Let's Talk Unions, Shall We?

Allow me to "set the stage"....so to speak.

I've been anti-union for most of my life. I come from a blue collar family and my father was a member of the Machinist Union working for Peterbilt. He worked there for 23 years and was promptly fired when they moved the facility in Newark to Tennessee.

Growing up, my father bitched about his job and I never could understand how a company could be so..."mean".

Enter my adulthood...

My father is lazy. My father is barely educated (~4th grade reading level)...but my father always went to work and put food on the table. The only reason he held his job for so long was a result of union protection.

Today I'm a manager of a department. I've fired men like my father. I do not tolerate stupidity, laziness, and blatant abuse of company resources.

I sound like the "quintessential company Man", do I not? I've been with my employer for over 11 years. I was once an hourly employee before being offered the position of managing the department.

The people who run this small company are staunchly Republican. One in particular (the Director of Human Resources is plugged in to Faux News and has the owners ear (and trust). While the owner is off doing her "philanthropic" community duties, she entrusts this Director to "Drive the Bus"...

As such, she runs roughshod over ALL departments...Including mine. My men, all family men, have been consistently been getting more duties shoved up their asses by her under the adage "Times are tough and we all have to do more with less."

My men earn between 14-23 dollars/hour (in California) and I just gave food from my freezers to one of my men so he could feed his family (and he is not living above his means). Meanwhile this Director (no college degree) get 6 figures and got her husband (who is my boss) a newly created position when he was looking at being fired from our local hospital. He also earns 6 figures (They never advertised for this position as it was created out of thin air).

Back to my men...

I have fought for so long to protect my men. But now, they have been handed what has been traditionally Engineering duties (Telephone Pole Inspections required by the CPUC). These poor bastards often times don't get home until after 8PM to their families.

I....As a manager...contacted the union leaders of the chapter in my area to represent my men.

unions helped this country become great. i implore all 'anti-union' guys to take a trip down to mexico to see working conditions in some of these non union factories... better yet, take a trip down to nicaragua, or go to Vietnam, or some of these other countries....

some of these people work 17 hours a day only to leave the job to come home and eat a handful of rice... sleep 4 hours to go back to work....

people falling dead at the floor and theyre just scooped up like dogs, and promptly replaced... no accountability.... and the fat cats eating steak in airconditioned rooms just above them.... it's not a myth my people... it's life without unionized labor.

that is all...

redivider said:

some of these people work 17 hours a day only to leave the job to come home and eat a handful of rice... sleep 4 hours to go back to work....

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As long as we get our Nike running shoes, we don't care. Here's a true story...

I've traveled to Indonesia twice. On my last visit, I stayed at a resort run by Germans. The "lead servant" was named Wayan ("First Born"). Anyway, he invited us to his home for dinner. We "broke bread" together. We went to the Hindu Temple together and celebrated the rice ceremony. as is tradition, tips were not given until the last day. I knew Wayan and his wife (from the visit) were pregnant. I gave him $200 dollars and asked him to accept it as a gift from one friend to another. He was overwhelmed because no guest had ever done that.

$200 dollars to me was a gift from a friend to a friend. To Wayan, it was (no lie) 6 months wages. He named his child after me...Can you FUCKING BELIEVE THAT?

What is wrong with this fucking world?

you dont have to go too far.

on tuesday i got back from a back breaking shift and gave one of the guys a ride b/c the train had stopped working... we started drinking some tequila n corona at his apartment...

it was 11pm when i had my first shot.... his roomate (illegal immigrant) got home at 2am, drank 3 beers with us, went to bed, woke up at 415am to go back to work..... i was still chillin out with my co-worker drinking and playing soccer in his living room... broke a few vases too... we were trashed by thenn........

this guy was like 50 years old too... he was for sure somebody's old man, probably a grandpa....

i couldn't believe it... here i was getting drunk with a co-worker and this old guy didnt' even get 2 hours of sleep.... i asked if he was gonna have breakfast and he said he'd stop by the gas station for a redbull and he'd have lunch around 3pm.... it was heartbreaking......

As a Conservative...I implore anyone of the same mindset to watch "The Motorcycle Diaries". I've said it in earlier posts...."I understand how men like Che Guevara are created by their governments."

As a conservative, I cannot in good conscience stand idly by and watch my men be exploited for the benefit of others.

right ,but what about Japanese workers who can make a better Honda for cheaper than Detroit?

VTX If you are interested in Organizing I can tell you the ins and outs and what to expect
PM only

Union Busting in the Private sector is Greed

Union Busting Politically is all about destroying the democratic party. Democrats are Pro labor
If you look at Republican smear campaigns they are going after funding sources and disenfreanchisement
ACORNs Sin was registering potential democrats
Unions Sin is funding democrats
AARP? Yes the Republicans are going after AARP becuase they would be against Killing medicaid and destroying social security

dukeanthony said:

VTX If you are interested in Organizing I can tell you the ins and outs and what to expect
PM only

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Understood and thank you. Wanna know what's fucked up about this whole thing though? I was informed by the CWA (Communications Workers of America) that I, as a manager, cannot organize my men. As much as they can appreciate what I'm trying to do for my men....I'm "The Enemy". They need to talk to my guys who are hourly techs. To further compound the situation, I've approached my most senior man (who just hit me up for a raise and I had to tell him that per the Directors of the company, he won't be getting ANY raise this year), told him I've set the ball in motion, but I need him to now step up...He told me that he fears getting fired, so he will not do it.

