A lot of my friends come from the midwest and some of them have a pretty had take on unions due to chicago. For one there is the cop unions, which I get. And then there is the teachers union. Their justification for their hatred of the teachers union is that the education they got from union teachers sucked, the teachers were abusive but the union protected them from getting fired and they stayed their forever. I know plenty of non-union teachers who were the same, but I guess they did eventually get let go. In general the sentiment is that unions often reward the older leadership members and screw the younger ones, but most importantly they do not serve the greater public. Unions in their experience, are entirely self interested and don't care about the service that is ultimately produced in america. While my friend agrees that this accusation also falls on employers, and to a higher degree, that does not change how she feels about unions. What do you say to this?
so they've never had any actual experience with unions and their opinions are based on the fact that some of the assholes they know were in them? sounds pretty substantive and air tight to me.
my advice is different from most. there isn't a magical dunk that is going to make them understand that cops aren't workers and unions basically succeed or fail on solidarity. unless you are confident that you can teach them (without making them feel like you are talking down to them) rather than beat them over the head with facts, it is an exercise in futility. actually, my advice would be to find some books on teaching and theory (if you haven't yet). if you want to go without a net, at least make sure that they provide all the answers.
feel like it shouldn't be controversial to say that debate doesn't change any minds aside from the bystander's so if these are one on one conversations, they will go nowhere unless you go on the offense by discontinuing to justify your views and make it about theirs. though if you are unsuccessful you may find yourself seeing these people less though. if this is a desired outcome, use them as practice.
it's important that you ask questions like this, but first you must teach yerself or whatever.
Do you have a book you particularly recommend?
Paulo Freire - Pedagogy of the Oppressed
i'll have to give it some thought and get back to you. might fuck around and make some sort of pamphlet.
I think the question I have that I am not sure about is addressing the union problem of it basically being too narrow minded and therefore cutting off more universal changes that are needed. Another thing that was brought up was the nevada unions voting against medicare for all and hurting Sanders in the primary. My friend voted for Bernie in this primary. This kind of think is rampant in the midwest where I am from.