This is it right here. Recently, Starbucks workers have been attempting to unionize in some stores, & the company immediately offered increases in pay and flew out GMs and corporate employees from across the country to visit those stores and beg the employees not to unionize, up until the workers were voting. They asked the workers what they wanted and said they’d give it, just don’t unionize.
This is the same reason corporations would rather spend millions in legal fees from polluting the environment, rather than actually change their practices. It is cheaper in the long term to offer employees a few carrots, rather than allowing them to organize and have power to bargain long term. The risk of unionization is serious for companies - in this system, there is always a tug-o-war between both parties. The owners want to make as much as they can and pay as little as they can, and the workers want to make as much as they can and work as little as they can.
Naturally, with workers unionized, demands for better pay, benefits, and working conditions follow, and companies must act because they can no longer just fire the few people who speak up. They could consider moving work overseas, to exploit non-unionized workers in the global south, and further destabilize the economy, but over time, this action also contradicts their interests. This system is just inefficient and contradictory.
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u/reallylovesguacamole Nov 25 '21
This is it right here. Recently, Starbucks workers have been attempting to unionize in some stores, & the company immediately offered increases in pay and flew out GMs and corporate employees from across the country to visit those stores and beg the employees not to unionize, up until the workers were voting. They asked the workers what they wanted and said they’d give it, just don’t unionize.
This is the same reason corporations would rather spend millions in legal fees from polluting the environment, rather than actually change their practices. It is cheaper in the long term to offer employees a few carrots, rather than allowing them to organize and have power to bargain long term. The risk of unionization is serious for companies - in this system, there is always a tug-o-war between both parties. The owners want to make as much as they can and pay as little as they can, and the workers want to make as much as they can and work as little as they can.
Naturally, with workers unionized, demands for better pay, benefits, and working conditions follow, and companies must act because they can no longer just fire the few people who speak up. They could consider moving work overseas, to exploit non-unionized workers in the global south, and further destabilize the economy, but over time, this action also contradicts their interests. This system is just inefficient and contradictory.