The right to unionise - yes, yes, a thousand times yes! The only people who can say whether a union is ‘necessary’ are the workers themselves. Let *them* decide - not owners or customers!
And about right to work laws - At the end of the day, they basically have nothing to do with preserving the individual choice of workers. They were/are designed and function to undermine unions.
It is just as you say - the obvious ‘free rider problem’: workers who opt out of joining the union (and paying the dues unions, like any organisation, need to operate/survive, and do essential things for their workers, like strike benefits) still get absolutely everything the union achieves for the work force, like higher wages and better benefits, but get all this for nothing, without any dues or other responsibilities of membership. That is to say, they ‘ride’ for free, which as you point out undermines the union and its capacity for collective action.
I think it could be compared in some ways to the way communities tax everyone to pay for services that benefit all, even if some will not need or ever use some of those services - schools, for example (regardless if you have school age children or not, everyone pays to support the school system because its existence and effective operation benefits everyone, makes the community a better place to live.
latte art? have always been amazed (impressed too!) by this - have no idea, to be honest, how it’s done, how hard it is to do - but I guess if we come to expect this, it could be a burden on baristas?
I have such a love/hate relationship with latte art! I think it's fun for most baristas, but I've heard of coffeeshops being super exacting about their standards and latte art competitions are kind of one of the only coffee competitions that happen on a regular basis — sometimes sponsors give money to winners of these, so it's become a whole thing and I've heard of people driving to other cities to compete in latte art throwdowns to claim prize money.
The right to unionise - yes, yes, a thousand times yes! The only people who can say whether a union is ‘necessary’ are the workers themselves. Let *them* decide - not owners or customers!
And about right to work laws - At the end of the day, they basically have nothing to do with preserving the individual choice of workers. They were/are designed and function to undermine unions.
It is just as you say - the obvious ‘free rider problem’: workers who opt out of joining the union (and paying the dues unions, like any organisation, need to operate/survive, and do essential things for their workers, like strike benefits) still get absolutely everything the union achieves for the work force, like higher wages and better benefits, but get all this for nothing, without any dues or other responsibilities of membership. That is to say, they ‘ride’ for free, which as you point out undermines the union and its capacity for collective action.
I think it could be compared in some ways to the way communities tax everyone to pay for services that benefit all, even if some will not need or ever use some of those services - schools, for example (regardless if you have school age children or not, everyone pays to support the school system because its existence and effective operation benefits everyone, makes the community a better place to live.
100% this!
and sometimes unions get a win :)
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/unions-have-been-under-attack-for-decades-but-michigan-just-gave-them-a-big-win/
latte art? have always been amazed (impressed too!) by this - have no idea, to be honest, how it’s done, how hard it is to do - but I guess if we come to expect this, it could be a burden on baristas?
I have such a love/hate relationship with latte art! I think it's fun for most baristas, but I've heard of coffeeshops being super exacting about their standards and latte art competitions are kind of one of the only coffee competitions that happen on a regular basis — sometimes sponsors give money to winners of these, so it's become a whole thing and I've heard of people driving to other cities to compete in latte art throwdowns to claim prize money.
Love the format and I love all of those topics! I'd love to hear your thoughts on condiment bars too.