I think unions do some really good things for workers, especially in dangerous industries. I also think they do some good for business because there is a means to meaningful certification.
But unions also gum up the works. You get friction against automation because people will be put out of work. You get the whole nepotism and networking thing where new or unlikable people are shunned and held back.
There isn't really an easy answer when whole regions are dependent upon a single industry, except that diversification is a good thing. If we put effort into diversifying Detroit before the auto industry flushed itself, and we did know it was coming... they started building plants in other places partially to escape the nepotism issue among union workers and so new plants could start out with welding robots and never hire welders at all.... maybe they could have attracted insurance companies or publishers or something.
California has real problems when Hollywood strikes. There's this ripple effect through everything made worse because the rest of the state's work depends on television advertising to drive business and no one is watching the re-runs. But whenever people start saying the Writers' Guild are just being bitchy, I want to point out that the writers don't get royalty payments for online streaming or DVD sales and most of them get micropayments for syndication. So when big networks have these deals with iTunes and Netflix to stream content that doesn't get broadcast at all, they don't have to pay the writers anything from those contracts. I'd strike too if my work was being stolen from me.
ps. I wonder if Thog's wife is uglier than Og's wife. And Thog really should have told those people who made him become a fisherman to FOAD.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-20 06:31 am (UTC)But unions also gum up the works. You get friction against automation because people will be put out of work. You get the whole nepotism and networking thing where new or unlikable people are shunned and held back.
There isn't really an easy answer when whole regions are dependent upon a single industry, except that diversification is a good thing. If we put effort into diversifying Detroit before the auto industry flushed itself, and we did know it was coming... they started building plants in other places partially to escape the nepotism issue among union workers and so new plants could start out with welding robots and never hire welders at all.... maybe they could have attracted insurance companies or publishers or something.
California has real problems when Hollywood strikes. There's this ripple effect through everything made worse because the rest of the state's work depends on television advertising to drive business and no one is watching the re-runs. But whenever people start saying the Writers' Guild are just being bitchy, I want to point out that the writers don't get royalty payments for online streaming or DVD sales and most of them get micropayments for syndication. So when big networks have these deals with iTunes and Netflix to stream content that doesn't get broadcast at all, they don't have to pay the writers anything from those contracts. I'd strike too if my work was being stolen from me.
ps. I wonder if Thog's wife is uglier than Og's wife. And Thog really should have told those people who made him become a fisherman to FOAD.