President Biden Praises Apple Employees in Maryland for Unionizing

[ninecows]

\]]

Average amount of vacation time for salaried employees in the US is 2 weeks, sometimes that’s a pool for both sick leave and vacation, plus ~10-12 fixed holiday days every year - and a huge portion of hourly workers functionally get no vacation time at all. There are over 300M people in the US so of course plenty of people by raw numbers can travel (for ex I’m lucky in that I get much more PTO) but overall it’s *vastly* more limited than Europe. I suspecty you’d find the number of people in the US who have literally never left their state shocking,

So in Denmark:
5-6 weeks of paid vacation and a 5-8 holidays on top of that. Normally close to 1 year shared parental leave. Free healthcare. Payed sick days. Unions secured most of that.

High taxes for sure, but still most families can both afford at least one car, iPhones, go to the Mediterranean/Thailand on vacation etc.

Despite the fake rumors from the former US ambassador that most Danes can only afford a bicycle 🤦‍♂️

Edit: just found her tweet. I wonder if she ever left the embassy? Yes. Many Danes take the bicycle. Because it’s healthy and in major cities nearly as fast as going by car.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1535091239246340104

 

[darcyf]

I am not American and was not aware of the maternity leave. That is something your government should deal with as a human right and not be left up to your unions, especially if you want equality for all people, not just those who have a union to back them.

I hardly believe there is a big culture of Americans not taking time off work for vacation. I have travelled many times in the US and if it is not Americans in their RV's or at national parks, monuments and everything else you have to do then your influx of foreign tourists is pretty impressive, especially when they sport American flags on everything showing their host country pride.

That’s a lot of words to admit you actually don’t have any basis of understanding to back up your claims.

Also, I guess Americans should just wait for their government to take their needs seriously rather than take collective action themselves in the form of unions. Maybe give it another century or two and I’m sure it’ll all work out.

 

[unregbaron]

What does Woz say about Apple and Unions?

 

[GMShadow]

So in Denmark:
5-6 weeks of paid vacation and a 5-8 holidays on top of that. Normally close to 1 year shared parental leave. Free healthcare. Payed sick days. Unions secured most of that.

High taxes for sure, but still most families can both afford at least one car, iPhones, go to the Mediterranean/Thailand on vacation etc.

Despite the fake rumors from the former US ambassador that most Danes can only afford a bicycle 🤦‍♂️

Amazing what you can afford when you outsource all responsibility for your national defense to the United States.

When's the last time Denmark created anything of note, I wonder?

 

[DC Wallaby]

but you can't get a credit for a Tesla... because "Tesla made by Elon. Elon is rich man. Rich man bad."

Actually, Elon is bad because Elon is a garbage human being. He just happens to also be a genius capable of pushing for things like EVs and spaceflight.

And I’d like to point out, you don’t need to praise a company that only makes EVs for making EVs. That’s what Tesla does. It’s all they do. But the companies that fought to kill EVs in the ’90s and ‘00s? They need a lot of incentives so they’ll keep producing EVs that are affordable to the masses because it requires them to change the way they‘ve done business for decades.

 

[AppliedMicro]

Too much unionisation and government meddling.

Apple should withdraw their business from the state of Maryland!

 

[NervousFish2]

#unionstrong

 

[GeoStructural]

If the employees felt the need to unionize, I'm sure they had good reasons to.

I understand your sentiment, but not all unions have the best interest of the workers in mind.

In my case the higher ups in the union were abusing funds and having a nice time holding “meetings” in 5-star hotels paid for by the union fees deducted from our salary.

The second case I know was in a mine in the East Coast, all workers had pretty decent benefits, including free food and housing while on shift, but they wanted more even though it was a declining business, they wanted free computers for children going to school and help to cover college tuition without any GPA requirements. Guess what, the mine ceased operations and moved production to Chile and Perú, they are all now unemployed.

 

[antiprotest]

This is good stuff.

Apple should nurture unions.

It’s great publicity and marketing. Free!

Lead the way for the future after this form of vampire capitalism.

Some corporation has to lead the way. The first ones to do it will have many new loyal and faithful customers.

It's not free. If you want, you can argue that you support unions and that it's money well spent if Apple endorses them, but this will cost them A LOT, and then more and more and more, as more stores unionize and the unions negotiate for more.

Of course, the drastically increased costs for Apple will get passed down to the customers -- YOU are paying for this.

 

[NervousFish2]

Unions own Biden. There's a reason he praises GM instead of Tesla for selling EVs.

Tesla, who make cars that lose navigation control and drive into buildings? Tesla, who make cars that frequently go on fire?

 

[coachgq]

Strange that unionizing and protecting the workers' rights has always been such a big deal in the US. Here in Sweden it's a rule of thumb.

