Another Union Thread

Strike shuts down Port of Los Angeles

Union clerks who make double the going rate for administrative personnel and get 11 weeks of vacation a year are striking against corporate greed and outsourcing.

 

Wait, so the port wants to outsource jobs and the union goes on strike? So, why not go and outsource them, like... now? LOL

 

^This

Plus eleven weeks vaka! Holy crap

 

Seems like as good of a time as any.

 

Unions WERE a great thing before we had regulations and regulatory agencies that prevent brutal working conditions and we even have a minimum wage now.. go figure. So what purpose does a Union actually serve now other than rewarding the lazy? As for strikes.. we live in a country where if you don't like your job, you have the right to quit and find another one. You don't like how your company is ran and think you can do better? Go start your own. Being from Metro Detroit where the UAW has killed manufacturing and line workers were making $100,000 + without a hs diploma or even a GED has made me bitter.

 

What's the scoop on one of the proposals I have been reading of dissolving Detroit into Wayne County? Just talk or is there any substance behind it?

 

Mayor Bing has been trying to get alot of the abandoned neighborhoods to be absorbed into the surrounding towns and cities. I'm sure eventually Detroit's footprint will shrink (largest city in the country by land mass) but not for a long time. The surrounding areas budgets cant even support their own municipalities much less take on the existing burdens of Detroit.

IMO they need to just dump tons of cash into Detroit to develop its miles of waterfront and beef up the police and fire.. then us suburbanites will be willing to visit the city more often and spend more money.. thus spuring more development.

 

In today's world Unions seem to be in existence for no other reason than to be able to extort companies for more wages and benefits. With Hostess's situation it's the first time I can remember hearing the Union people actually say that they had rather be out of work than capitulate to the company's requests. That's pure simple greed coupled with stupidity.

 

What is stupid is the combination of Union greed + Corporate Greed = company failure. I do not fault the workers for wanting higher wages (don't we all?). I do not fault the company/stockholders from wanting increased profits. However, when the union will not budge on wages, and management/board/stockholders will not budge on profit margin, then the price of the end product goes up, consumers stop buying it, and the company folds.

 

I'm with you on this...

Personally, I don't support unions or their approach to things, but I do think they have limited utility (only in extreme circumstances).

That said, every company I've ever worked for, save one - my first job for an accounting firm, went through layoffs while CEOs/board/management received pay increases/bonuses, etc. In one case, Heilig-Meyers Furniture, the CEO fired himself, invoking a multi-million dollar parachute (I want to say it was $7 million, but I can't remember, it was years ago). Shortly after he removed himself from office, the company filed bankruptcy, laid off everyone, and management received bonuses as they filed out the door.

I've seen it time and time again over the years, so I tend to give the workers the benefit of the doubt.

I just read a story today about DaVita Dialysis - they're going through some legal stuff about defrauding the government of something like $700 million in overcharges. They'll likely settle, or receive some sort of monetary penalty, management's gonna get away scot-free, the workers will likely lose their jobs because the company will be severely crippled.

 

I would tend to agree with you if it concerned a business that's growing and profitable however, if you've read much about Hostess's situation it comes out a bit different. Aside from the greedy company officers desire to get a huge golden parachute, we have to look at the company's position in today's world of healthier eating habits. Their situation has been falling on hard times lately with loss of demand for their products so it's not like the union had much of a chance to squeeze more out of Hostess. They weren't making much profit to begin with and the union wanted more.

Don't forget, the union's own man informed the union bosses that the company was indeed, not able to continue if the union didn't drop their demands and remember what someone else said in another post. The Bakers union decided that they had rather be out on the street than give an inch so they ended up costing, not only their own jobs, but about 12,000 other workers their jobs also. They were trying to squeeze blood out of a turnip and it didn't work out well for them.

 

70 overpaid clerks continue to hold the port hostage.

http://www.newser.com/article/da2rv...complex-idled-by-clerical-workers-strike.html

 

If Corporations are so evil, why do Unions fail to capitalize and start new/competing enterprises?

 

Cuz they can't agree on terms with the United CEOs' of America Union?

 

Because the unions would put them out of business, then they'd *have* to blame themselves.

 

Ahhh!

It is amazing how far we can get if we employ honesty instead of tactics.

 

You mean, the real criminals. Well, second tier. I don't think this type can topple politicians.

 

The thing I've never understood.. and this is probably in the way I was raised, but when you take a job you agree to do said job for what they agree to pay you. If your not happy, don't take the job. If you can find a better job somewhere else, theres the door. If you think you can do it better, open your own company and do it. Employers only owe their workers what they agreed to pay them and a safe working environment... nothing more.

 

With those kinds of labor costs, it's no surprise companies want to outsource. I'm highly skilled with 10 years on the job and I only get 4 weeks vacation.

 

We're expanding our dealership to include another truck line and the owner has friends who own a construction company. He hired that company to do the expansion, electrical work, and pretty much everything really.

I come into work last Monday and there are three guys with a giant inflatable rat and a portable generator set up on the sidewalk grass median in front of our building. Apparently they are a local union and are there to picket the fact that we hired non-union. They were there most of the day from Monday until Friday. I guess they can't be bothered to stand around doing nothing productive on Friday.

This job may employ 20 people at most and these asshats are out there, pissy because they didn't get it.