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Ita looking good. Not a lot of pretender moda yet tho

We could call it Cathay and Formosa thread!

That depends on your job

I've always wondered why they haven't made swapable batteries for electric cars.


Also for my own WTF I was looking at a website that sells random products from China and the product that made me do a double take was a small pin of a star of David with a swastika in the middle of it, I can't think of who this thing is marketed towards as I can't imagine that there are that many Jewish Nazis around.

Maybe it was a raelian pin

But I cant think of anything that would cause cancer that fast, even less without causing other obvious noticeable symptoms much sooner than cancer.

I'd agree with the chance clustering... assuming any of this is real. To me it stinks of an urban legend developing in real time.

And the latest trick is to impose "minimum service level" rules (on top of those professions who cannot strike, like the police, so had to work-to-rule as their protest action) which is being set such that 'there might as well not be a strike at all' ("for 75% of pupils to he taught, 90% of teaching staff need to be present").

In Spain thats the case as well. It basically destroyed medical striking because the goverment sets minimum services that are usually greater than the regular staffing of a given department (lately some unions have been trying to weaponize that as proof that departments are understaffed). They've been largely been successful, at that, in that people just take it as a given, and thus Spain has some of the lowest wages and worst working conditions of Europe.
In the end joke has been on them. Doctor numbers are dropping, and the migration flux has been persistently outward, because if you speak ANY second language fluently odds are you'll be able to work somewhere with a better deal.

Quote from: ChairmanPoo on December 20, 2023, 05:53:37 pm

Quote from: McTraveller on November 04, 2023, 08:51:43 pm

Yeah so I think I should clarify my stance. What I want is effectively a universal labor union, not these piecemeal industry- and geography-specific unions.  Ostensibly that is what the labor laws in the US did for a while, and was partly why the unions got weak - the workers had their protections in law, and they were paying for it with taxes, so didn't really want to double-pay by also paying union dues.

There are universal labor unions in Spain. I was (still am, though I should really sign off now that I've not worked there in 4 years) a member of one back in Spain.  In Ireland I'm a member of a trade-specific one (the IHCA).

Both approaches have their pros and cons. Obviously 'universal'unions are bigger, which gives them more theoretical strenght. Trade specific ones might cater to needs that are more specific to yourself.


I think its important to know how to use unions. I think its important to join one, but its also important to understand that they are another burocracy you'll have to navigate, not an instant 'sort out my problems'card

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My other concerns are the unions are targeting the employers - which are the entities that generally are actually creating wealth - instead of targeting the industries that are charging people lots of money.  You don't get a functional economy by stressing the entities that actually create wealth.

I dont know what you mean by this. Obviously unions target the employers not the workers. Thats how collective bargaining works.

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I almost think we don't need labor unions, but we need consumer unions.  Collective bargaining for housing, for instance.  I dunno how you'd swing that, to be honest, but it's an interesting thought.  Make a resident-owned real-estate conglomerate, with the goal not of making money, but of keeping prices down.

Consumer associations also exist. But what you're proposing is actually  in effect a state bureau for housing. I dont disapprove mind you, but I never took you for a communist

I don't have much of an understanding enough to say which would be better, but my immediate worry about universal labour unions is that they scope would mean the particular interests of smaller, specific groups would fall by the table when larger groups dominate the discussion.

Yes, that's one  problem that can arise.
For instance: keeping doctors and nurses in the same union means a strike can fade once a bargain is struck with one or the other (and it really can go either way). Or conversely, that one of the groups involved might have a grievance but it wont gather enough steam by itself.
This is a bona fide concern and I've seen it happen. Nowadays I'm inclined to think more focused unions are better as long as they have a modicum of strenght. This is specially true for doctors because the public perception of 'priviledge' (mostly fake nowadays, depending on the country utterly ludicrous) can hurt in collective bargaining otherwise.

 In Ireland there are even separate unions for Consultants/Attendings and Jr docs (which makes A LOT of sense).