Michigan pushes right-to-work measure(24th state in the nation to adopt R-T-W)

[RugersGR8]

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/dec/6/unions-explode-michigan-weighs-right-work-law/
Protesters swarm as Michigan pushes right-to-work measure
By Andrea Billups - The Washington Times
Thursday, December 6, 2012

.."It would make Michigan the 24th state in the nation to adopt a right-to-work law, 10 months after neighboring Indiana adopted one."..

 

[Lurker66]

That what happens when you elect pro business legislators to state government super majorities. Workers rights will erode, wages will be supressed and the middle class will grow smaller.

 

[RickN]

Good for them. Maybe someday the dock workers will get the message.

And this us what really upsets the union bosses,

They note the law would not stop anyone from joining a union or limit their right to collective bargaining. But unions have long fought such laws because they prevent unions from forcing workers at organized work sites to join the union or pay mandatory dues as a condition of their employment.

 

[11b1776]

RickN you are so anti union you can't see straight much less tell the whole story if you even know it. What you aren't telling everyone is your right they don't have to pay union dues but, BUT they still get the union perks, the union has to fight for them even though they choose not to be in the union, that is right to work.

 

[RickN]

RickN you are so anti union you can't see straight much less tell the whole story if you even know it. What you aren't telling everyone is your right they don't have to pay union dues but, BUT they still get the union perks, the union has to fight for them even though they choose not to be in the union, that is right to work.

And what you are not telling is that they are FORCED to join the union even if they do not want to, but you are right. I am anti-union. I have seen them do very little good and a lot of harm. Things like this do not help matters either.

The negotiating teams representing employers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach released the following statement regarding the status of negotiations with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 63 Office Clerical Unit (“OCU”):

In a disappointing development, the OCU once again initiated a strike today, picketing at one harbor employer’s terminal facilities, despite the harbor employers’ offers of complete job security, increased wages and pensions, guaranteed pay, and maintenance of all generous health benefits.

Statements released by the OCU attempt to justify the strike by claiming that the employers are trying to outsource jobs, but the facts do not support this claim. Consider the following:

• The employers have offered complete protection against outsourcing by providing an absolute guarantee that no OCU workers will be laid off for the term of the new agreement. Every regular OCU worker has a guaranteed job under the contract offered by the employers.
• The employers have also offered the OCU guaranteed pay of 40 hours a week (37.5 hours for six of the employers) for 52 weeks a year, whether there is work to do or not. The employers have no incentive to outsource OCU work when they are obligated to pay OCU employees whether there is work to do or not.
• Not one OCU job has been sent overseas, or anywhere else. The OCU claim that the employers outsourced “over 51 permanent positions … in recent years,” but the truth is that the 51 employees they identify are individuals who retired with full benefits, quit, or passed away during the past three years. Not one of the 51 job positions they identify has been given to a non-union employee or sub-contracted away; there simply has not been a business need for replacing these workers.
• The expired contract provides a grievance procedure that the OCU can use any time it feels that employers are diverting union work through technology or any other means. The employers’ proposed contract keeps these grievance procedures completely intact, giving the OCU powerful protections against diversion of union employees’ work. For example, employers must give an OCU worker 4 hours of pay any time a non-union employee performs union work (no matter how small the task), unless the non-union employee is training an OCU worker or there is an operational emergency. When a technical violation occurs, the employers have a proven track record of acknowledging the mistake and paying the contractual penalty.

The OCU’s tactics are really designed to protect and promote “featherbedding”-the practice of requiring employers to call in temporary employees and hire new permanent employees even when there is no work to perform. These unacceptable demands encourage and reward absenteeism, reduce efficiency, and succeed only in requiring payment to OCU employees when no work exists.

In the wake of the 2008 global economic crisis and its devastating impact on the container shipping industry, OCU leadership agreed to terms that would restrict the historic featherbedding, allowing the employers to hire new employees or call in temporary employees only when there was a genuine business need to do so. The OCU now insists that any new contract reinstate all of the old featherbedding practices, giving them complete control over employer staffing levels. For example:

• The OCU enjoy extremely generous paid time off benefits (with average absenteeism from vacation, sick leave, holidays, and other leaves totaling over 29%, or three and one-half months, of the year). In the face of this absenteeism, the OCU demand that when employees are absent, for whatever reason, the employers must call in a temporary employee to fill the vacancy on the first day and for the duration of the vacancy.
• The OCU also insist that the employers hire a new employee every time an employee retires or quits, even if there is no work for the new employee to perform.
• The OCU’s last written proposal before the strike includes an unlawful demand that employers convert some managers to union-represented clerks as a reward for giving the OCU misleading and/or false information that the OCU sought to use against the employers during contract negotiations.

During recent negotiations, the employers agreed to relinquish their proposal to control whether and when temporary employees are called in to work, a position they had sought to maintain since the beginning of negotiations in April 2010. The employers offered the OCU three different options for a compromise on the issue of filling temporary vacancies, but the OCU rejected all of these proposals, demanding complete control over staffing.

