Only with unskilled labor.
My profession is skilled and the skillset is in demand and hard to find. I bargain for myself, thanks.
I have repeatedly and at length discussed on HN about my 3 separate union membership experiences and how I will never again repeat them.
Heck, I haven't even worked for any of those yet and last I checked at least 2 of them were offering less than what I make for my role.
https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/apple-google-others-...
Well, that's good to know. I guess the rest of the world can stop worrying about themselves since you're taken care of.
What an extremely elitist phrase.
This! I hate when people talk about "unskilled labor" because there is no such thing. There definitely is work that requires less training than other jobs, but there is no such thing as unskilled labor.
If you pick a job that literally anyone else can learn to do in a few days, then the cap on your salary and lack of bargaining power is on you.
The starkest difference that I recognize between people in those jobs and people in my career is that in the former people have a hard time showing up to work on-time or at all and in the latter everyone is pretty tuned in and works hard.
It only hit me late in life that success in life really can be just as simple as showing up.
I guess what I would say here is that the kind of people who feel that they need collective bargaining agreements probably overlaps quite strongly with the group of people that have a hard time showing up.
Apparently the euphemism treadmill is on low-wage labor [1]. Which is dumb, since it literally though not conceptually covers graduate students.
[1] https://www.investopedia.com/terms/u/unskilled-labor.asp
Unskilled labor can have decent bargaining power if there's a shortage of unskilled labor.
It just so happens that there tends to more frequently be shortages of skilled labor
Not really, because that’s the definition of unskilled: it takes no special skills to do the job. So if there’s a shortage and wages go up dramatically then skilled labor can take its place. (The opposite is not possible/ advisable though.)
E.g. think about customer facing roles and social skills/aptitude. Having all friendly/nice employees can drive greater revenue for a business. Chick fil a and costco are famous for hiring friendly employees, can have meaningful results for the business
Judging by that history, you aren't doing so well. Good luck, and hopefully things improve!
