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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: J_F_Shepard who wrote (618893)	7/11/2011 4:29:20 PM
From: TimF	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1583560

"The workers and the union are not synonymous." Yes, they are.... No they are not. Unions are organizations, workers are individuals, who in some cases may not even be members of the organization, esp. in right to work states, but even outside of them one can typically pay a fee, slightly smaller then the union dues in most cases, without actually joining the union. Even if 100% of the workers are union members, and the union represents no other workers (both of which are far from certain to be the case), its still something outside the workers itself. Its supposed to represent the workers interest, but the board of directors is supposed to represent the shareholders interest, and its not the same as the shareholders either. If things work the way they are supposed to (which you can't count on) then the union provides good representation for the workers. It it was the same as the workers it would be representing only itself. The union also has interests outside the workers interest. For example union dues (its in the workers interest to minimize them, in the unions interest to maximize them, to the extent it doesn't eliminate or greatly reduce the support for the union), or politics (overall union organizations are more to the left than the workers they represent). "the union is still to blame for making demands that where not in the long term interest of keeping the company a going concern.." nonsense...management must be able to see what the long term needs and run the company accordingly. Sure. But to the extent the union is properly representing the workers and doing so in a powerful way (able to push sizable concessions from management not just accept whatever management wants to give) , and to the extent the workers interest is in keeping the company a long term viable concern (which it normally is), then the union, if it is to act responsibly, should also consider the long term needs of the the company. A company can eliminate pensions and health benefits without consulting unions Not if they are part of the union contract.