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Union mentality... I'll never understand it

Discussion in 'General' started by dickie doo, Nov 2, 2012.

  1. Mongo

    Mongo Administrator

    Absolutely all people - some great some not so much. However they're still all engaged in an unnecessary activity.
     
  2. G 97

    G 97 Garth

    Look around and you will find the entire country having a disdane for unions and their selfish, self-serving agendas. Why is that? I mean if unions are suppose to be so great and so good for everyone. Oh wait they only exist to serve themselfs at the expense of the remainder, no wonder all of the disdain for them.

    One only needs to look to at the state of Wisconsin and see just how ugly and self serving unions have become while at the same time finally seeing the remainder wake up and take action against them.

    Racism? :crackup:
     
  3. RubberChicken

    RubberChicken PimpMasterT

    Like everything, there are two sides to the story. In some industries company owners take advantage of workers in any number of ways from failure to pay overtime to forced work in unsafe environments with improper or inadequate safety measures. While state and federal employment laws have come a long way to do what the unions did alone many year ago, government is very slow to take on business. Unions are on the job all the time, and the company owners know it.

    When I worked in the marine dredging industry, I saw the conditions that non-union dredgemen worked under. They were sub-human, and often lethal. We union dredgemen had better safety equipment, competent, trained crews and captains, and better equipment to assure that we were completing the job to the letter of the contract. The US government was often our client, and the contracts were worth millions of dollars. The rogue outfits that would come up from the deep South to work non-government jobs did damage, dumped dredge spoils in navigable waterways, keep their crews on the boats for months at a stretch without relief or adequate rest, and they often made them work in severe weather conditions where they lost boats and crews. Those conditions still exist today.

    The same goes for the electricians union. I hated the IBEW, but at least they were adamant about maintaining job integrity and safety procedures.

    When a disaster strikes the USA, the death toll is often very low as compared to similar disasters in other parts of the world. Part of the reason for that is union supervision of safety rules and job quality.

    We are along ways from not needing unions in the USA.
     
  4. Mongo

    Mongo Administrator

    Sorry but bullshit - no one is forced to do anything, you can easily choose to quit working for that company. The government safety people are easy to contact and vigilant as hell. The government has no issue taking on business in any manner.
     
  5. Mblashfield

    Mblashfield Well-Known Member

    Unions are 50 years past their effectiveness. Absolutely no way to justify their existence today. Nothing positive comes from them. All they represent today are higher prices, less work done per shift/hour/week/month and good American jobs shipped overseas or out of state.
    Every good non union company has great safety training (by law) and great OJT if they want to be profitable and competitive.
    Unions are worthless today.
     
  6. RevRacing

    RevRacing Well-Known Member

    But.....Unions are a business. A big, profitable business. They are the very thing theyre trying to "protect" their members from.

    I'm furloughed from a large transportation company right now. Thanks for the protection, UTU. I'd bet my life if we were company employees this non-chalant attitude towards layoffs wouldnt exist. Why? Because that would negatively effect stock values.

    If you started a company, would you really want union employees?


    And a closed shop...in all the research Ive done on collective bargaining, I still cant figure out how thats legal.

    Oh and while Im furloughed I still have to pay my dues.
     
  7. Dave_SV

    Dave_SV Well-Known Member

  8. ryoung57

    ryoung57 Off his meds

    I think the true issues is that both Unions and Business have found a way to work together without sacrificing a thing - because they make the consumer fit the bill.

    Once upon a time, it was a push/pull. The businesses were hard on the employees, so the employees formed unions to fight back and get some representation. Now, with the government involved as much as they are, technically there's no need for the union, but they're so well entrenched that they're not going anywhere.
     
  9. RubberChicken

    RubberChicken PimpMasterT

  10. RR558

    RR558 Well-Known Member

    Sorry Mongo but you live in fantasy land if you think the real world is like that as some people really need those jobs and won't say a word to anyone about the conditions. I'm a small non-union shop (was a union carpenter 10 yrs.) and I've seen some really bad shit people have to do from other contractors that I would never make or let my guys do.
     
  11. Matt H

    Matt H ah, mi scusi

    And no shortage is why my brother is being mandated to work 12 hour shifts, 7 days a week, until everything is fixed....
     
  12. joec

    joec brace yourself

    i dont thnk anyone is questioning the ability if the guys who are union. obviously apprentices, journeyman, etc learn everything there is to know. its how they use that knowledge later, after they land the cake gig. then the unscrupulous actions they use to defend their jobs.

    like i said, ive seen plenty of great work from union guys, and equally crappy. thats not limited to only union guys on sites.

    the fact they want to exist in 1973 forever is sort of a joke. evolve or yeah, lose your job.

    my uncle was a shop steward for years. i know he didnt put up with shit. and i cant think of a more fair guy to have run the shop.

    flip side is i was very obviously railroaded by the carpenters union where i was a member. which lead me to gain the backing of the majority of our shop, after which we voted their asses out. it made zero difference in the following years. the bs that was going on in that shop was unbelievable. they took our money and we got nothing for it.
     
  13. Mongo

    Mongo Administrator

    There are definitely some people who won't stand up for themselves. Not sure how much sympathy I have for them. I've done crap to keep a job but never for very long, the end result is I'm worth more than the job is.
     

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