The OCU has refused to address the needs of the employers; instead, they are pressing demands that would weaken competitiveness of the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports while rewarding and sustaining absenteeism and inefficiency. The OCU are already the highest paid clerical workers in America. The employers’ latest proposals would increase OCU annual compensation packages to over $190,000 in wages and benefits by 2016, including:

• Average annual wages up to approximately $90,000;
• Pensions of up to $75,000 per year;
• Maintenance of all benefits in the OCU’s extremely generous health plan, for which the OCU pay nothing (benefits include, e.g., $0 co-pay for generic drugs; $0 for x-rays, diagnostics, and lab tests; $5 office visit co-pays; 90% coverage for infertility; and more);
• Maintenance of all other employment benefits (an average of 12 weeks of paid time off every year; meal and transportation allowances; early retirement with full benefits; education reimbursement; etc.).

The OCU’s demands are difficult to grasp in the midst of a struggling economy, particularly in the Los Angeles / Long Beach harbor community, with Los Angeles County unemployment totaling 10.5 percent in October 2012. The OCU’s actions reinforce perceptions held by shippers, retailers and other trade partners across the globe that the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are being held hostage by union self-interest-in this case, the interests of 600 office clerks.

 

[BikerHT]

First a little background, so folks know where I'm coming from. I started as an electrical apprentice in 1983. I've worked in residential, commercial and industrial. I have an Electrical Masters License from Texas and an Electrical Contractors License in Oklahoma. I had my own contracting company for 11 years. Most emphasis since 1999 has been heavy industrial, oil & gas, hazardous classified areas, etc. I've held positions of superintendent, project manager, inspector, etc. I was Operations Mgr for an electrical contractor in the OKC area for 2-1/2 yrs, (growing from 22 FT employees to over 150), leaving that position the end of Sept and returned to inspecting.

I'm currently one of about 70 inspectors on a refinery job near Chicago, with about 10,000 craft workers on the project. All craft workers are union - boilermakers, pipe fitters, welders, mill wrights, electricians, instrumentation tech, laborers, etc. This is the first project I have been on with union labor. I have never been for or against unions, I just have never been around them. I've always kept an open mind about them.

In my work history, this 'recession' or what have you with the economy, has never impacted me. I've had all the work and hours I could stand. I am making a BUNCH of money right now and am not complaining at all. I have noticed though, this is the slowest, laziest bunch of workers I have ever seen in my life. I've worked mostly in Texas and Oklahoma, but also in Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska and Pennsylvania. Nowhere I have ever been was like this. It is amazing how long it takes to get anything done. There is SO MUCH time wasted in a day - and night - I'm working the night shift right now (that's why this post comes at this time). If this is what unions are about, I'm glad I've never been around them. Based on what I have seen during the 6 weeks I've been here, a good crew from TX and/or OK would definitely work circles around these folks.

 

[stick4]

Flat out common sense tells me that this Entitlement Mentality that's screwing up the country today originally sprang from the Labor Unions.

 

[TedKennedy]

is what unions are about, I'm glad I've never been around them. Based on what I have seen during the 6 weeks I've been here, a good crew from TX and/or OK would definitely work circles around these folks.

Well, folks from TX and OK are just better.
I have had the pleasure of working for a factory before it was union and after the union came in. Much better working conditions with the union. Safety was huge issue before the union. The place was a sweatshop. Most hardcore anti union folks I know haven't worked in a place like that. Sure, unions have got bad points as well, but I'll take bad with representation over no representation any day!

 

[DPI]

I've worked as a project control scheduler for a very large engineering company and part of that job is to schedule construction times for the process plants. Whenever you have labor unions involved, the cost and time to build is exponentially more than non-union. You must add an efficiency factor to account for the lost productivity and extra cost. That factor could be high as 90% based on geographics. These are real numbers. It not only takes almost twice as many man-hours in some areas it cost substantially more per hour to do it.

First a little background, so folks know where I'm coming from. I started as an electrical apprentice in 1983. I've worked in residential, commercial and industrial. I have an Electrical Masters License from Texas and an Electrical Contractors License in Oklahoma. I had my own contracting company for 11 years. Most emphasis since 1999 has been heavy industrial, oil & gas, hazardous classified areas, etc. I've held positions of superintendent, project manager, inspector, etc. I was Operations Mgr for an electrical contractor in the OKC area for 2-1/2 yrs, (growing from 22 FT employees to over 150), leaving that position the end of Sept and returned to inspecting.

I'm currently one of about 70 inspectors on a refinery job near Chicago, with about 10,000 craft workers on the project. All craft workers are union - boilermakers, pipe fitters, welders, mill wrights, electricians, instrumentation tech, laborers, etc. This is the first project I have been on with union labor. I have never been for or against unions, I just have never been around them. I've always kept an open mind about them.

In my work history, this 'recession' or what have you with the economy, has never impacted me. I've had all the work and hours I could stand. I am making a BUNCH of money right now and am not complaining at all. I have noticed though, this is the slowest, laziest bunch of workers I have ever seen in my life. I've worked mostly in Texas and Oklahoma, but also in Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska and Pennsylvania. Nowhere I have ever been was like this. It is amazing how long it takes to get anything done. There is SO MUCH time wasted in a day - and night - I'm working the night shift right now (that's why this post comes at this time). If this is what unions are about, I'm glad I've never been around them. Based on what I have seen during the 6 weeks I've been here, a good crew from TX and/or OK would definitely work circles around these folks.

 

[Werewolf]

Michigan successfully passed Right to Work yesterday.

IMO it won't matter. Unions are so strong in that state that all they'd have to do to effectively kill RTW there is to refuse to use parts made by non-union shops, deliver to non-union businesses etc.

Add to that the union thugs who will physically and mentally harass those that choose to exercise their right not to join the union and your typical blue collar worker won't have any choice but to join.