Freaking Unions

[Nails]

Boat loads of Chinese Crap on stand by , devastating

if only we had more shit made in the good ol' US OF A


we should worry more about exporting then importing

[Coach is Back!]

Oh no, the economy is going to implode.

Don't be an idiot. This is going on along the entire West Coast.

[Bindare_Dundat]

Don't be an idiot. This is going on along the entire West Coast.

Corporate profits and wealth and income inequality are at all-time highs and you bash dock workers trying to get fair labor contracts?

You're the idiot.

[The Ugly]

Too bad Reagan ain't still around to lay the smackdown, like he did with the air traffic controllers.

[The Abdominal Snoman]

Every union rep I ever had forced upon me was bar none the shittiest, laziest, whiniest guy on the job. Never gave a shit about the work or helping other solid employees complete tasks. "Not my job," they'd inevitably say, while any other employee usually had no problem helping out.

To a man, all they talked about was "our rights," "our breaks/lunches," "our contracts," "our negotiations," "our grievances" - never once "our responsibilities." These were workers/reps, mind you; utterly useless pieces of shit, decades worth.

Never once saw them defend a decent worker, either; because good workers rarely, if ever, needed representation. Always just the other worthless malcontents who shoulda been fired anyway.

That's weird. Bob Chick is a great union rep for his athletes.

[Bindare_Dundat]

Just be honest Coach, you ordered one of these to fix your lid and its on one of those boats.  Thats why you're really pissed.

[Primemuscle]

Unions were so important in this country and now for the most part are a political money collecting machine for evil. They blindly support Democrats while they shake down their members for dues that they live high on the hog on.

Some of the Unions in New Jersey appear to be Mafia run. One construction Union hall had a guy drive up to a big construction site in a brand new Cadillac. Work stopped and all the workers lined up and peeled off hundreds to a wise guy in a suit. They have to kick back in order to get picked out of the Union hall to work.

The teachers unions are so well funded in the NJ/NY area that they seem to have commercials on network tv every week. That's some money to waste. Aside from backing Democrats with Union money they always scream education is being under funded hurting kids. That's code for we need a higher paying contract.   

I don't live in NY or NJ so I am not an expert on union activity there. I am a longtime member of Oregon School Employees Association which is a union that represents about 22,000 classified school employees. I know first hand that the staff at OSEA aren't getting rich off their salaries. They do make fair and competitive wages which any business hoping to attract quality employees would expect to pay.

In Oregon, public schools are primarily state funded with some local tax revenue which varies depending on the school district. I live in a relatively wealthy community where folks voted additional school funding to maintain the high quality educational standards our population expects. This school district and one other in a neighboring community are the highest ranked school districts in the state.

School districts lobby for funding. The biggest part of school district budgets goes to wages and benefits which is consistent with any service industry. Bond levies are often the source of funding for capital improvements. Voters have to approve a bond levy. Supplies such as text books, computers and other such items is relatively small portion of school district budgets. The school district employees pay taxes like everyone else. It might surprise you to know that many of these employees don't like paying taxes anymore than anyone else does. To suggest employees lobby for higher taxes is just plain silly.

[Coach is Back!]

Just be honest Coach, you ordered one of these to fix your lid and its on one of those boats.  Thats why you're really pissed.

Hahaha, I can probably do a better job myself with that Flowbee than the dude who made me look like I had mange. lmao

[mental_masturbator]

Interesting thread to see on a BB forum...

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, less than 7% of private-sector workers (6.6 percent), belong to a union.  Wow!  I think the decline of the middle class and the decline of unions is more than a correlation.  The next time I hear some right-winger going on about how unions have so much power and influence, I'll wonder what country they're living in.

If organized labor wants to survive, they must embrace and push hard for the democratization of the workplace, e.g. worker-owned/self-directed enterprises.  An analogy...as slavery came to an end, there existed a group who argued for better working/living conditions for the slaves.  A second group looked hard at the situation and said basically that the problem wasn't that slaves were mistreated and abused.  The real problem was that they were slaves!  There is something to be said for being a "wage slave".  Cheers!

[honest]

Every union rep I ever had forced upon me was bar none the shittiest, laziest, whiniest guy on the job. Never gave a shit about the work or helping other solid employees complete tasks. "Not my job," they'd inevitably say, while any other employee usually had no problem helping out.

To a man, all they talked about was "our rights," "our breaks/lunches," "our contracts," "our negotiations," "our grievances" - never once "our responsibilities." These were workers/reps, mind you; utterly useless pieces of shit, decades worth.

Never once saw them defend a decent worker, either; because good workers rarely, if ever, needed representation. Always just the other worthless malcontents who shoulda been fired anyway.

Most accurate post in the whole thread,

[honest]

As a large former employer of unionised labour in both manufacturing and dry wall contracting i can tell you unions are why im no longer in both industries directly.

No need to whine I just took my money and invested it elsewhere as I didn't need the exposure. As a self made person, I should be all for unions, but im not in-fact, there are people in this thread I like so i wont engage on this level. Not all union members are lazy, but all lazy employees are union,thats all i will say in my experience.
And I ran 150 to 200 men at my peak, and all my best guys got topped up over and above the rate of pay, you have to do that to keep them, its paying to high for the bad ones and not being able to get rid of them, hard to complain to a guy about being lazy when the laziest guy you ever met is the organiser.