I fucking can't believe it. I see my men getting stepped on. I see them getting more duties without more pay. They're out later at night than anyone. They complain because they're overworked. One of my men had his phone disconnected for non-pay because he can't pay his bills. Another, as I mentioned earlier couldn't feed his family and I gave him food...And they won't stand for themselves, even after I put my neck on the line for them.

VTXDave said:

I'm "The Enemy".

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Yup and you always will be. No matter how well you treat your men, you'll always be the target of the union thugs.
I appreciate your dilemma. You want to do what's right by your guys but your superiors are making it more difficult but bringing in a union is like borrowing more money to get out of debt. You may alleviate one problem temporarily, while creating more problems down the road.

Mr Neutron said:

Yup and you always will be. No matter how well you treat your men, you'll always be the target of the union thugs.
I appreciate your dilemma. You want to do what's right by your guys but your superiors are making it more difficult but bringing in a union is like borrowing more money to get out of debt. You may alleviate one problem temporarily, while creating more problems down the road.

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Honestly
Shut the fuck up.
The Only thugs in organizing are the Co workers that end up getting raises to spy, intimidate and harass the pro Union employees that want to organize a unit

The truth hurts, huh?

Unions aren't bad but when they go beyond their means they often kill companies with demands.

Unions had their day and made America a better place to work. However, unions in govt are just plain wrong in my opinion. Even FDR was against govt unions. The Teacher's union has screwed up education so badly in this country. It's a travesty. Unions and business can bargain. Unions in govt bargain with politicians for their vote and financial support who they obtain from citizens taxes. I think that is wrong.

Jack Fate said:

Unions had their day and made America a better place to work. However, unions in govt are just plain wrong in my opinion. Even FDR was against govt unions. The Teacher's union has screwed up education so badly in this country. It's a travesty. Unions and business can bargain. Unions in govt bargain with politicians for their vote and financial support who they obtain from citizens taxes. I think that is wrong.

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FDR changed his mind Read his (or google youtube) Second bill of rights
Teachers didnt screw up education. Working Families with no one watching the Kids did
If your kid is failing at school
You are failing as a parent
And barring the Military
Why woould you be against a workers rights just because he works for the Goverment? They pay taxes also

VTXDave said:

I have fought for so long to protect my men. But now, they have been handed what has been traditionally Engineering duties (Telephone Pole Inspections required by the CPUC). These poor bastards often times don't get home until after 8PM to their families.

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While your cause is noble, attempting to gain any leverage in an environment of what arguably is thought to be 20% unemployment could prove to be very difficult. A simple help wanted add placed in a local paper may receive hundreds of responses, particularly for above average wage positions.Good luck to you and your shop.

growsolo said:

While your cause is noble, attempting to gain any leverage in an environment of what arguably is thought to be 20% unemployment could prove to be very difficult. A simple help wanted add placed in a local paper may receive hundreds of responses, particularly for above average wage positions.Good luck to you and your shop.

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Skilled Trades are not suffering Like the rest of the Economy. You can hire guys at 10 bucks an hour all day. But when they destroy million dollar machines or screw up 1500 dollar castings you lose money

dukeanthony said:

Why woould you be against a workers rights just because he works for the Goverment? They pay taxes also

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California is run by the public employee unions. The unions contribute millions to finance political campaigns in order to get pro union politicians elected. Therefore when new taxes, regulations and laws are debated upon, there are only two entities sitting at the table; union bosses and democrat politicians. There is no one sitting at the table representing the private sector tax payer. As a result, the public employee's pension fund is 550 BILLION upside down.

While those of us in the private sector are being squeezed like Dave said in the opening thread, public union members are retiring at the age of 50 with full pay and medical benefits. Public employees have learned to game the system through spiking overtime and going off on work related injuries during the last year of employment right before retirement.

The unions, along with their corrupt political allies, have broken California. We have lost close to a million private sector jobs over the last ten years. Why? Here's a good example: the state legislature has just passed a bill that will allow the children of illegal aliens to get taxpayer support for college tuition. Governor Brown (Moonbeam) is expected to sign it into law.

The only thing right with California is the weather. The rest has been financially ruined through over taxation, over regulation, fraud, abuse and outright theft.

Hope this answers your question.

So the alternative to unions giving political donations to Pro Labor candidates is..........
Just let Pro Business lobbyists contribute to pro business anti labor Politicians?

And how come no Love for California?

They are still the Worlds 8TH largest economy

growsolo said:

While your cause is noble, attempting to gain any leverage in an environment of what arguably is thought to be 20% unemployment could prove to be very difficult. A simple help wanted add placed in a local paper may receive hundreds of responses, particularly for above average wage positions.Good luck to you and your shop.

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That thought has definitely crossed my mind, but as Duke states, these jobs fall in the "skilled trades" genre. My guys cross-connect dial tone across miles in rural countryside, troubleshoot dial tone from Central Office to the house, install/troubleshoot DSL, install/troubleshoot CATV and cable modem broadband.

The unemployment rate here in my county is higher than the average but finding skilled techs is very difficult. I know...I've interviewed many candidates over the years.