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Are you a union member?

#43
Union.

Pretty pleased with my local. Our collective bargaining team does a good job of keeping us up to market. Our contract is fair for us and them but it protects us really well.

Our president is deffinately a politician. Frustratingly so at times but he gets the job done. Our relationship with the city has never been better.
 
#44
I've worked in an industry employing Longshoremen my whole career. They certainly have some power which is both good and at times abused just like anything in life. No hating here as these are good friends.

All of my friends (when living in San Pedro, CA) were longshoremen so I had the option to join but it wasn't for me as I like sales and I'm not really a manual work kind of guy. I took a few of their written tests for them as well.

It is a little odd that some guys ("A" book) can make 300K+ working 21 actual (at the pier) weeks per year + 5 weeks vacation. They get paid 12 hours per shift with 4 at 1.5 hourly and actually working on site 6 hours. Everyone has admitted that the biggest potential for injury is their fellow worker who may or may not be drunk or high loading a container, driving a forklift, crash cart or crane, etc.

Phrases I've heard "You can go home, we don't have enough beer (still paid)." I heard that a lot from friends on the clock while we were at bars in Long Beach. They were always buying so of course no complaints from me.
 
#48
slobake said:
Kind of like offshoring only within the country.
Click to expand...

Bingo. The only thing that corporations hate about China is that someone stuck an ocean in the way of it. If they can have American workers do Chinese labor at Chinese rates and with the same Chinese lack of worker rights or environmental safeguards they'll finally have it all.
 
#53
Yes. As far as I can tell these are the things my union does for me.


1) They insure that the lazy Pieces of crap that work here will most likely not get fired. Which is cool because it pretty much motivates everyone else to work harder. Oh wait, never mind.

2) They take $100 a month out of my check.
 
#56
Union here, Sheet Metal Workers Local 38 (construction trades) I have been a member for 18 years. Yes it has its bad things and good things. For me it was the best thing that happened to me. At the time I got in I was 22 and framing houses for $15/hr. Started with a pay cut, but full benefits after 3 months doing residential (B card). After 6 months I moved to commercial (A Card). I became a welder as an apprentice. That skill alone has kept me employed when others have been laid off. It just got me a 14 day straight 12 hour day job that made me 5 weeks pay in 2 weeks.

That is the down side since the economy tanked I have had some time off. Even with a few months off a year I still double my wife's salary, and triple it with full employment. I actually enjoy the time off, I get to play my butt off when I am out. So they way I look at it I am merely a HS grad that makes a decent living with benefits. I now have a retirement plan, an annuity fund with a nice chunk of change in it. Yeah I have to deal with a tiny bit of BS but I work in very safe conditions and actually enjoy my work.
 
#57
Philosophically, I think unions make perfect sense in a capitalist economy. Everything is negotiated, not dictated from on high. Don't fool yourselves into thinking your company values you. On the books, you're a liability, not an asset. Companies have their own best interest at heart, not yours. Strength in numbers.
 
#58
I've heard both good and bad about unions, and it's a dead even heat on both. But I've never experienced it first-hand, so take this worth a grain of salt:

The Human Element is the most important. If you have crappy people running your union, you will have a crappy union. If you have great people running your union, great things will happen.

Peace,
Greg
 
#59
BawanaRik said:
I hope you understand that a sign created by someone with an agenda isn't really much to back up any statement that bold and all encompassing
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Ok.

"Right to work" state employees earn less than labor friendly states. Can we agree on that?

NA-BU051_WORKST_D_20121214174807.jpg


Not claiming causation, but if you look at the map, the more yellow you see (pro union states) the better the pay and conversely, the more "right to work" states the lower the pay.

How about this one?

image.jpg


It doesn't show the pay rate of "right to work" states, but union jobs have a higher median pay rate.

We know that manufacturers are moving to states with less labor restrictions as a way of reducing their costs. I don't see how this is extreme conjecture to suspect that as states compete to become more "business friendly" by removing worker protections American workers are getting lower and lower quality compensation as a result.
Floyd Eye said:
Yes. As far as I can tell these are the things my union does for me.


1) They insure that the lazy Pieces of crap that work here will most likely not get fired. Which is cool because it pretty much motivates everyone else to work harder. Oh wait, never mind.

2) They take $100 a month out of my check.
Click to expand...
They also negotiated you a contract that hopefully pays you better than your non-union equivalent and have clear, defined rules that protect you from being treated unfairly.

Just because you're not actively using the union's services doesn't mean you're not benefiting from the work that they've done on your behalf.
 

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