• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Are you a union member?

#21
I spent 10+ years as a non-union drywall finisher. The last few years I was in the union. I wish now I had started in the union. It costs money sure, but the benefits my family and I received were well worth it.

-Mike
 
#23
Nope. Was once, but never again. My experience as a member of a public service union was overwhelmingly negative.

I totally get the need for organized labour and appreciate the contributions that it has made in the workplace. However, there are many instances where unions are just as corrupt and greed driven as many corporations are. Human nature, I guess.
 
#24
Not in a union nor have I ever been. I tried to unionize a shop in the garment industry once. All my co-workers complained all day and said we should do something about it like start a union. I met with the local and got their support and they told me how to collect signatures. When it came down to it most of my co-workers who had been complaining got awful quiet and wouldn't sign. Guess who was left holding the bag? :mad: Really destroyed my faith in people for a while.
I was working for a small inter-connect managing a crew of about 10 repairing PBX phone systems and Voice mail. We got bought out be a series of larger and larger companies. Finally I ended up in middle management at one of the largest telecom companies in the world. Management immeadiatly had a meeting with Human Resources about how we could keep the union out. They told us what to say if approached. There was no conversation about how to treat employess fairly. In fact most conversations with H.R. were the opposite of that. If you worked for that company and went to H.R. with a compliant you were jumping into the mouth of the lion. A union would have been a good buffer in that company.
 
#25
I used to be IBEW (no longer an electrician). Unions have some good and some bad, but at the end of the day, I'd go back union if I were going to re-enter the career.

Non-union experience: Worked at some decent shops, but worked at some really bad ones as well.
Worst stories: Being on a crew with roofers that were brought in to perform handyman electrical work on a new hospital construction. I also worked with a guy that had had his eye and half his face destroyed on the job be an industrial fan, and was forced to keep working with his puss-dripping eye for months while they sorted out the insurance... no standards, cutting corner, no concern for the worker or the workmanship.

Union experience: Most shops I worked for were very reasonable and really took care of the workers. High standards, great benefits, great pay... Big jobs though can be full of politics and ethically questionable things.
Worst story: large plant job, attracting every traveling alcoholic and shady individual with a union card. Job was overflowing with politics and lazy, unreasonable babies...

Bad and good for both, but I'd go back union in a heartbeat if it was a long term move.
 
#27
I am a satisfied union member.

There are well run unions and poorly run unions. The nice thing about them is that you decide how they're run since you have a vote and a voice. Think it needs reform? Reform it. Think it needs more power? Contribute.

The concept of organizing labor to give balance against an organized management as a means of leveling the playing field is something I absolutely support. We are not past the age of unions, in fact, if you look at the income disparities in this country you'll likely recognize that the middle class could use a lot more organization to defend the working rights we should have.
 
#29
HaMMerHeD said:
It's a wonderful sentiment. But unfortunately, I don't think it works quite so nicely for the vast majority of union members.
Click to expand...
If you pay dues you have every right to a vote on representatives and to attending shop meetings -- especially if you are dissatisfied with how you are being represented. I Have a suspicion that most who complain about unions probably didn't get involved in them.

I don't get to vote for my boss or my company's CEO. Voting union is the closest I will get.
 
#32
I'm not a union member; however, I am a former NLRB agent and my doctoral dissertation work is a policy analysis of the NLRA. I'm pretty passionate about the Board, labor law, and industrial relations.

My experience mimics the theme running throughout this thread: It's difficult to make a sweeping generalization about unions and collective bargaining (although ideologues on either side will try to feed you black-and-white soundbites). I have dealt with great unions and not-so-great unions, as well as great management and not-so-great management.

The advice I will give is to take an interest in your local if you work in a union shop. Attend meetings, run for office, get to know your steward and business agent. Unions are only as good as the people in them.
 
#33
Unrepresented said:
Agreed. In terms of respect, people who actively organize a union in their shop are the bravest. I was lucky enough to come along and enjoy the benefits that people before me contributed to. I am just hoping to maintain and build on what they started.
Click to expand...

+1

Considering that the penalty for committing an unfair labor practice is pretty much a slap on the wrist and employers are often advantaged in 8(a)(1) and 8(a)(3) cases, especially with things like Wright Line, employees leading an organizing effort are definitely putting their necks out.

Although I wasn't keen on all of its provisions, the Employee Free Choice Act would have given the NLRA some teeth in that regard. Interesting factoid: In that ambiguous time period at the tail-end of the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) and the beginning of the NLRA, legislators actually seriously considered making an unfair labor practice a criminal violation, punishable with a fine, rather than the backpay minus income accrued while terminated that is standard with compliance now.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back