But what is there to protect? This isn’t the sawmills or the meat packing plants of the early 1900’s. They help people buy a piece of tech they were probably going to buy anyways.

 

[NervousFish2]

I understand your sentiment, but not all unions have the best interest of the workers in mind.

And?

Sure, its true some unions are overly professionalized. Jane McAlevey wrote a good book about this, called "Raising Hell". But there are many, many good unions, and without them American workers would be in much worse shape, and American consumption would be in much worse shape.

If every Amazon and Starbucks worker was unionized, they'd be much better paid, and many social virtues would flow from this. Apple has far fewer employees, but there is no doubt high profile cases like this help the cause.

 

[seek3r]

That’s a lot of words to admit you actually don’t have any basis of understanding to back up your claims.

Also, I guess Americans should just wait for their government to take their needs seriously rather than take collective action themselves in the form of unions. Maybe give it another century or two and I’m sure it’ll all work out.

Denmark’s defense spending will hit 1.5% next year and 2% by 2033, meeting NATO commitments. Also the alliance and US military presence in Europe benefits the US massively, both in hard and soft power projection, and does so by far more in economic and favorable trade returns than it costs us, *and* we’ve traditionally been the ones to solve military problems on NATO borders by volunteering troops as a result, so we’re not really in a position to throw the stones you’re throwing

 

[Naraxus]

#unionstrong

Unions are trash pure and simple

 

[blacktape242]

stunning and brave

 

[NervousFish2]

Lead the way for the future after this form of vampire capitalism.

Some corporation has to lead the way. The first ones to do it will have many new loyal and faithful customers.

I'm with you so far as overcoming today's vampire/zombie capitalism... but the only way we get there is thru reigning in corporations. I am not saying something like corporations can't exist in democratic socialism, but they would need to be integrated into the production plan in a very different way. Actually, one good case study for this was the NASA moon shot. There, corporations were coerced by government into meeting very high quality control standards, because there was a project of national prestige on the line. In its own way, the Apple show "For All Mankind" documents this. The level of innovation that came from that period of American industry was off the charts. We are still reliant on a lot of their tech breakthroughs. And none of it would have happened at all, if government hadn't taken the lead.

 

[blacktape242]

Was this before or after he fell off his bike?

and was it coherent?

 

[NervousFish2]

Unions are trash pure and simple

Thank you for your contribution today.

 

[NervousFish2]

But what is there to protect? This isn’t the sawmills or the meat packing plants of the early 1900’s. They help people buy a piece of tech they were probably going to buy anyways.

Do you know anyone who works in an Apple Store? They do a lot more than that.

 

[pastrychef]

Ah... Singling me out, huh?

“If I owned a business and my workers tried to unionize, I’d treat it as an act of aggression by them and close my business down!”

What's wrong with this? They have the right to unionize. I have the right to shut down.

“Oh, I love kiosks because then fast food employees don’t give me attitude just for giving my order!”

So customers are supposed to take attitude from people taking their orders?

“If they want to be paid better, they should just make themselves indispensable!”

How is this wrong? Should they expect better pay by being lazier?

“If you want more, work harder” or “If you want to be paid like a CEO, just become a CEO.”

Others have started at the bottom and become CEOs.

Look at Doug McMillon. He started of loading trucks and became CEO of Walmart and he didn't need a union to help him get there.

Look at Brian Dunn. He started off working at a grocery and then became a sales assistant at Best Buy. He also became CEO without the help of any unions.


By the way, thanks for paying close attention to what I say. Hopefully, you've learned some things.

 

[ninecows]

Amazing what you can afford when you outsource all responsibility for your national defense to the United States.

When's the last time Denmark created anything of note, I wonder?

Lego? Insulin? Windmills? Hearing aid… just to name a few.

So you’re saying that the reason why you in the US cannot afford it is due to your military expenses? Ok. Got it.

 

[djcerla]

I wish Biden would worry less about political grabs of attention and worry about inflation and price of goods.

Yeah because everywhere else without Biden prices are dropping hard.

 

[GeoStructural]

I know there are different laws and regulations. But, can the same strategy (unionizing) be applied to the factories in China? I think they need this the most.

You have a good point here, there is where something like this is truly needed. Current labor laws and protections in the US are pretty good and I have yet to find any ‘outrageous’ case like many here say this would prevent.

For instance, the Chinese factory in charge for assembling iPhones had an issue with people jumping off windows and committing suicide, what did they do? Well, they soldered screens and protection fences instead of attacking the root cause of the problem.

 

[IllinoisCorn]

Unions: A bastion of lowest common denominator thinking.

 

[pasamio]

Tesla, who make cars that lose navigation control and drive into buildings? Tesla, who make cars that frequently go on fire?

Yes, it's only Tesla who make cars that have issues with control that cause them to drive into things and frequently go on fire.