Poll of the Day > Unions are a good thing.Swedens unions forced Toys r Us to comply with our laws

(+) Yeah! (+)

m.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/03/18/sweden-retail-unions_n_6888328

Back in the 90's when Toys r Us opened stores in Sweden they learned that the American business culture didn't work in Sweden.

When they started firing people after the Christmas season, the whole country literally teamed up on them.

Transport workers rufused to deliver to them, warehouse workers wouldn't handle their shipments, banks didn't process their transactions and even local press stopped their advertising.

After three months of strike Toys r Us finally complied and they had to Adapt to the Swedish culture.

So what do you think?
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Like anything, in moderation it can be fine. Unions protecting workers from inept politicians and their corporate masters is a good thing. But unions protecting lazy idiots earning more than they're worth living or dead is bad.

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Toys R' Us went out of business anyway didn't it?

I like unions though.

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IronBornCorps posted...

Toys R' Us went out of business anyway didn't it?

I like unions though.

not everywhere.

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Sweden doesn't have seasonal workers?

Comply with "our laws" being what nation's laws?

LeetCheet posted...

When they started firing people after the Christmas season, the whole country literally teamed up on them.

Transport workers rufused to deliver to them, warehouse workers wouldn't handle their shipments, banks didn't process their transactions and even local press stopped their advertising.

It's fucking seasonal work.

Raddest_Chad posted...

Like anything, in moderation it can be fine. Unions protecting workers from inept politicians and their corporate masters is a good thing. But unions protecting lazy idiots earning more than they're worth living or dead is bad.

Unions had more of a public good in the very distant past when there were very serious issues. Nowadays they're kinda shit.

IronBornCorps posted...

Toys R' Us went out of business anyway didn't it?

Can't imagine it lasted in Sweden.

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Raddest_Chad posted...

lazy idiots earning more than they're worth living or dead is bad.

CEOs

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Toys R Us was profitable in Canada and never closed here. Likewise, a remnant of Circuit City even exists... They had smaller stores in malls called "The Source by Circuit City" that survived and were bought out by a cell provider and offer their phones/plans as well as the typical electronics like TVs, video games, etc.

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I like unions. People complain about 'dead weight' employees in unions, but those exist basically everywhere.

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Workers deserve a form of collective bargaining, otherwise most employers will take advantage of them.

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Swedish people see corporations as tools without rights... which is the logical way to treat them. It's why common folk are happier there than America.

Somehow we've been tricked into treating them like citizens with rights. Their entire purpose is to make our lives better, nothing else.

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Raddest_Chad posted...

But unions protecting lazy idiots earning more than they're worth living or dead is bad.

You could be right, but unions also have the power to kick people out of their own unions

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I'm pro union but I'm against forced unionization.

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I am for most Unions, ones that don't protect workers from receiving consequence for blatant or dangerous misdeeds. *Glares at the police Union*

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Did they lie to them about it not being seasonal? Im not sure why you would get angry about a company not keeping employees when they knew it was just a seasonal thing when they applied

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Union threatens worker for going after money union owes them because union messed up filing a million dollar grievance.

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Muscles posted...

Did they lie to them about it not being seasonal? Im not sure why you would get angry about a company not keeping employees when they knew it was just a seasonal thing when they applied

If they knew it was only seasonal then I would assume they wouldn't be as surprised as they were when over half the work force was suddenly fired for no reason.
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LeetCheet posted...

If they knew it was only seasonal then I would assume they wouldn't be as surprised as they were when over half the work force was suddenly fired for no reason.

Well when you said they learned American business culture didn't work in Sweden I assumed they did it the American way where they hire people specifically for the holidays and make it clear on applications

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The idea of unions is good but some are corrupt.

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Raddest_Chad posted...

Like anything, in moderation it can be fine. Unions protecting workers from inept politicians and their corporate masters is a good thing. But unions protecting lazy idiots earning more than they're worth living or dead is bad.

Pretty much. Taking some power away from employers is good to correct the imbalance created by there generally being more job applicants than jobs (especially for less specialized stuff). Taking all of their power away is bad and often results in employees that are worse off than before.

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I love how when people talk about how awesome Sweden is, they always conveniently leave out the 60% income tax rate.

