Quote:As much as unions have become corrupted and perverted their intended role, get rid of them and watch how fast exploitation of workers becomes a problem once again.

I agree...Minimum wage and most current labor laws came about through exploitation of workers through the years...Minimum wage came about when the railroads were paying less money to guys building the railroad, than people who did laundry and worked in town doing other things, plus women were paid less than men for everything... Railroad workers started becoming scarce as they took to finding jobs that paid more in town...The government finally acted and set a minimum wage...This still did not set well with railroad workers as then they were getting paid the same wage as people washing their clothes and they were busting their butts 12-16 hours a day 7 days a week...The lack of workers forced the railroads to start paying premium wages in order to attract workers...

 

Unions came about when employers were able to fire a guy just because they didn't like the shoes he wore...Unions fought for fairness for all employees before branching out into trades...Unions fought for fairness and safety in the workplace...Today's workforce would not be as it is today without unions...

 

Without Unions and organized labor organizations, employers can do whatever they want...they can fire you with no warning, they can reduce your pay at will, they are notoriously slow to give decent raises, (one company here just gave a 10 cent raise to it's employees and said if you don't want it punch out and go home)...Companies can make you pay most, if not all of your health care or not even offer them, the same for retirement...If there were no unions for companies to compete for workers with, there would be trouble in the workforce

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