@ISIDEWITHQuestionseconomy10yrs ago

Do you believe labor unions help or hurt the economy?

Labor unions represent workers in many industries in the United States. Their role is to bargain over wages, benefits, working conditions for their membership. Larger unions also typically engage in lobbying activities and electioneering at the state and federal level.

Answer Overview

Response rates from 127 Finland voters.

69%
Help
31%
Hurt
44%
Help
25%
Hurt
15%
Help, in theory but have recently become corrupt and should have their powers limited
6%
Hurt, I support some private unions but am strongly against public unions
9%
Help, but ban their ability to make political donations

Historical Support

Trend of support over time for each answer from 127 Finland voters.

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Historical Importance

Trend of how important this issue is for 127 Finland voters.

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 @ISIDEWITH submitted…4mos4MO

Volkswagen Faces Explosive Strikes Over Plant Closures and Job Cuts

Tens of thousands of Volkswagen workers will participate Monday in strikes at plants across Germany, labor union IG Metall said, marking the largest walkouts at the carmaker’s domestic operations since 2018.The walkouts, which are planned to last several hours, follow weeks of collective bargaining negotiations during which VW refused to rule out mass layoffs and potential plant closures in its home market — drastic measures the company says are necessary to prop up its fortunes amid competition from China and weaker European demand.A so-called “peace obligation” between workers and the company, which prohibited industrial action, expired on Saturday, allowing strikes to take place from Sunday at virtually all of Volkswagen’s German factories.“If necessary, this will become the toughest wage dispute Volkswagen has ever seen,” IG Metall’s chief negotiator Thorsten Groeger said in a statement Sunday. “How long and intense this dispute will be is Volkswagen’s responsibility at the negotiating table.”“Volkswagen has set our collective bargaining agreements on fire, and instead of extinguishing this fire during three rounds of negotiations, the management board keeps throwing open barrels of gasoline onto it,” he added.The walkouts will be the first large-scale strikes that Volkswagen has faced since 2018, according to IG Metall, when 50,000 workers idled plants over pay. Although the work stoppages will last only a few hours, it is possible that 24-hour warning strikes could be called later this year. Indefinite strikes could also be called as a last resort, but only after members have been consulted again, IG Metall said.The strikes represent a fresh headache for Europe’s largest automaker, which saw operating profit for the first nine months of the year tumble by a fifth from the previous year, as its flagship brand struggled. Vehicle sales also slipped on particularly weak demand in China, where it is losing market share to Chinese electric vehicle brands.

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 @ISIDEWITH submitted…7mos7MO

Biden will lift ban on offensive weapons sales to Saudi Arabia

The Biden administration has decided to lift a ban on U.S. sales of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia, five sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday, reversing a three-year-old policy to pressure the kingdom to wind down the Yemen war."The Saudis have met their end of the deal, and we are prepared to meet ours," a senior Biden administration official said.Under U.S. law, major international weapons deals must be reviewed by members of Congress before they are made final. Democratic and Republican lawmakers have questioned the provision of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia in recent years, citing issues including the toll on civilians of its campaign in Yemen and a range of human rights concerns.But that opposition has softened amid turmoil in the Middle East following Hamas' deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel and because of changes in the conduct of the campaign in Yemen.The threat level in the region has been heightened since late last month, with Iran and Lebanon's powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah group vowing to retaliate against Israel after Hamas' political chief Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Tehran.The Biden administration also has been negotiating a defense pact and an agreement for civil nuclear cooperation with Riyadh as part of a broad deal that envisions Saudi Arabia normalizing ties with Israel, although that remains an elusive goal.Since March 2022 - when the Saudis and Houthis entered into a U.N.-led truce - there have not been any Saudi airstrikes in Yemen and cross-border fire from Yemen into the kingdom has largely stopped, the administration official said.

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 @ISIDEWITH submitted…5mos5MO

First Transgender Congresswoman: Sarah McBride’s Historic Run in the Hot Seat

Democrat Sarah McBride is expected to make history next week as the first openly transgender person elected to the U.S. Congress.She is no stranger to making history: In 2016 she became the first openly transgender person to address a major U.S. political convention and in 2020 became the first to serve in a U.S. state Senate.McBride, 34, is favored to win Delaware's sole seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, after securing the Democratic nomination in a competitive September primary and is expected to easily win a seat that the three major U.S. nonpartisan political rating services rate solidly Democratic."The fact that the candidacy of someone like me is even possible... is a testament to Delawareans," McBride said in a Saturday interview.However, she sought to play down the history-making nature of her nomination and expected election."People have seen that I have a track record of rolling up my sleeves, digging into the details, bringing Democrats and Republicans together," she said. "That's what I've been campaigning on. I'm not running on my identity."Transgender rights have become a political flashpoint in the U.S. Lawmakers in 37 U.S. states introduced at least 142 bills to restrict gender-affirming healthcare for trans and gender-expansive people in 2023, Reuters reported, nearly three times as many as the previous year. In Congress, Republicans have pushed anti-trans bills at the national level for years.McBride is not worried about working with people who oppose transgender rights in Congress, saying she will focus on members open to bipartisanship, even if they do not fully agree with her values."If democracy is going to work, we have to be able to have conversations across disagreement," she said. "There is a responsibility that comes with being first, but (that) doesn't matter if I don't fulfill the responsibility of just being the best member of Congress that I can be for Delaware."

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