ARE YOU PRO-UNION OR ANTI-UNION?

by Mary 71 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Tara

  Pro
• 

  parakeet

  I grew up in the anthracite region of Pennsylvania. My grandfather died of black lung (inhaled coal dust) when I was a young child. My few memories of him are as an invalid in bed with a horrible wet cough. He received no financial help from the coal company. One of my uncles was crushed to death in a mine cave-in before I was born. The coal company did not pay a penny to his family to compensate for his loss. None of my uncles finished high school -- they had to go into the mines to help support the family. My father was the youngest child and the only one that graduated high school, so he was able to find better-paying and healthier work.
  
  Read a history of the coal mining industry in Pennsylvania and West Virginia before you decide that unions are a waste of time and resources.
• 

  Junction-Guy

  coal mining is hard and dangerous work, this is one of the few careers that needs a union.
• 

  brinjen

  It really depends on each company and what the boss is like as to whether or not a union is needed. In an ideal world, bosses would always do the right thing by their staff and pay a fair days wage for a fair days work. But this isn't an ideal world, and as long as there are bosses around who aren't doing the right thing by their staff, we'll need unions.

  To say someone can just get another job as the area has good employment rates doesn't work either, again one of the logics used for our workplace relations changes, did not work in reality as the next employer was likely to be just as bad as the first.
• 

  nvrgnbk

  coal mining is hard and dangerous work, this is one of the few careers that needs a union.

  So is construction, jackass.
• 

  BurnTheShips

  So is construction, jackass.

  Hit a nerve, Nvr? Or do you just hate men in cowboy hats?

  As for the thread question I am pro Union. I believe that workers have the right to associate and bargain collectively if they so choose. However I also believe that those that do NOT wish to participate should NOT have their eligibility to work snuffed out by the unions. This is coercive and a no-no in my book. That said, I feel that unions have often been unrealistic about the economic value of their members and have "priced themselves out of the market" in many cases. Auto industry and airlines come to mind. Offshoring and bankruptcies lie in their wake.

  Burn
• 

  Junction-Guy

  Wow NVR, so much pent up hatred.
• 

  nvrgnbk

  Wow NVR, so much pent up hatred.

  Hatred?

  Nah.

  I think hillbilly put it best...

  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.
• 

  beksbks

  Unabashedly Pro Union.
• 

  hmike

  I've gone just the opposite way of ferret, who posted earlier.

  When I was young and naive about such things, I was anti-union. I thought unions just interfered with productivity and protected the lazy. The way I saw it, employers were doing their workers a favor by providing a job, and if the employee didn't like the work, he or she could just go somewhere else. Now that I've been in the workforce some 35 years, because of what I've seen and experienced, I'm about as pro-union as one can get. I don't begrudge anyone whatever they can legally and ethically get. Several years ago, I took a class in supervision, but I realized I was so biased that I could never work in supervision or management because in any dispute, I would probably side with the employee against management.

  Next time you see a union worker who seems lazy, slack, or rude, here’s something to consider: many times, these workers didn’t start out that way. Years of meaningless, unfulfilling work, possibly dealing with rude customers, with little or no opportunity for advancement, getting no respect for their input, no meaningful recognition, no encouragement, day after day, year after year, creates an attitude of "Why should I bother? I'll just do only what I have to do to keep getting a paycheck." Unions help create specific job duties to protect workers from being told to do something they are not qualified or trained to do, or that is worth more than they are getting paid. But that also prevents the worker from expanding his experience and value. Also, because union workers generally earn higher wages and better benefits, they become "trapped" in the job they don’t like because they can’t afford to get out.

  Economics, outsourcing, and manufacturing out of the country has reduced union power quite a bit. Companies cry they can't afford the higher wages and benefits.

  Once in a while, you find a company that makes its employees' welfare a concern. That's the way it should be.