STOCKHOLM, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Swedish trade union IF Metall said on Thursday it was calling off its three-year-long industrial action against Tesla after the carmaker bought out all the union's striking members at the company. "This means that the co...
You very clearly don’t understand the rules here. No you don’t have to be a member, Obviously the union isn’t part of the company, that would be weird and wrong. But in bigger companies, the unions have a right to have 2 members on the board. But you cannot force people to be members of a union, that is illegal. You can only force a company to follow the agreement between DA and LO, or you may negotiate your own terms as a company.
When you start a new company like McDonalds was at the time (early 80’s), they can easily ask the people they hire if they are members of a union, and then not hire them if they are.
IDK if any were, and it’s irrelevant except for the ability to receive compensation from the union in case of a strike.
I am not familiar with the second example, but it is absolutely the case that unions may step in and blockade a company that doesn’t follow the agreement set between the union of the companies (Employers) that in Denmark is called Dansk arbejdsgiverforening (DA) and the united worker unions called LO.
If these agreements aren’t met by any employer, unions may step in and make sanctions, boycotts and blockades, to get them to follow the rules, disregarding whether they have union members employed or not.
Okay I did some more digging for specifics on 0 representation, and came up with a case for 3F where it was legal. But I would be shocked if McDonalds actually had 0 representation at the time.
3F had 0 active members in the union at the location, but they still had a sympathy strike against them which was ruled legal. Only after they signed an agreement with a different union, did that sympathy strike become illegal.
I didn’t mean it that way. I know in North America, you aren’t a union member at the company unless the employees at the location vote to join the union. In Scandinavia, you can just join the union and it’s an employee by employee choice unrelated to the company.
As I very clearly described to you, they could refuse to hire union members.
And you join the union the next day anyway?
That’s a possibility of course, but remember that when McDonalds opened in Denmark they only had 1 place, close to the entrance to Tivoli in Copenhagen, next to a Burger King that opened before McDonalds in Denmark.
It’s not like they opened 100 or even just 2 places at once.
Apart from my other response, it is also unlikely, if you are in the union when unemployed you get benefits, why join the day after and pay for membership, the day you don’t get any benefits?
If this was to be theoretically likely, most people would at least wait for their first paycheck, so they can better afford the membership.
Unions aren’t cheap.
My thoughts are McDonalds likes to hire young staff, so its a lot of people’s first jobs. Now that they’ve got work, oh shit I should join the union. But ya, next day likely not, but the union didn’t call a sympathy strike on day 1 either. It was many years later, lots of time to have actual representation at the store. (edit: And it looks like the food workers at McDonalds partook in the strike, so they were members by then)