Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire UAW mulling next steps after striking members reject John Deere's 'final' offer

Fire em and hire guys that want to work not form a union.

^^^^^^^^^^^^ this ^^^^^^^^^^

Just fire the strikers and hire permanent replacements. It's legal and in the long run you end up with a far better company.

I'd do it if I could get a pension and zero premium health insurance as part of the deal. I'm selfless like that.

Local manufacturing company did something similar but it didn't quite turn out as well for the company and many management employees as they believed it would...

The end result was while successful in getting the union completely out of the plant and hiring all new contract temps as their replacements, after a couple years the temps got fed up with not having any real permanent job security and started threatening walkouts and possible unionizing unless they were made permanent employees with full benefits.

Had a couple of serious injuries inside the plant with one fatal when a inexperienced but overconfident salaried employee operating an overhead crane slapped the elevated scissors lift they were working out of with the crane and knocked it over.

Prior to getting rid of union, salaried management blamed poor production numbers, excessive scrap, maintenance problems, employee issues, etc., on the union. After getting rid of union all the same problems were still there and got even worse but management could no longer could use the union as a scapegoat to cover for their lack of management skills.

Had a fair amount of felons and thugs among the temps, too. Rampant thievery of company asserts of anything they could carry became common. Female salaried employees were warned by corporate to not get too friendly or be alone with temps ever and to make sure to check inside their vehicles before getting in them and also make sure they weren't followed when leaving. A chief of a hired contract security force was removed when he was seen buying switchblade knives from a local pawn shop and selling them to thug wannabe temps inside the plant.

After getting rid of the union over the next several years the company went public and saw it's stock go from a high to literally pocket change a share three times, filed bankruptcy once and was about to a second time when is was bought by a private investment group.

This had been a company that consistently held 70% market share for many years in the product it manufactured before getting rid of the experienced union employees and hiring inexperienced nonunion.

I did t say hire temps with no bennies. But I can see why you’d want to frame it that way. Nor have I ever absolved management of wrong doing in any of the multitude of union threads here

The only way a unionista can win a debate is to spin , add bullshidt, rinse, and repeat.

I'll take "Things that never happened" for $500 Alex.....

I was in a union for 18 years and all they did was protect the workers that should have been fired. They always insisted on a strike vote without telling us what the company was offering and twice we went on strike without knowing what the company had offered. The union ended the strikes without telling us what the company was offering and we didn't get to vote on accepting the offer. After the first strike I found out that after being on strike for 3 weeks that I got $.05 more per hour than the company's original offer and that the company could send us anywhere in the country with 7 days notice. The union eventually ran our wages up so high that the company couldn't afford us and started using contractors. Kind of like the auto industry. When we were on strike it was party time for the highly paid union bosses who kept getting paid.

In the beginning the temps were contracted through a processional temp service that specialized in supplying workers for labor strikes as were the security guards. Later on the company started hiring some on it's own via independent contract "scab" workers. Also, in the beginning a total of 28 union "scabs" crossed the picket line and returned to work with promises by company management of great things for them for their sacrifice. Actual strike lasted just a few weeks when the membership voted to return to work under the terms of old contract while company and union continued to negotiate a new contract. As soon as the company got wind of the vote they immediately threw up a formal 'lockout' which by law meant they could not allow any of the original union workforce back to work so they had to kick the 28 union "scab" workers out the door. This 'lockout' went on for a total of 4 - 1/2 years until the UAW pulled that local's charter and walked away as if it never existed.

Let the general electric locomotive plant in Erie be your guide
It's owned by Westinghouse now....


Dave

You haven’t answered any of my points.

Out of curiosity what was the name of the company?

I have seen that here...workers generally get shafted either way, except the lazy pricks as they seem to be a protected species.


If you are willing to work you are generally left to haul the lazy prick's load as well.

How can that be? Westinghouse has been out of business for 15 or 20 years.

[bleep] the unions and their money laundering schemes. There's a general agreement among the rank and file where I work, and it is that if union reps ever show up to try and force a vote to unionize us we will dribble them to the curb, put them in their cars, and send them off with a promise to hurt them if they ever show up again. And that promise is ironclad.

Make it hurt!

Ask the union boys at caterpillar how their strike went?? Lol you turd.. I belong to a union and all they do is bitch how they state is ph ucking us over. In the Army if you had legit bitch you better have a way ahead on how to fix the problem. Nope not this Union.. I even told them that..

Mention unions and it's never going to be boring.

My situation is no secret.
My standing on the topic(s) is way more complicated.

The union guys usually win the debate, if you judge on
merits. The anti position is usualy just anti.

Along with anecdotes.
(Worthless, addicted employees are not limited to unions.
Nor is management putting up with it. A weird thing that
has changed hugely over decades.)


Union goals IN NEGOTIATIONS is simply to get as much for
members as possible

Company goals are always to get as much from workers with
the smallest expenditures. Inputs vs outputs.

That's just bidness! Both sides.

There have been 40+ years of anti union programming of many.
How many have worked for union vs non union,
in similar jobs.

I have. I prefer union, for many reasons.
Pay is one. Benefits another.
But a big one is simply not being under the thumb.
In a previous job I was told to quit talking about a certain issue.
The threat was left unsaid. It was unfair policy, screwing a few
employees. And I wasn't one of them.


But then, you have pensions.

Our company joined the IUE pension in 1995.
Like most, it was underfunded. And the pensioners outnumber
The current workers. The fund is dwindling.

Where i was once earning an almost $40/month/yr service,
It's now around $20.

My employer has to pay $2.50+/hr worked into it.

So, this year. $2.5x2000hrs= $5k.

In return, I'll get $20x12= $240/yr.
They get my money for 12 years before I retire,
I gotta live 21 years after retirement before I get the principle!

Company tried to opt out. To put that $$ into our 401k.
Except, it's $2 million to opt out. With only 30 employees?

I'm doing better than most here in pay and benefits,
in retirement also. But, only because my pay allows me
to fund my own retirement.

P.S. The IUE pension is seperate from the union.
That, i really don't understand.


Yep, talking in circles.
Because the subject isn't one that's black or white.
It's a plus/minus problem with no zero sum answer.


I will make one hard statement.
The existence of unions benefits non union workers.
There absolutely are non union outfits matching or exceeding
union pay. Simply because they give up on the money, but keep
total control over the employees. For some, that's enough!

Well unions are all on record supporting the unrestricted flow of illegal aliens into our country l. And we all know that drives up wages

I’ve regrettly was forced to join unions working summer jobs. They sure protected the lazy dangerous incompetent and drunk employees