I happen to work at AWS (ProServe). You know what people did when they saw the wages weren’t competitive? They started leaving in droves forcing Amazon to be competitive.
There's probably actual research on this, but I can't come up with the right search terms. It could be one of those situations where it's impossible to say for sure. You can't exactly design an experiment around it: the decline already happened. So you'd have to do some kind of comparative analysis to figure out how outcomes would have changed without a union. Unions were never a 100% thing, so it might be enough to look at how non-union shops in the same markets fared.
Yes and no you have to be better than the median in all categories some of which you have no control over. For example you need to work in a better than median group for a better than median boss in a better than median division with better than median experience.
In tech the workers have a lot more negotiating power because you aren’t trapped by heavy capital equipment costs. Still unions help with some of the shitty practices you see like the pip shenanigans at Amazon.
There is a cost but if you need or want a stable place to work for more than a few years without burnout they help with work life Protections
I mentioned I work in ProServe specifically to imply that I don’t have those issues. “I control my calendar”. I make sure the scope of work is well defined before I take on any work if I’m not involved in the pre sales part and I am responsible for setting reasonable expectations with my customers.
In my org, it’s a sign of poor project management and customer management skills if you are constantly overbooked and it’s considered a negative.
Of course all that went out of the window during the first three months after Covid.
https://www.geekwire.com/2022/amazon-more-than-doubles-max-b...
The free market and free will is a great thing isn’t it?
So wouldn’t unions also prevent top performers from negotiating wages?
How much did unions help the auto industry?