It’s obviously clear to me why management aren’t allowed to join the union in the context of a private company, they’re a representative of capital. But I’m a little hazy on why unions would not want to be involved with public sector management. Is that not the goal for many, to have representatives of the workers be the interface with the rest of government? I’d love to read more about this if anyone’s into public sector #unions and has an article I could read. I’m mainly interested in UK/EU.
@hughrawlinson at what level of management do unions generally refuse membership? I ask as someone who has been a manager in the past but at a company so large I had less input into company policy than a Financial Times oped.
@hughrawlinson lots of friction about this detail at the playlist factory back in the day. central unions here are very wallet inspector-pilled and we were duty bound by their official statutes to accept senior mgmt including even top HR leads. had to informally ban everyone above second line mgmt from the slack to avoid losing everyone with a functioning sense of danger.
@henrycatalinismith wow that is surprising! Do you think the unions were just operating on an outdated idea that management would have old style leftish Swedish ideas and hadn’t yet encountered the libertarian tech industry nonsense from America?
@hughrawlinson reminded me of animals that become tame after many generations of isolation on an island lacking natural predators. close to zero militancy. operate more like insurance companies than unions half the time. closest they come to discussing opsec is probably the very strict gdpr compliance guidance they give you about running surveys.
@hughrawlinson tbf there are awesome folks at the central unions doing excellent organising work. unfortunately it is seen as a low priority endeavor by the senior leadership. too much of a revolving door where the top union folks are either building their career in the social democrats or eyeing a top HR or employer organisation job the next rung up. disincentives anything that falls outside that framework such as acquiring and then crucially actually exercising collective power.
@henrycatalinismith that's demoralizing! How are senior leadership chosen? By senior leadership or is there a democratic element to it?
@jon this was prompted by my sister (a nurse) saying someone had to as rep when they got into a basic management position, and was replaced as rep by a non member. I’m not sure how it works in the private sector, I’ve never managed to join a union (I worked in tech as an immigrant in the US and the Netherlands, where it’s hard. Should’ve done it in Sweden, but I didn’t know about unions then)
@hughrawlinson yeah, that feels like unions being stuck in the Victorian era to me. Low level managers are just as much under the boot of executives as the workers below them.