Question: Share your comments on the following post: Before I began reading the text, I first considering my exposure and orientation to unions. Honestly, I had

Share your comments on the following post:

Before I began reading the text, I first considering my exposure and orientation to unions. Honestly, I had not given unions much though at all. I do remember growing up hearing people talk about how Kroger, a common grocery chain here in Kentucky, was a part of a really great union that advocated for its employees. I do remembers asking others about what the union did for employees and often got a response saying something about how hard it was to get rid of union employees. This did prompt me though to consider the type of work usually occurring in these grocery stores. Sloane and Witney (2010) note, in rather simple terms, blue-collar workers appear to benefit more from unions that most white-collar workers. Given that today workforce is mostly comprised of white-collar service-based positions filled with well-educated individuals it seems evident this is a huge factor in the decrease of unions (Sloane & Witney, 2010). This is forcing me to consider conversations I had growing up about going to college so I could get a good job. Being someone in the white-collar realm and knowing family and close friends in the blue-collar realm, this idea of a good job is incredibly relative. I personally feel like I was conditioned to perceive trade-based skills like welding and electrical work to not be as appealing or as desirable as office-based positions. With an office job and two brothers in electric and welding, I can say from experience that good and appealing are very, very relative units of measurement. It is truly fascinating to consider the similarities between say a worker in an aluminum factory and an uber driver. These are very different occupations, both in autonomy over time and typical working conditions. However, uber drivers would benefit from unions advocating for them just like aluminum workers would benefit. Because service industries have disproportionately replaced a lot of labor-intensive and blue-collar jobs like coal here in Kentucky, the needs met by a labor union are not fully being relinquished. I think as the gig economy continues and our society as a whole continues to evolves, unions will resurface. Sloane, A. A., & Witney, F. (2010). Labor Relations (13th ed.). New Jersey, USA: Prentice Hall.

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