Unions

[mr ed]

Contrary to popular belief unions are not owned by the membership.
They are a business owned usually by lawyers that represent their membership.
You can be a local leader but no matter how high you rise, even to national president.
theres somebody above you telling you what to do.

If they were owned by the membership then why do the ones at S&W, Colt, Remington etc. donate millions to the anti gun crowd? Union members are not too bright.

 

[Lurker66]

Contrary to popular belief unions are not owned by the membership.
They are a business owned usually by lawyers that represent their membership.
You can be a local leader but no matter how high you rise, even to national president.
theres somebody above you telling you what to do.

If they were owned by the membership then why do the ones at S&W, Colt, Remington etc. donate millions to the anti gun crowd? Union members are not too bright.

you just named 3 very old manufactoring companies that have a union workforce. Each of these companies have changed leadership and owners several times. The only constant is the workers and you insult them by saying they aint bright?

Them union members must have been doing something right because those 3 brands have stood the test of time and retain their value like none other.

 

[IndVet]

Contrary to popular belief unions are not owned by the membership.
They are a business owned usually by lawyers that represent their membership.
You can be a local leader but no matter how high you rise, even to national president.
theres somebody above you telling you what to do.

If they were owned by the membership then why do the ones at S&W, Colt, Remington etc. donate millions to the anti gun crowd? Union members are not too bright.

Do you have a reason to hate unions, or are you someone's proxy?

 

[Shriner]

All the radio talk show hosts are in the broadcast union.

Most of the good works of unions was done over 100 year ago , now some are as bad as the companies they were formed to break.

Anyone remember who huffa was in bed with ? ------- the mob ---- how much union money still go's there ? teamers,iron/steelworkers,longshoremen

 

[Lurker66]

Mob or not, them 3 pay their pensioners on time every time, their rank n file are well paid with benefits and retirment plans. How about them non union truckers, steelworkers and longshoreman? Wonder what kind of pension they get or how many hours they have to drive with a rigged logbook?

 

[11b1776]

Who gets the most votes, the candidate that is going to promote being at work on time every day and doing a good job so you can make your contractor money, and in turn can pay you more or you will be pulled off the job and sit on the bench -- Or the candidate that promises to make the contractor bend to your work schedule, not expect you to do a great job, and promises to protect your less fortunate brothers that are lazy while promising to get you a pay raise and more benefits or we will strike and put that rich contractor out of business?

Sounds familiar somehow.

I've been union for over 10 years and never heard anything near this said. The crappy workers are protected because that's the law the union cannot pick and choose who they represent, my company hires all it employees, no input from the union what so ever, they hire the s#*t bags and then the union gets the blame because they(the union) have to try and keep there job. Everything between the company and union is negotiated. Wages, pensions, health care, absentee policy all of it.

 

[Jim Corrigan]

Rabble rabble, why would I want to have a say in how I get to work my job?

 

[p238shooter]

This most likely was a different situation. The contractors who signed up to use union help called the union hall to take from a pool of available electricians as needed. (they had a choice) To be a union electrician you applied to go through the union electricians training program. If accepted, they trained you, you worked for contractors as an apprentice 4 years while attending school 2 nights a week, and then you became a journeyman electrician. Getting great training was available, but many were passed through the system because they were Billy Bob's son, nephew, or brother. Most journeyman electricians made the same money, which was very good in that day and time. I got some perks like a truck to drive back and forth to work and a few other special benefits to entice me to stay with a contractor that appreciated my work ethics at times, but when they ran out of work, I moved on. I quit one contractor and told him why who was doing the Jenks powerhouse when myself and my apprentice had used up our "allotment" of conduit for the day at noon and were told to take these ladders and go to the top floor and sight see for a while. The Drones were trying to push it into overtime by slowing down the job. There was nothing the contractor could do. There was something I could do, so I left, went to the union hall, complained that that was not my style. I made a few calls to contractors I had worked for in the past, and was called called by the union hall that a contractor had a need for me the next day.

All this is not to toot my own horn, but to show that if you apply you self and do your job you can get ahead, or you can FOff and help slow the job down and get a little overtime. I made my choice. My yearly earning were ahead of most of them, I was employed all year, not the first to be laid off every job like many of them.

Both of the business I owned would have been more profitable for me and some of that would have been returned to my good employees if I could have chosen who I could hire and who I could fire without a hassle. Between the union and the government, this is hard.

Your situation seems to be a little different as when a candidate gives a great song and dance to management, shows up and usually does OK during the 90day probation time, then falls off. Why does your union protect these type of people and give your union a bad name? Does your union have any ethics other than protecting everyone, good or bad? It seems your union needs to change its policy.

 

[sanjuro893]

My father-in-law worked at GM. He was part of the union as required and griped that they were very political, told him who he should vote for, threatened strikes for not having enough checkerboards in the break room or different flavors of ice cream at the cafeteria, etc. He figured most of the political wrangling wasn't to benefit the workers but the bosses in D.C. Anyway, when GM shut down and went bankrupt, they weren't even going to get their pensions until the union stepped in. All those years he didn't see the point, then they stepped up. It kinda threw him for a loop. I think they DO serve a purpose. I don't like the idea of being forced to join one in order to work somewhere and the nonsense that happened after Hurricane Sandy is a prime example of the crap they pull. But without them I think it's very easy to get raped by an employer if they ever decided to stoop that low. I guess I would consider them a necessary evil. Just my opinion.

 

[WTJ]

The MegaMarts and like businesses operate with a very low-skilled workforce and do not become overly concerned about recruiting and retention. Operations requiring skilled personnel DO struggle with these issues, as terminating an employee is a lost investment. However, some people will not help themselves. If some unions had more of a craft guild approach, and focused as much as keeping their employer sustainable as they do on numbers and their own greed the issues would diminish. The same greed issues applies to some businesses.

The Sandy issue notwithstanding, you rarely hear much negative reporting about most unions representing a technical craft. It's the unions that try to collect everyone under a contract that create the most backlash. The IAM tried, for example, to lump unskilled workers in with highly skilled workers in some contracts. The result was unequal compensation for the skilled workers. In this case, while it may have financially benefited the IAM, it did not benefit those who applied themselves to learning a skill. The Union greed and collectivist approach resulted in the IAM being voted out of representation of some trades. The lesson: Just because the name states a particular skill does not mean that it represents that skilled craft in an equitable manner.

If some businesses were smart enough to learn to listen to employees and apply them the unions would lose their appeal. However, a MegaMart business model does not care, as there are plenty of warm bodies.