Union Busting

[Crashman]

Lately we've seen a great deal of debate in the news about "union busting".

Working for $0.15 over minimum wage I was fined $40 by the union. When I asked someone from the union why I would want to work for LESS than minimum wage, they told me to shut up. Later I was threatened, and here's why:

1.) The company had around a dozen full-time employees who worked around 9 months a year.
2.) The company had several hundred seasonal workers
3.) You had to work for 3 months before you got representation
4.) Hundreds of seasonal workers would pay 3 month's dues but only work 70-80 days.

It was a scam dreamed up by the full-time employees to get their 3-months of supplemental income payments while laid-off. The union was voted in during the off-season when the seasonal workers had no vote, and they would threaten people to avoid having a vote taken up while seasonal workers were present. Benefits that "everyone" paid for but never got also included full medical care for the entire family of those dozen full-time workers and even a retirement package.

I found that many manufacturers hire temporary workers for the same reason, so, I can appreciate any effort to take power away from unions: The "masses" are basically "paying protection to the mob". Yet being a "fair minded" person, I want to hear your stories about how someone in your family was protected by a union, without ripping off "the masses".

 

[badge]

Labor unions are currently and have been throughout modern U.S. history a miserable failure to the nth degree. Labor unions ruining the U.S. auto industry and bringing down what quality is left of our of our public education system are but two obvious examples.

 

[dfusco]

Unions had there day abd did a lot to improve working conditions. But, the pendulum has swung to far in the other direction and the unions need to be reigned in.

 

[wribbs]

Unions are just a function of unfair wealth distribution and the exploitation of the poor by the rich. If top earners weren't making obscenely more than the average worker there would be no unions. It's all about getting a share of the pie. Also, the laws Unions have gotten passed are the reason your children don't work 80+ hours a week for $1 in hazard ridden conditions.

Overall were better with them.

Crashman, I cannot believing you work for minimum wage. 🙁

 

[wribbs]

I haven't really been following the news lately but as far as these public employee unions, I'd have to agree with you and FDR that these unions aren't doing any good.

However teachers are certainly not raking in the big bucks. I think if we can afford to pay a bunch of bankers bonuses for failing we can afford to give teachers healthcare even if they are also failing.

Idiocracy will happen.

 

[wribbs]

Whoa where are you getting that $80k from. Teachers make about half that. Maybe you're thinking of a College Professor.

 

[wribbs]

An elementary teacher with a masters. I think these are a little more accurate.
http://teacherportal.com/teacher-salaries-by-state

Still more than what I thought.

 

[wanamingo]

An elementary teacher with a masters. I think these are a little more accurate.
http://teacherportal.com/teacher-salaries-by-state

Still more than what I thought.

The comments on that particular site are more revealing than the numbers themselves.

 

[wribbs]

We'll for that kind of money we should have plenty of qualified candidates to replace our poorly performing teachers. We really need to start holding dumbasses back instead of pushing them through K-12. There should also be some sort of common sense test to graduate because I'm quite convinced common sense isn't common at all.

The comments on that particular site are more revealing than the numbers themselves.

lol yeah. They make me think how we, the public, are essentially their employers and we're reading their facebook pages full of stupid remarks that will get them fired.

I still maintain that there are much worse things that our government spends far more on than paying teachers more than they deserve.

 

[Crashman]

Unions are just a function of unfair wealth distribution and the exploitation of the poor by the rich. If top earners weren't making obscenely more than the average worker there would be no unions. It's all about getting a share of the pie. Also, the laws Unions have gotten passed are the reason your children don't work 80+ hours a week for $1 in hazard ridden conditions.

Overall were better with them.

Crashman, I cannot believing you work for minimum wage. 🙁

I'm salaried now Unfortunately it means I work twice as many hours...but even when you calculate the extra hours it's far more than than minimum wage.

However, I've spent most of my life in minimum-wage jobs. Some of those were union shops, a Kleptocracy where the corporation was a figurehead and the real power was held by the union. Those followed the 90-10 rule, where the 10% privileged class (union workers) got their benefits paid for by the 90% who were temp workers. The full time hourly workers even have their own name for it "K*nts and Grunts" to refer to the corporate managers and temp workers...but let's be honest here, if the roles had been reversed and I'd been in the 10%...I'd likely be making arguments in support of the union.

Of course public sector unions are often different because they have no "Grunts" (everyone is a union member) and the k*nts are the voters.

 

[Reynod]

Well I am a union member but I have not had to use them ... bar the one time.

I joined because a senior GM here at the college where I work was bullying the 14 delivery managers (I am one of them) and threatened to get rid of us.

She had no sympathy for the 60 plus hrs a week we work ( no overtime) and we decided to join the union, and write a letter to our MD and the Deputy Director General for Training.

The union called in their lawyer, and we hired a second one for reference, and to write our letter.

That jarred her A$$.

What a cockroach ... got her degree out of a weetbix packet, and prior to this job (which was handed to her on a plate) she was a part-time lecturer (which one of us had fired for incompetence).

The laywey for the union said if she played any further nasty games we have plenty of evidence to have her sacked.

So far she has left us alone ... we will see.

You can be bullied at all levels ... not just when your a peon on the bottom (hey ... and I started as a peon!).

I have 45 staff working for me and so I try to remember not to behave like the nasty biatch above.

 

[Crashman]

Well I am a union member but I have not had to use them ... bar the one time.

I joined because a senior GM here at the college where I work was bullying the 14 delivery managers (I am one of them) and threatened to get rid of us.

She had no sympathy for the 60 plus hrs a week we work ( no overtime) and we decided to join the union, and write a letter to our MD and the Deputy Director General for Training.

The union called in their lawyer, and we hired a second one for reference, and to write our letter.

That jarred her A$$.

What a cockroach ... got her degree out of a weetbix packet, and prior to this job (which was handed to her on a plate) she was a part-time lecturer (which one of us had fired for incompetence).

The laywey for the union said if she played any further nasty games we have plenty of evidence to have her sacked.

So far she has left us alone ... we will see.

You can be bullied at all levels ... not just when your a peon on the bottom (hey ... and I started as a peon!).

I have 45 staff working for me and so I try to remember not to behave like the nasty biatch above.

Now that's the kind of example I'm looking for reynod, thanks!

 

[AGPC]

Labor unions= a bunch of dumb no-gooders

 

[Reynod]

This topic has been closed by Reynod