Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Unions down to about 12% of the workforce

C'mon Stick, you can do better than that. I'm falling asleep over here.

Nathanial,

You are reading a lot into my posts which has not been written there.

I was only referring to a small local group of gentlemen. Many of whom I have worked beside since 1976. Our workplace is located in a small town which is about 50% Hispanic. Most of them are third or fourth generation Americans. In our plant it was quite common to see two and occasionally three generations working side by side. But that was before the workforce at our location was reduced by eighty percent two years ago.

Some of the first or second generation Americans are in our workforce and unfortunately some of them are illiterate. The company and the union agreed, those who were illiterate were too much of a liability to remain on the payroll.

I never said anything about them complaining, I was not complaining. I was trying to make the point that unions and corporations can get along in a symbiotic relationship, when they each recognize what is good for the other. Not all unions are parasites. And some corporations recognize they would be incapable of existence without a labor force. Some even recognize they must pay good money to get good people.

I have not really said anything here about whether I am a big fan of the union or not. I have just related some facts regarding the one at our facility.

My personal opinion is, I can take it or leave it. I have never needed the union to speak for me either. I have no problem stepping into the office and speaking frankly with my supervisor.

It has been about fifteen years since I was dependent upon the union for my wage scale. Been getting merit increases ever since then. Those are not negotiated by the union.

In thirty years at this location my only personal dealings with the union came when the Union Pres falsely reported to the Plant Supervisor that I was using racial slurs and insults toward ethnic employees. I had no trouble setting the matter straight with the Supervisor. Nor was the Union Pres in any doubt about what I thought of him. You might see that I have as much reason to hate and mistrust the union hierarchy as anyone.

But unfortunately not every individual has an IQ equal to mine and certainly not equal to yours. Not every individual has the self confidence, the demeanor, or the social skills to step into a room with supervisory personnel and communicate well. That certainly does not mean he is not capable of doing the job he was hired to do. Nor does it mean he is not suited to more critical jobs and promotions.

I certainly see nothing wrong with these folks banding together and paying another to be their spokesperson, if that is what they desire. I certainly have no problem with them pooling their resources and sharing their risks. Is not democracy also about the spirit of cooperation.

As long as I can do work which I find pleasurable and fulfilling, for a wage which supports me and mine in the manner to which we are accustomed. As long as that place of employment is within a decent drive from the place which I choose to call home. As long as my employer continues to pay me 50% to 100% more than I could make at any other nearby employment, I'll continue to give the union their twenty bucks a month.

Playing with Retards,is only so satisfying.

Sorta like whippin' a Chink's ass...in a half hour,you just wanna do it again.................(grin)

Well put, Idaho.

Idaho, you bring up an obvious fact. I think most of the union bashers feel that the unions are full of the lazy who seek to have the union protection to go on working less for more. What is obvious is that many sought out the jobs that paid the best and offered the best incentives; if that would have been a non-union company, then that's where I would be. Being union or non-union, I'm the same man, and my self pride dictates my work ethic, not whether or not I am a union worker.

Most union folk went looking for the best package, they didn't single out union companies only, in order to work less or get over on their employers.

Way to go Barkoff. I'm usually one of the first on the jobs and one of the last to go as my work stands for itself. No azz kissin here just ask my BA we don't see eye to eye on anything!!!

This is to damn funny! The moron knows we can't see what he's typing yet he still responds. I'm LMAO! Hilarious! He reminds me of the typical loud mouth bully on the play ground. Once again a simple solution. Bloody the dummy's nose and all of a sudden he isn't so loud and tough no more. Enjoy that ignore user option. I sure do!! Glad I could help! .

I guess I can cancel my gym membership since according to a few on here I am supposed to be getting fat and lazy. Also apparently fighting fires is an easy job, I wish someone would have told me that years ago since I have been busting my ass for the past ten years apparently doing it wrong. The burns, back and shoulder injuries etc. could have all been avoided. Lets not forget having to pickup the extremely overweight patients also, I guess they area all retired union employees though.

'death,

Tighten the elastic band on the Tin Foil hat,you've foreskin in your eyes....................

I've worked with a couple few Smoke Jumpers. Though none of them could cut for [bleep],they didn't do too horrid bad in the brush,as far as getting around.

Prolly because they ain't Union,as one of their physical salvations........................

The ignore button on this site is a lot like the safety button on a rifle, if you don't have what it takes between your ears to get by without it, then you won't get anything out of it anyway.

If you pretend to put me on ignore, will you still be able to make comments on what you think I might have said ?

