Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire The Labor Unions?

If you work in a Union for 30 years and then you find out that the pension fund is broke, YOU screwed up. Your co-workers made the same mistake.

Seniority and not merit-based system that can only survive by continuously asking for higher pay for doing the same job, with no consideration to profit margins (bottom line) of the employer, eventually making labor cost prohibitive. That, coupled with INSANE Gov't regulations and OUTRAGEOUS Capital Gain taxes is big reason as towhy just about everything is made overseas.
Today, they are less than 8% of the work force, but their footprint lingers. GM for example has a 15BILLION dollar nut to crack in pensions, medical benefits etc to people long since retired before they can make a profit. All my employees are Union and like I keep telling them, keep the demand for higher pay and benefits up and eventually we are all going to get sent home.

Labor unions came from communism.

The Teamsters have a number of different pension funds depending on where you are. Mine is through the Western Conference and they're in pretty good shape. I'm told that others have serious problems.

That gets us to the unfunded public employees funds that are bankrupting cities everywhere.

Once. I was forced to join some kind of store clerks union while I was working my way through college in the 1960s. It got me exactly nothing in return for my dues. This was in Illinois, so it was completely currupt, of course.

Decades later, I was doing part-time voiceover work here in Utah. When I got to be on regular call, they said I had to join the Screen Actors Guild to continue. I refused, and that was the end of doing voice work.

I consider unions to be the last refuge of the incompetent. No matter how poor you are at the job, if you are a union member, they can't refuse to hire you, and then can't fire you. I'm not saying that everyone in a union is incompetent - many are highly skilled. But everybody who is employed despite being incompetent IS a union member.

After working for myself most of my life, I joined on with a company that had an agreement with Teamsters. I joined the Teamsters and for the most part was very happy. But, I didnt have any issues with company or union. Then I went back to being self employed, but worked for another union company part time to pay my insurance. Left there for a defense job and closed my shop. Been therr ever since. I am USW. Theyre not the Teamsters thats for sure. After volunteering to help multiple times, I found I knew more than they did. We butted heads and now im there for the money and benefits, thats it. I had some issues through the years, most recently getting screwed by the company with FMLA. The union asked if I wanted them to step in. I asked them wtf they were going to do for me? After explaining the situation they had no clue how to handle it. I told them to standby and if I needed them id let them know. I fixed the issue, with help from a Dept of Labor.

Labor unions are still needed, companies still screw employees over every day. You can scroll over NLRB cases all day long and see that, but its much worse, those cases are only the ones that have charges filed. Millions of issues daily that never get to that point, thanks to the unions and/or employees who actually know wtf your rights are and how to handle them.

Pendulum rarely stops in the middle where it needs to be

Unions were sorely needed when they started

And today? Not so much and as has been noted they're rife with corruption and involved in politics too heavily


They seem to be going away and may very well do so, perhaps not in my lifetime but I predict there will come a time when workers once again badly need a collective voice

Read if you will and tell me unions arent needed today...

NLRB Weekly Summary

And if you feel like sifting through EEOC cases you can search the same.

Corporations will absolutely f over their employees. Or at least some of them will. They'll also trash the environment without a thought if it will save them money. But as has been said before, unions can go too far and be just as corrupt. finding the balance is the real trick. Many Unions and Corporations take a Us versus Them stance instead of a cooperative "Lets get the job done and make lots of money for everybody" stance. Should managers really get a bonus if the workers are barely getting a cost of living raise? Should the CEO really get 6 or 7 figures when the guy turning the screws is getting layed off?
My wife and I own our own business, we're just 3 people so it's not a big deal, but we only pay ourselves 20% more than our employee. When we can pay ourselves more, we'll pay our employee(s) more as well. We can't do it without them.

If this were mostly true (which it isn't)union membership nation wide would be a hell of a lot more than 7%. CEOs get what they get because shareholders and board of directors APPROVE their salaries and have NOTHING in common with a "screw turner". Unions cater to the lowest common denominator and in fact, go as far as making folks work less hard in order to make everyone the same. I can't promote or reward union members. EVERYTHING is subject to seniority. So the folks who WANT to work hard, get pressure to tone it down.

I have worked construction for thirty years, both union and nonunion..people who say unions are no longer needed do not live in the reality of construction.

I have seen a whole lot of abuse go on through the use of intimidation, you don't get that with a union backing you.
This idea that unions prevent employers from firing problem employees is not me experience. It slows that process down, but the bad employees still get the door.

There are two abusive unions in this country, the SEIU and the UAW, construction unions are nowhere near those two.
I once went to a grievance against a fellow Teamster for our employer. Why? Because he was an idiot and an azzhole, and the whole crew wanted him gone. The union talked to us about said employee, then green lighted us to testify on the company's behalf even though they still defended to azzhat.

Labor unions are parasites that infect host companies to suck the life out and destroy.

Bullschitt

GM and Chrysler.

Even worse, they are funding the worst enemy our nation has ever faced, the Progressive Fascist Dem party.

During a lifetime have been a member of three - maybe saw the best and worst of unions through that. Unions were mostly one thing - are now another. The "protections" were important on occasion (not many) but it's not unusual for members to have been let down or ripped off. That's very sad on it's face given "protective" in the alleged concept of a union.

For certain, labor unions should never be permitted for our government agencies - ANY government agency.

In basis I don't disagree with you Jorge. If you know you're going to get just what everyone else gets no matter what you do there's no incentive to do more. Communism at work. But I've seen where people got screwed over because of personal differences with the boss, that wouldn't have happened with a union. I've also seen where the union saved some jerks job who should never have been hired. I was also at a company that went down the tubes while the managers all got bonuses right to the end. The owner of that company has a really nice place in Jackson Hole to this day. He inherited his money and he's entitled to it; but a lot of his employees lost their pensions when the company went under.

CEOs have nothing in common with the screw turner. That's generally true; but it shouldn't be. They should both be pulling to get the job done and make money for the company. Neither can do it without the other.

Is union membership only 7% of the workforce because many companies pay comparably to the union in order to keep the union out?

I'm not a fan of unions. Really I'm not. They do serve a purpose though. Like I said before they do go overboard sometimes.

Labor unions do two things....reward mediocrity, and collect union dues.

If either of these would help you, and you don't give a damn about anyone else, go fer it!

Spent a year in the Bridge and Structural Iron workers union right out of high school. Got exactly ZERO for my two hours of pay that I contributed each week. Chief Shop Steward was drinking buddy with the company HR employee relations manager. Pretty much the company got they wanted. At that point, no use for unions.

Fast forward 30 years. Oldest Son In Law is a union welder. Amazing to hear the BS, non-sense, dangerous stunts that some of the small companies try to pull on tradesmen to cut corners and shave a buck. Company he works for now treats everyone fairly well, so no issues. Previous shop required several calls/visits from his union business agent. Things like trying to put men in a trench without a trench box. SIL had to pull the plug and shut down the job until the safety inspector forced their hand to put a box in the trench. Without having the union behind him, he probably would have lost his job over that, even though it was the right thing to do.

AS much as I am aware that many unions are sucking money to enrich the Union leaders, even within my own family, I can see that there are times and places where they are still needed...

I am QCC (Boilermaker Local 73 affiliate). http://www.qcccanada.com/home.shtml

Our agreement does not anywhere include the word "seniority" so the old guys still have to work for their keep as well as the young. Not without it's negatives but I think there is a big advantage for all members this way in the long run. Without productivity, we would just be undercut right off the map by non-union workers.

Snake, again I ask why union membership has all but disappeared. 7% of the total work force is hardly an endorsement of membership.