People forget why manufacturing was moved out of the US. Manufacturing jobs sucked major ass. Then they sucked less ass, when unions started gaining power. Then the companies saw their employees had prosperity, said “fuck you”, and left.
We’ve crippled unions to such an absurd degree that the reality is that, if manufacturing came back, the quality of life for average Americans would go down significantly. It’s not 1955 - you’re out of your goddamn mind if you think a factory worker can maintain the quality of life now, let alone afford a suburban home on one income like in the past.
Each worker can negotiate easily on their own behalf or simply work elsewhere. Unions are unnecessary and always end up corrupt and wasteful.
This is a complete re-writing of history.
Unions were not "abusive". Typical union negotiations pushed for safe(r) working environments and reasonable wages.
Companies moved overseas not because they were abused (Jesus Christ). They moved because there's lots of parts of the world where you have access to psuedo-slave labor.
I don't want to be a slave. My fellow Americans don't want to be slaves, either.
> Each worker can negotiate easily on their own behalf or simply work elsewhere.
This is delusional.
Let me put this bluntly. If you're not even willingly to acknowledge the obvious asymmetry in leverage during labor negotiations, then your opinion on unions is worthless. You're not an honest party, or maybe you have trouble coming to terms with reality. Unfortunately, that means your opinion is better suited for the loony bin, and not any serious discussions.
As an aside, there are lots of great arguments to make against unions. Do that instead.
I disagree with forcing employees to join a union who do not want to. I disagree with forcing a business to negotiate with a union that does not want to.