I'd like to throw my $.02 in on this one. I am a firefighter and am employed by the government. I have always been a union dues paying member since the beginning. I dont always agree with some of the battles that the union takes on but this is what I do believe and many of you might agree with me. How many times in your lives did you have a good job , in a place you and your family were happy. And all of a sudden some jackass gets promoted to a management position and everybody in the place is looking around going... what the hell were they thinking hiring or promoting this guy. Well now some new or old jackass is your supervisor and for one reason or another you guys dont see eye to eye. This new jackass manager decides to target you and or your crew. He has the power to okay your vacation time, your raises over the years and directly affects everything in your day to day life. This guy has no friggin business as a manager but somehow he got the job. Well with this being said, without a union this jackass that has no business running the outfit has free reign to completely ass up a workplace. Run off some of the best workers and maybe even fire a few. However with a union this jackass has a choke collar on him and if he so much as steps out of line the leash gets jerked and he gets right back to behaving. Its really pretty sad that this is what it takes to keep managers in line and also eliminate ass kissing and &^%* sucking up to managers. It keeps the workplace in place and the natives dont get too restless. Now on the other side of the scope, if you have good management then the union isn''t really neccessary but it was started to keep managers from running sweat shops and actually providing good work environments and competetive salaries to go with it. Oh and Stick, smoke jumpers (BLM) are and do have a pretty strong union AFGE.

One of my tenants used to fly Cobras in Vietnam. He ended up in a few crashes. The last one was pretty bad and the other guy got killed. Vern laid in the jungle for three days until his fellow Marines found him. He was pretty busted up with a shattered pelvis and messed up lower back.

He couldn't fly after the war so he learned to weld. He was working in a welding shop in town. It was a nonunion outfit but he needed the money.

First thing was that none of the wildcat grinders had guards on them. Vern mentioned that it wasn't safe and the foreman told him to shut up or collect his pay on the way out.

A couple weeks later he was taking off his leathers and his shirt rode up. The foreman saw his scars and fired him on the spot. He claimed it made him likely to get hurt and sue them.

That kind of thing just doesn't go on in a union outfit. Vern was a good hand and worked hard. He got his scars in service to his country but some pinhead could decide to fire him for having them.

There are jerks in the union too but they don't have free reign to act that way.

Companies who let wingnuts get to management level, and wingnut managers/small business owners are self eliminating in an environment where good men are not affraid to walk out the door...
I think it's called "supply and demand".

Thats true but it still happens all the time. I've seen dealerships with crap for management run off every skilled Tech they have and then when all is said and done finally somebody looks at the big picture and says what the hell happened, but this wake up takes a long time. Bad managers have a way with words and misconstrued truths to their superiors (owners and or senior managers) and you never know what they tell em and or what they believe is going on. Its a lot like our government. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

While that may be true for the building trades apprenticeship programs are federally regulated. I served my apprenticeship in a non-union shop. The company would put on 12 apprentices at the same time with the goal of only 3 completing the course. Work ethics went a long way towards completing the apprenticeship sucessfully.

+ 1 for alaska cub, it is so true

We went through a period at work where the older salary foremen were retiring and the plant was hiring new supervisors. Really enjoyed breaking some of them in. I generally knew who the azeholes were the first time I had to deal with them. The experienced supervisors would take the good rookies and explain to them that I was the go-to guy if the needed something, the rest were left for me as fresh meat. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I'd explain to the overzealous supervisors that I could make them look like a hero or the worlds biggest fool, their choice.

You poor, sad bastard. You keep fanasizing about running me into the ground or whipping me or whatever else you can dream up.

If you pay property tax you're one of the few in Alaska that do. But I see you scrupulously avoided mentioning the state income and sales tax that the rest of us pay for you. You're on the teet moreso than the rest of us and everyone here knows it.

And as far as watching a good man work being my claim to fame... well the odds are that a hell of a lot of people on this site, including you, have seen my work on TV. They'll be a couple hundred thousand people who ante up $150 a pop to see the work of those of us who build them down here in a few weeks. And it'll be on prime time TV. And the way practice went I may get a chance to see my stuff take the checkers at the 500.

Since you're into fantasies, you fantasize on that for a while.

And another thing, I didn't need Daddy to hook me up in the business either. If there is one thing I cannot stand it is someone who gets started in business through his family and then because of embarrassment tries to pretend he's a self made man. Another fantasy you cooked up. There's nothing to be ashamed of son. Go ahead and admit it. We all know who got you started up there.

The really sad part is that you ~could~ be an asset to this forum. You obviously know how to hunt, and do it well. You've got a hell of a lot of outdoors savvy. You live in an area a lot of people pay a lot of money to just play in once in a while.

But instead you choose to needlessly insult anyone who disagrees with you. Over ANYTHING. Choice of caliber, or magnification of scope, or the make of truck. The size of rophy. Type of boots. Area to hunt bears. Name it and you have taken the occasion to insult anyone who made a different choice than you.

You need to come back to reality and leave those fantasies of yours behind.

Will

PS: Since you are so into fantasies and love to brag on your toys so much, ponder this: I just sent two engines we threw together out of spare parts over to the car shop for installation in show cars. And both of them dyno' more with a stock carb than that idiotic looking blower driven monstrosity you have in that piece of Camaro you've bragged on so much.

You ain't always got the best toys, junior. You're just the only one who yaks about them all the time.

I can't believe court is going to get in the way of my observation of this thread.

WILL--Since I'm forking out dough to your Alma Mater with another one on the list for this fall--How about shooting a poor father/stepfather some of those 500 tickets. Good luck to you on that. I thought Joe Gibbs was my only connection to that industry!!