Quote:
Originally Posted by #-3
I think even if you remove greed from the picture which obviously plays a role, I think you should at least the understand the deep seeded fears that permeate these decisions, fears about giving raises you can't take back if this boom is fleeting, about setting bonus expectations to a level that can't be maintained, about being unable to keep up with competition without proper investment capital. There are a lot of good reasons to want to be protective of a companies capital, and even if you are firmly in the other camp it's important to understand and empathize with what the other side is looking for.
I generally don't like the idea of unions, because I feel they only exist in the absence of a government doing their duty to the people properly (the one exception might be public sector unions were a conflict of interest exists). Proper labour regulations and standards setting a level playing field for all business is the standard we aspire to. Unfortunately this whole thing is a little too idealistic and unions are only able to fight for a portion of it. But we work with what we have.
All of that said, the proper capitalist thing for labor to be doing right now in this place and this time is to push for more, so I get what the JD union is doing.
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This is a fair response. The one thing I would say is that I think right now labor gets screwed either way. When times are tough, they see cuts and losses; then when times are good, "we have to be cautious". My hope would be if companies did a better job sharing the wealth, they would have a more agreeable union when tough times come.
There seem to be so few companies out there that have reputations for treating workers well, I just really have a hard time giving shareholders and boards of directors and CEOs the benefit of the doubt.