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BigNasX posted...

I love how when people talk about how awesome Sweden is, they always conveniently leave out the 60% income tax rate.

Oh no

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Well the thing is unions protect workers from corporate abuse but i America sadly over the past 3 or 4 decades, a certain political party has all but rendered unions ineffective especially in "Right To Work" states and that's also the reason why wages for hourly paid people has been stagnant for the past 40 plus years as well.

People do not understand that prior to the Great Depression and the New Deal era, workers in America were treated like crap by men like Andrew Carnegie, John D Rockefeller, JP Morgan etc and to some degree Henry Ford in that these men actually played a role when workers at their businesses tried to form or join unions, by bringing in private security firms who actually gunned down workers.

Carnegie did it at his Homestead PA steel mill, Rockefeller at his copper mill in Colorado and Ford at his plant in MI and of course when news spread of the shootings they all denied having knowledge of the incidents.

There are Swedish multinationals now operating on US soil who treat their employees like crap with those being IKEA and another company called AAK which operates in NJ, CA and KY.

Ironically, corps (both US and foreign) in the US are now importing people from Mexico, Cuba, some Middle Eastern countries, some African countries etc and bringing those people here for cheap labor vs American workers. In addition, they also use Gov Programs to lure these people here to sweeten the deal with housing assistance, healthcare, and housing assistance and Americans are clueless to this.

IKEA actually hired a union busting outfit at their Danville CA facility to discourage workers from joining unions and to get unions workers to wothdraw from the unions.

In KY when AAK moved in in 2011, they actually circulated a decertification petition to workers urging union workers to leave their union and when they refused, AAK began systematically terminating those people with bogus reasons and replacing them with Cuban people.

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Blightzkrieg posted...

Oh no

Paying taxes is part of the price we pay to exist where we live and to enjoy the amenities that tax dollars affords us so if Swedish people pay 60%, that would explain why they have free healthcare etc and the US does not and as a result of that we pay through the noses for healthcare insurance and when we're sick, we're nickel and dimed to death with co-pays etc so it's a two edged sword.

The quality of life is far better in Sweden vs the US.

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Raddest_Chad posted...

Like anything, in moderation it can be fine. Unions protecting workers from inept politicians and their corporate masters is a good thing. But unions protecting lazy idiots earning more than they're worth living or dead is bad.

Raddest_Chad posted...

Like anything, in moderation it can be fine. Unions protecting workers from inept politicians and their corporate masters is a good thing. But unions protecting lazy idiots earning more than they're worth living or dead is bad.

That's the perception and that's a lie about union people being lazy/ I've worked for companies that had unions for hourly paid employees and that was not the case when I worked for those companies but that was the lie being told for decades by a certain political party and you need to understand this as well, prior to the New Deal era (1930s) workers in America from the end of slavery until the Great Depression were treated like crap by men like Andrew Carnegie, John Rockefeller, JP Morgan etc so please under the history of unions and corporate abuse because if employers treated people right, there would be no need for unions much the way if people didn't commit crime we wouldn't police and jails,

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In my experience the only people who whine about unions are people who do not need unions and that would be people who make high 5 6 or 7 salary figures and those aren't the people unions were created to protect. My fam for the most part is/was totally blue collar and union members including both parents and if not for unions, I doubt they would have the benefits etc that they received. Because of the decline in unions in America, working-class people have lost all the benefits that unions helped attain so there are no corporate pension plans, benefits for the most part are atrocious, and there's virtually no job protection anymore especially in right to work states where employers can simply fire you for no reason and get away with it .

I have been fortunate in that I have never had an hourly paid job in my life therefore I have never needed a union and I have had jobs that pay extremely well with great benefits but I also know that's not the case for America's hourly workforce because America tends to bestow the perks on those of us who were fortunate enough to attend college and earn college degrees so we aren't nor have we ever been the ire of corporate abuse.

Great example of this is a local company where I live. So they gave all salaried employees off beginning Weds for Thanksgiving but they had the hourly people work including their 3rd shift people who had to work Weds night into Thanksgiving morning and they're returning to work Sun meanwhile the salaried people come back Mon. Go figure!

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