Can't understand mellienals.

I've spent my whole life in TN and my wife has been in education for 10 years now, first as a teacher and is now an assistant principal, all at the high school level. I didn't even know teacher's unions existed here until a couple weeks ago when she casually mentioned it during conversation. She said maybe 5 teachers out of 100+ at her school are members. For reference, TN is a right to work state.

 

I just found out a few years ago , that teachers don’t qualify for social security... at least in Illinois ..

 

That varies from state to state, depending on whether they pay into the system or if they are part of a state retirement pension plan.
So, my retirement pension plan is from Alaska and I did not pay into SS for all of those years. I still get a small SS payment for my other years working outside of AK and education.

 

I immediately took this as a personal challenge and finished reading the rest of your post while counting. I did both without skipping any numbers.

 

I just read your post on my phone ... am I in some sort of trouble ?

 

Shrugs, had super seniority from being high up in a union, years ago. The only advantage it offered was protection from layoffs - which never occurred. Oh, also received $40-50 a month for mileage reimbursement to an after work meeting. All those hours trying to protect the integrity of skilled trades, high quality apprenticeship programs, encouraging/enforcing corporate professionalism, and I made the same base wage as my colleagues in the trades. We didn’t provide a pay boost for union reps to ensure they were taking on the roles for the right reasons, or were at least not taking them on for personal gain. Also costs me a solid $10k a year in having to decline OT to prep for or attend labor-management meetings.

 

It’s often more complicated than the optics suggest. I’ve sat in a few termination hearings as the union rep… and outright stated the person should be fired and that I don’t represent them, I represent the collective bargaining agreement. I don’t want someone incompetent, lazy, or unethical in either the union which I was a member of or the company which I was an employee of. What I did stand for though was the contractually agreed upon process. Ended a few meetings pointing out the failures of an employee, supervisor, and HR professional.

While my personal opinion is that they still have a place, I’m now often distraught on how many are managed. Having left industry for education and where a union is an option, I never joined as a faculty member. As I worked my way up through the administration, I’m now often baffled by how some of the educator unions operate. Shrugs.

 

That’s how a union should be run. For the benefit of members and the mission. Unfortunately, I don’t see how the model you described could scale to cover a company the size of GM let alone the entire industry. Once you get to that scale you’ll need professional staffers. Then you’ll need management. Then you need political muscle. That all takes money. The bigger the union the more money it’ll take. With the big money comes corruption. Scale inherently brings evil with it. The best we can hope for is the least corrupt leader we can find who relentlessly pursues the mission.

For everyone saying they don’t like how unions spend money on politics, that makes zero sense. Probably at least 80% of the issues facing American workers are political in nature. If your goal is to protect the interests of workers, how the hell do you manage if you ignore 80% of the game?

 

The union representatives in my local had the same pay rate as the workers. But they have an additional pension after two terms , and a Union supplied vehicle. And they were voted in by the membership.
I understand that not all unions are the same . But from my experience, Construction unions do a fantastic job of representing there members , getting them a great salary, Pension and Annuity so there members can live a great life when they retire .
Edit: the Union Business Agents only did Union stuff and didn’t work with the tools in my local .

 

Exactly. Kids are still reading, kids are still playing music, kids are still in theater, baseball fields are full of kids, football field is full, soccer field is full, skatepark is full, BMX track is full, playgrounds are full. Kids are doing all the same stuff they've always done and the older generation is still bitching. Just ike they've always done lol.

 

THIS..

They are also getting BETTER at those sports and activities. Why? Cellphones/internet. Now you can deep dive into whatever current hobby you have, network with others who are also into the same hobby/sport. This helps keep motivation up, and people stay engaged.

You know, basically like having a whole internet forum dedicated to motorcycle racing. Except a lot of it has now moved to a new media (FB, IG, TikTok, etc)

I used this very exact forum to start a thread about mountain bikes.. I didn't know shit about them other than I wanted to try it. So I went and bought some bikes after looking at reviews and stuff on my phone, and talking to the sales girl. This forum has helped me with setting shit up, and learning how to do things properly. All by staring at my phone.. Now I can crash while going even faster on the trail than I was before.

I'm 34 and actually a millennial... I'm on my phone constantly. I try to be social in those settings, but if I'm bored, annoyed, or I DGAF about the topic at hand, (especially with todays 2 big topics of politics, and pandemics) I will quickly revert back to the phone/tablet. I don't care if others find it rude. I don't set my behavior around what others have decided is an acceptable expectation of me. I do so much with my phone.. from buying/selling parts, day trading stocks and crypto, I'm an avid comic book reader and phones tablets have made it so I don't have to figure out where to store the 10's of 1000's of comics I would have bought since ComiXology became a thing lol.

People are still very much into stuff other than their phones/tablets. It's just that phones/tablets make it easier to enjoy that other stuff sometimes.

FWIW I would have put my phone away and cast some lines.. But I like fishing. Maybe these kids don't like fishing, or they didn't know enough about it, and OP was a shitty salesman. lol

 

Agreed. Kids used to bury their heads in the TV set.

 

Only if the parents let them. Mine didn't.

 

Looks like we've found the answer.

 

Am I currently and willfully participating in 'social medization' by just reading all of this thread?

 

I`m on the school advisory; def not the case. huge numbers of young people have no idea about work.

After 40 years in business, i have never seen it like this; and it`s the same thing echoed by almost all small business people. Epedemic.

Raised to be dependent. Kept that way by the g. Want to do anything? No.

 

Fair enough. I don’t know. What I do know is that my grandfather said the exact same thing about my generation 40 years ago.

 

And he was right too.

 

Shit- I don't really want to work much anymore... but after 42 years of working can ya blame me?

 

Ouch