Why are union subs so high in the US? As a part time worker I pay under a tenner a month, but even as a full time worker, I'd be paying £16.
this post was submitted on 31 Jan 2024
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Because Unions pay strike assistance.
For example UAW pay 100$/day https://uaw.org/strike-faq/
This way all members can participate in a strike and give it the necessary strength to achieve something. Still most Union fees are ridiciously low. Usually they are in the area of 1,5% of your salary.
Last I was in one it wasn't nearly that much, but that was a couple decades back. My best guess is that so many places try to kill the unions by passing 'right to work' laws where people are not obligated to join even in a union voted shop. It makes it pretty tough to force a good deal when only a fraction of the workers are in and paying while they probably live in an area where people aren't concerned about working across a line.
Getting a workplace unionised is an uphill battle here too. Unless your company already has an officially recognised union, no one wants to join. I tell them it's £9.65 a month and they're like, yeah forget it.
What bothers me about where I work is as a bike technician, we actually have the same job title and pay as the till staff who do no skilled work at all. And on top of that, we also have to cover for them (for instance, even though I work in the bike section, I was forced to do car seat training even though the auto section till staff should be the ones doing it). So we're doing skilled work, plus their work and we get the same pay. But no one is interested. They'll grumble and groan, but actually doing something about it is too much to ask.
Getting that critical mass is the big hurdle as I see it. People are afraid to show outward support for mass action if the perceived mass is only you and Bill from accounting. There's the risk that if you start making noise, regardless of whatever laws might protect organizing, the company tosses you for 'other reasons'.
I worked in a place for about 6.5 years that towards the end started hemorrhaging workers to the tune of about 1/3 the staff over a summer. Having grown up in a union household I gave some smoke break talks about how we could start one. Eventually without traction there I put together a local area study of similar work and brought that in to the VP in charge and after it went up their chain everyone in the place got around a 15-20% raise. Then about 6 months later I was dismissed for 'poor performance' after 6 years in the same role. 🤔
Mine are currently at about two hours' labor per month.
Well worth the cost
I wouldn't necessarily assume they're being truthful.
Typical dues are 1-2% of pay
"Explain how!"
"Collective bargaining is a means of using a large labor base to argue for better wages and benefits!"
Not American, but my union gets 1% of my payment every month. But every year, almost, we get raises and benefits from this
The LYNX Corporation (of Hardspace Shipbreaker) would be proud of Delta...
Union membership sounds good and all, but think of the extra oxygen you could buy...
counterpoint, union dues are like real life video game cheat codes!
The only thing a little ironic is that delta FAs are the best-paid of any US airline.
Their deal is literally better than all the union deals - and the unions were scrambling to match.
because those workers didn't buy into that corporate anti-union nonsense.
I don’t understand what you mean.
Unions aren't the ones who decide salaries outright, they negotiate with the employer. Wages go up under unions, not that all union workers are paid better than all non union workers. A Delta Union would almost definitely make their deal even better.