ARE YOU PRO-UNION OR ANTI-UNION?

by Mary 71 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  hillbilly

  Mostly anti-union with the exception of rural areas without alot of job opportunities,
  
  
  I say if you are gonna have unions in urban areas, then everything ought to be unionized, why discriminate against the cashier at Kroger's? the pizza driver, or anyone else?
  
  For most regions of this country there are plenty of different jobs, just pick up any newspaper. Small towns though are very limited and the workers there dont have the opportunity to job shop.
  
  So I say unions only in smaller areas.

  Dave...have you ever read a book or newspaper in your whole life? Do you make this stuff up all on your own or are you just Sh*ttin' us? Last I heard Kroger's was union...from the meatcutters in Cincinatti to the bagboys and janitors in all the stores. They have been for years.

  Labor and unions in areas were there is no work to be found? Or small towns with limited workforce... sounds more like a "collective" you want in those places, Dave. I figured a good conservative Republican like you would understand Communism. The Federal grant that funds your job in the jail... maybe thats why your a little confused.

  Please expand on this theory... I think we will find it educational.

  I think I will hop in my $50 K SUV and down some 40's with the homeys now.

  ~Hill
• 

  juni

  hey Mary..

  I've worked nonunion and union jobs. Depends... advantages and disadvantages with both. My last employer was extemely fair and generous w/employees so I was glad to have the union out of the picture. Other employers are a holes .. even then it depends on the union's policies. Got shafted at one job even though there was a union.
• 

  Highlander

  Unions are great at protecting the lazy and incompetent. They are also great at slashing tires when they don't get their way.
• 

  hillbilly

  Unions are great at protecting the lazy and incompetent. They are also great at slashing tires when they don't get their way.

  So... did they slash all of your tires? Or just one? I guess you didnt get them to save YOUR job when you did something wrong so all those other bastards in that plant are lazy or incompetent? Are you a scab or strike buster? Cause if you do cross a picket line... you may be breaking the law and some people get a little upset about that.

  Sarcasm aside... Higlander... did you ever pay union dues or work in a unionized workforce? Or are you spouting what you "heard" about unions, like my buddy Dave?

  ~Hill
• 

  Highlander

  did you ever pay union dues or work in a unionized workforce?

  Yep, I've worked in two different unions. I stand by what I said. The vast majority of union co-workers that I had were lazy and incompentent. Regarding the tire slashing, that I have never experienced, however I do know of accounts of violence that has occurred to non-union workers that were doing the work of the lazy, incompetent union workers that were on strike.

  I also made less money in the union.

  I applaud you, if you are a hard working, competent employee surviving among the lazy, incompetent a'holes that comprise the workforce of many unions. Kudos to you.
• 

  Maddie

  I am and have always been pro-union in the work place. I have experienced how workers are treated in lower paid jobs many times and even tried to start a union myself. Employers want to make maximum profit by paying minimum wages and without a union workers are dependent on the good-will of their employer. We have laws now which try to ensure safety in the workplace and a minimum wage is paid, but most people have benefits which have been fought for by trade unions in the past.

  I agree that there needs to be a balance but without a union workers are at a grave disadvantage IMO

  Maddie
• 

  darkuncle29

  I've always been ambivalent about unions, even when I was a union employee. I can see that we need them at times to protect workers from bad employers, but they also can make some work situations unbearable.

  When I bacame disabled, and was getting SSI, I tried to also get my union disability beneifts. They denied it numerous times, my mistake was not getting an attourney. Food & commercial workers union in Seattle, 1105, sucks. The administrative arm of that, Zenith Administrators, also sucks. This organization is a sad joke.

  My father is an electrician and union member, IBEW. He gets great benefits and retirement. But again, alot of the job sites can become unbearable with all the politicas and 'fleas'. It is this mentality that goes against any kind of reason that pisses me off.
• 

  frozen one

  I'm currently a union worker. From my experience, the biggest problem with a union is that the officials have more interest in political work than labor issues. My union recently negotiated a new contract with the employer that had some god awful changes in the language. The issues had to do with seniority and workplace safety, not finance, and the changes affect a minority of the union membership. While the minority were ready to walk over the issues, the union officials ran around to the majority telling them, "The contract is a good one. The changes don't affect you. Vote yes on this contract." Their actions ran contrary to the union cry, "An injury to one is an injury to all!" Anyway, the vote came and the membership approved the contract. Right after the vote, the union officials went to Iowa to work on the Clinton campaign. I suspect that is why they were in such a rush to get our contract out of the way.

  I've read a number of posts claiming that union workers are lazy and incompetent. I would argue, sucessfully by the way, that those incompetent and lazy employees are managed by equally lazy and incompetent decision makers, many of them clueless MBA's.
• 

  darkuncle29

  I was a grocery checker for 10+ years, and it is a thankless soul destroying job. There are decent members in the public who take the edge off, but generally, customers are stupid and brutish. When I was the night manager, still union, it got better somewhat. But then dealing with the corporate twats -store directors- took that joy away.

  I think that if someone were to design a new business model, where the purpose is to create a balanced system that benefits all parts, then we would not need a union in that system. What makes it tricky is that you have to deal with human nature and the vast spectrum of individuals, some decent the other end being a-holes.
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  Reefton Jack

  At different times, I have been a union member:
  - either it was compulsory; or, in the interests of keeping the peace, it made a lot of sense.
  
  However, after working several years in management, my enthusiasm for unions cooled somewhat!
  For a 24 hour period in mid-2005, I had to be escorted around by an armed policeman
  (i.e. one carrying a Hechler and Koch submachine gun).
  
  The union wanted to go beyond calling a strike:
  - one of its key strategies was to black out the whole district, a community of 16 000 people.
  Fortunately the power station's staff listened to reason; after it was pointed out that striking was one thing, but switching off the power supply was quite another issue.
  Such action would have caused economic loss to the local business community, not just to the company.
  (As well as generating its own electricity, PNG Forest Products also doubles up as a power supply company. Its two small hydro-electric plants are the sole source of electricity for the Wau and Bulolo districts of Papua New Guinea.)
  
  To avoid blacking out the entire district, the Mechanical Workshop Manager and I , between us, manned the power station's Control Room for that 24 hour period.
  After that, and a similar occurrence six months later, my view of unions has been a tad jaundiced!
  
  
  Jack.