different tech companies and good managers are exceptionally rare and there is no pressure from the top to change that, and pressure from the bottom doesn't work. There is, however, a lot of pressure to not fire or demote managers as it looks bad for the management above them.
One is not forced to spend his life working as an ISP tech. I attended a community college for a few years where most people were learning new skills precisely because they didn't like the job or often the industry in which they worked. If ISP tech work was horrible and everyone left, employers would be forced to make it less horrible.
Specifically union power tends to be rather exclusive - competition or fragmentation over a shared niche harms them far more than even individuals or businesses. The dynamic is thus "anti-competitive" by design.
Birling: […] So I refused. Said I couldn't consider it. We were paying the usual rates and if they didn't like those rates, they could go and work somewhere else. It's a free country, I told them.
Eric: It isn't if you can't go and work somewhere else.
— J. B. Priestley
Not everyone is in a position to find another job. And what do you do if the best place you can work is still rubbish? What if you're an ISP tech?
An ISP tech? Just learn to code and then bounce from job to job to job until you find one with a good manager.
Okay, sarcasm aside; I've worked for many different tech companies and good managers are exceptionally rare and there is no pressure from the top to change that, and pressure from the bottom doesn't work. There is, however, a lot of pressure to not fire or demote managers as it looks bad for the management above them.
One is not forced to spend his life working as an ISP tech. I attended a community college for a few years where most people were learning new skills precisely because they didn't like the job or often the industry in which they worked. If ISP tech work was horrible and everyone left, employers would be forced to make it less horrible.
Well, you were able to solve the problem of bad union reps at the same time. Two birds with one stone, good job.
People in unions can’t find other jobs?
They can’t find other unions
There is more than one union. You can also vote/organize to change your existing union (I can’t do that at my job).
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Specifically union power tends to be rather exclusive - competition or fragmentation over a shared niche harms them far more than even individuals or businesses. The dynamic is thus "anti-competitive" by design.