It's borderline bizarre that a company like Apple, that paints itself as a progressive company, to have a hard stance against Apple store employees forming labor unions. Specially since the kind of person that tend to work at Apple Stores, tend to be people who would actually use the labor union as a body to actually negotiate in ways that benefit both the employees and the company.
That even Starbucks has an anti labor union stance on their coffee shops is worrying, since it also tries to paint itself as a fair company with their workers and their providers. The fact that they are trying so hard to impede their workers to form labor unions, could also cast shadows on how fair are their deals with coffee growers.
The common trend it the anti labor union stance of both companies, is that they view labor unions as perjudicial for everyone involved by default. The truth is that there are not, it comes down to how workers manage and how the company relates to the labor union. A well run union, and a company that is willing to build a good working relationship with it, can actually benefit the workers and the company. Labor unions actually make the relationship between the company and the workers a lot easier, since the company just needs to deal with the labor union itself rather than with each individual worker.
It can actually make the relationship between the employees and the company more balanced, making the company more answerable to employee needs and worries. Not only that, it can give a better platform to employees a bigger voice on how the company they work for is managed.
At the end of the day, the problem are not labor unions. The problem is how companies want to balance the power between them and their employees.
No comments:
Post a Comment