[Bindare_Dundat]

As a large former employer of unionised labour in both manufacturing and dry wall contracting i can tell you unions are why im no longer in both industries directly.

No need to whine I just took my money and invested it elsewhere as I didn't need the exposure. As a self made person, I should be all for unions, but im not in-fact, there are people in this thread I like so i wont engage on this level. Not all union members are lazy, but all lazy employees are union,thats all i will say in my experience.
And I ran 150 to 200 men at my peak, and all my best guys got topped up over and above the rate of pay, you have to do that to keep them, its paying to high for the bad ones and not being able to get rid of them, hard to complain to a guy about being lazy when the laziest guy you ever met is the organiser.

What's the rate of pay for your top drywaller?

There aren't any lazy drywallers outside of union boarders?

[che]

There aren't any lazy drywallers outside of union boarders?

Of course not

[Dave D]

Walmart is taking it on the chin today as they've "decided", via litigation,  raise employee wages above minimum wage. They said hours will be cut and the stock price has dropped.

Serious question,  what would be the recommendation for a company like Walmart, unionize and make them pay employee benefits, or let them continue to take advantage of the powerless low level employees they have?

[orion]

As a large former employer of unionised labour in both manufacturing and dry wall contracting i can tell you unions are why im no longer in both industries directly.

No need to whine I just took my money and invested it elsewhere as I didn't need the exposure. As a self made person, I should be all for unions, but im not in-fact, there are people in this thread I like so i wont engage on this level. Not all union members are lazy, but all lazy employees are union,thats all i will say in my experience.
And I ran 150 to 200 men at my peak, and all my best guys got topped up over and above the rate of pay, you have to do that to keep them, its paying to high for the bad ones and not being able to get rid of them, hard to complain to a guy about being lazy when the laziest guy you ever met is the organiser.

I gotta call you on this.  Getting rid of someone you don't like or doesn't measure up is the easiest thing to do in the unionized skilled trade industry.  It's called a LAY OFF, two hours notice, no reason given.  A lot of made up bullshit in this thread.

[che]

I gotta call you on this.  Getting rid of someone you don't like or doesn't measure up is the easiest thing to do in the unionized skilled trade industry.  It's called a LAY OFF, two hours notice, no reason given.  A lot of made up bullshit in this thread.

Exactly , when I lay off a lazy fuck  ,sometimes the union call me and ask me why,  I tell them  because he is  a worthless piece of shit  ,that's it.

[The Ugly]

Love this speech.

[Competitor 9]

So there are Union Guy in here saying they are garbage and other union members that defend it. 

[Primemuscle]

As a large former employer of unionised labour in both manufacturing and dry wall contracting i can tell you unions are why im no longer in both industries directly.

No need to whine I just took my money and invested it elsewhere as I didn't need the exposure. As a self made person, I should be all for unions, but im not in-fact, there are people in this thread I like so i wont engage on this level. Not all union members are lazy, but all lazy employees are union,thats all i will say in my experience.
And I ran 150 to 200 men at my peak, and all my best guys got topped up over and above the rate of pay, you have to do that to keep them, its paying to high for the bad ones and not being able to get rid of them, hard to complain to a guy about being lazy when the laziest guy you ever met is the organiser.

It is safe to say that we can all find examples of good and bad when it comes to unions and union workers. As a union activist and "shop steward" for the classified employees at the school district where I worked for 30 years, I ran across my share of fuck-ups who definitely deserved to lose their jobs. Sometimes the best I could muster was a decent exit for them. Having confessed this, I will also say that I defended more than a couple of folks who were great employees and who were being railroaded out of their jobs for political reasons or just because their supervisors wanted to bring someone in that was their friend.

Some unions have a history of strong arming people who have no reason to belong to a union. My step-dad was a painting contractor. He primarily worked alone. Regardless of this, the painter's union in L.A. harassed him on the job to the point where he had to remove the advertisement for his business from his truck to avoid them. At different times, I worked for both union and non-union painting contractors. Aside from my dad, I also worked for another non-union contractor who was a great employer. In contrast, I worked for a union contractor who was a total jerk and who didn't pay his employees. The painter's union did nothing to help resolve this issue.

My long-winded point is there are examples of situations where unions have value and there are also examples of circumstances where it appears that unions are corrupt. It is never wise to generalize or stereotype these situations.  
While unions are sometimes flawed, overall their presence has improved things for the working class. Remember this, if all employers treated their employees fairly, unions would cease to exist.

[Bindare_Dundat]

I gotta call you on this.  Getting rid of someone you don't like or doesn't measure up is the easiest thing to do in the unionized skilled trade industry.  It's called a LAY OFF, two hours notice, no reason given.  A lot of made up bullshit in this thread.

That was mentioned in one of my first posts. If there's a useless employee still hanging around its only the fault of the foreman/management. It is very easy to get rid of someone through a layoff scenario. Sorry, not enough work, bye.

[Nails]

[SF1900]

So there are Union Guy in here saying they are garbage and other union members that defend it. 

Yes, because no system is perfect. Its not too difficult to understand. Most things in life are not "black and white." There are grey areas to just about everything. Not all unions are great or perfect. And not all are horrible.

At the end of the day, I would take a union job over a nonunion job. Most people would, even the ones in this thread saying how much they hate unions.