That being said, I took some time today to learn more about police unions, and I'm linking the short video here that I found to be very informative, and I found it disturbing how much evidence there seems to be that police unions really only serve to protect white supremacy and patriarchy over the health and well being of not only police officers at large, but also all the other workers in the world. So that left me with a dilemma. Do I really support all unions then?
Shammi Mohamed
@shammi · 3:59
Now something else also I wanted to point out is, let's put aside the current issue at hand of white supremacy and killing of innocent people, even us, on a regular basis
Sudha Varadarajan
@sudha · 5:00
Over time, the number of Union strikes, labor strikes that have ended up shutting down the factories for four months. It's a vicious cycle of not serving the purpose for the organization and the employee. Just look at it this way. I believe that it needs to be Democratic, right? I mean, imagine when you're in a white collar job, you rely on your manager to know how you're doing and to be fair when it comes to performance appraisals
Sudha Varadarajan
@sudha · 2:24
Just to finish the previous one. So my grandfather, an engineer and a manager, once told me story wherein he was the was responsible for that one unit in a particular remote city in India, and it's operations. And he was not the owner, but he was just the manager, right? It is a multinational aluminum company. And during Union bargaining, the Union leader pulled out a shotgun. Right. And my grandfather talked him down over two days
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 4:28
But I also speak from the knowledge that I work with employee engagement, where people who have felt disenfranchised as employees, when they are acknowledged and when they are brought into a circle of trust and of inquiry, and they start feeling considered, their performance level goes up so much it's data drives us, so we know that we need systems in place, both for financial reward and for moral support that help people feel a sense of belonging, and it's sense of ownership to the investment that their leaders have put into the companies that keep food on other table
Sudha Varadarajan
@sudha · 2:39
You have so much flexibility. US politics are put in place to ensure that over time things that are there's a dialogue, right? Nobody gets it perfect. But other is a dialogue. There is a process of listening to and implementing policies that are employer friendly and employee friendly, and people are generally happy working in these companies. You see them generally being proud of the fact that they work in such and such a company
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 2:06
And I think especially during COVID, when so many of our heroes that are keeping the lights on would be considered blue collar workers, it's time to hash that out and maybe throw it out. And I also appreciate the reiteration that this space is one of debate and dialogue. And I want to have more faith in so many things around how our world works and how people are taken care of. And you speak of pride
Shammi Mohamed
@shammi · 4:45
Now, that said, probably I have heard or read of situations where the unions have taken advantage of the other side once they figured that they do have some power as well and threatened to ask for more than what could be assumed to be a fair share. And what I mean by a fair share is they ask for so much that it puts the factory out of business that it is not feasible
Neerja Narayanan
@Neerja · 5:00
They negotiate better terms and conditions, and all aspects of working life should be subject to discussion and agreement between employers and employees because we are not in the slave trade and this is not bonded labor. You get more annual leave in a workplace and say, for example, other United Kingdom, an average trained Union member, there gets 25% more annual leave as compared to a non Union worker. You earn more because there is a set standard in terms of income
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15
Neerja Narayanan
@Neerja · 5:00
So if I want to go to the police Union question, which I think is the more interesting one before all these segues, then let's look at every advancement towards equality has come with a spilling of blood. So there's obviously a defensiveness from this group from the police unions that have been doing the oppressing. There's this sense of defensiveness
Neerja Narayanan
@Neerja · 3:40
Such measures, were left vulnerable, were left disenfranchised. And then crime started to rise. So it's actually a paradigm case of how not to police a poor urban population. And it's a lesson that many American departments have yet to absorb, because paramilitary style tactics that involve military equipment acquired through these government service programs have become more and more popular in the United States, and that's this whole defunder police movement, which is the wording of which tends to put a lot of people off
Bowie Rowan
@bowie · 3:46
It also gave me a lot to think about in relation to how unions can potentially abuse power, even though their role in my view, is to level power relations or at least represent those give more of a voice or more power to those who may potentially be more disenfranchised that being particular kinds of workers. So that being said, I am in this conversation with many more questions than answers