How do unions work? How did they get in power and give us rights?
In: Other
This is very simplistic, but this is ELI5:
> How did they get in power and give us rights?
An employee only really has 1 thing of interest to an employer – their labour. So when a group of people gets together who have all agreed to stop providing that labour to the employer, they have to listen to what the workers want. Strike action has been a huge force in getting governments to put worker protections in place.
While the normal employees are on strike, the employer can bring in outside workers, but if it’s skilled work this is difficult to find people with the right skills, in the right area, who are willing to do this. These outside workers will usually also charge a LOT of money because they know the employer needs them.
It’s not normally in an employer’s interests to let strike action go ahead, which is why unions have quite a lot of power.
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