Tuesday, March 27, 2012

If You're A Union Supporter, Why Do You Think People Would Voluntarily Reject A Union?

Is it because they're stupid? Or do you have another idea?
Graduate student workers at the University of Minnesota again voted against forming a union.

About 62 percent of those who voted last week opposed the union, the state Bureau of Mediation Services reported on Monday, adding to a string of failed attempts to organize the students who teach classes and conduct research on the Twin Cities and Duluth campuses.

More than two-thirds of the 4,400 workers who were eligible to cast ballots in the weeklong vote did so.
The article also contains a graphic with the following information:
RECENT VOTES AGAINST UNION

Year Vote

1990 No: 67 percent

1999 No: 58 percent

2005 No: 58 percent

2012 No: 62 percent

Source: Bureau of Mediation Services
So again I ask, union supporters, why would people repeatedly and voluntarily reject a union?

4 comments:

EdD said...

You ask a very good question. Unions today have three functions
1. To make sure that union fat-cats
live well,
2. To work for the election and re-election of Democrats, and,
3. To make dues payers believe that they need a union.
I retired from teaching and now am a lawyer. A significant part of my practice is representing teachers who have conflicts with their own unions. My question is "Why aren't more teachers working to decertify those union?"

mmazenko said...

Well, come on, D. It's obvious - they don't know what's good for them.

Darren said...

I wish I believed you were being sarcastic, that you didn't truly believe that.

Darren said...

Just stumbled across this today:

Now of course you’re saying “But Sarah, they were voting against their interests.” Stop it. Stop making me roll my eyes so hard they’ll fall on the floor.

What you’ve just slipped into, whether you realize it or not is “Argument by Marx.”
http://accordingtohoyt.com/2012/03/29/circles-in-thinking/