> I find really, really baffling the general position in the US regarding unions. It is like there's a general discourse that they are a bad thing, just like with "that other" thing (cough socialism cough).
I'm from the 'birthplace' of US Auto unions. This part of your reply is actually a good place to start the explanation, because that's actually the perception of some other unions, and at times there is historical context to that.
> From my point of view actions of police union are usually borderline "mob-like" (as in, I mostly hear about them when they save the necks of abusing and / or corrupted officers).
Two points:
- The UAW and Teamsters in particular had ties to actual mob organizations in the past. "Jimmy Hoffa" is a name to look up if you'd like an example of what some people think of when they think of unions.
- The examples you give of corruption/status quo in police unions are present in the Auto shops as well; whenever I heard a story from an auto worker about why 'they' did not like the unions, it was usually a story like what you said; a worker getting 'protected' by the union when their actions were unsafe. IOW even some of the people -in- the union see it as a broken institution.
The mafia influence over the Teamsters Union was at its height in the late 1960s, early 1970s. Well, well after Taft-Hartley.
The UAW and related issues absolutely killing the domestic US auto industry is late 1970s, early 1980s. It wasn't just unions there, but that was a major contributing factor.
Taft-Hartley was a decisive stroke in the effort to defang and depoliticize labor unions in the US (e.g., outlawing solidarity strikes and political strikes, expulsion of communists). Should we be surprised that kneecapping the militant labor struggle led to the corruption of its leftover power structures?
We should definitely abolish police unions, though.
I'm from the 'birthplace' of US Auto unions. This part of your reply is actually a good place to start the explanation, because that's actually the perception of some other unions, and at times there is historical context to that.
> From my point of view actions of police union are usually borderline "mob-like" (as in, I mostly hear about them when they save the necks of abusing and / or corrupted officers).
Two points:
- The UAW and Teamsters in particular had ties to actual mob organizations in the past. "Jimmy Hoffa" is a name to look up if you'd like an example of what some people think of when they think of unions.
- The examples you give of corruption/status quo in police unions are present in the Auto shops as well; whenever I heard a story from an auto worker about why 'they' did not like the unions, it was usually a story like what you said; a worker getting 'protected' by the union when their actions were unsafe. IOW even some of the people -in- the union see it as a broken institution.