Unions




Posted by Bj Blaskowitz

I would like some opinions on labor unions. I personally think they were good in their inception, but now are too powerful and are part of the reason the economy's going to sh*t. It bothers me that after I get my JD and am a lawyer, I still won't make as much as some of these overpayed wrench jockeys. Wonder why Detroit's going under and the automakers are losing so much money? Sure, it has alot to do with bonehead decisions by the automakers, pushing SUV's, not moving WITH the lower gas-needs, dumb spending/advertising and the like, but I can't help but think that something is fundamentally wrong with being FORCED to pay someone 30 bucks an hour to turn a fuggin wrench when they've got a high school diploma and make 5 years of work experience. I need other opinions, though.




Posted by Lord of Spam

old unions: good, positive force for workers rights
new unions: truth be told told, dont know much, but seems liek" BUY AMURICAN OR UR A COMMY"




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire

My stepdad was a union leader for local factory workers and whatnot and made a ridiculous amount of money from it. Went on strike a couple times, got everyone's wages jacked up and nearly ran the company out of business.

Was pretty impressed.




Posted by Bj Blaskowitz

makes one wonder why companies outsource!




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire

Yeah, honestly don't blame companies. North American's are dicks.




Posted by Bj Blaskowitz

AT LEAST WE KNOW WHEN TO USE APOSTROPHES!




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire

I'm north america

and wasn't thinking




Posted by Bj Blaskowitz

Wow. I feel like a ******* for somehow not associating "North America" with "North America" and assuming that Canada was not a part of it. I apologize. I blame Mexico.




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire

it happens a lot. read a newstory just a second ago where the guy was like "... taking part in North America, Europe, China and Canada"

pretty ****ed up ****, but I don't blame anyone.




Posted by Klarth

canada is in europe.




Posted by Ant

I had to be in a union for my short stint as a "Courtesy Clerk" at a local grocery store. Sucked cause about 15% of my check went towards unions fees and I didn't **** out of it. I quit after working there for about 6 months.




Posted by mis0


Quoting Bj Blaskowitz: pushing SUV's, not moving WITH the lower gas-needs.

This in particular is something I don't understand. Detroit gave people what they wanted; the American motorist has long thought, wrongly, that small=unsafe, uncool, etc. Detroit played it up, but the consumers ultimately are responsible for demanding said products.

Anyway, unions really aren't the problem. Japanese and Korean automakers also deal with labor unions that are paid just as well as American union employees. The difference is that Japan and South Korea have nationalized healthcare, so the companies don't have to provide those benefits. The huge legacy costs Chrysler, Ford, and especially GM have to deal with are mainly healthcare-related benefits. If we had nationalized healthcare, it would theoretically knock-off about $1500 per car. That's pretty significant, as they could probably undercut a bunch of their competitors if the cost wasn't there.



Posted by Vampiro V. Empire


Quoted post: This in particular is something I don't understand. Detroit gave people what they wanted; the American motorist has long thought, wrongly, that small=unsafe, uncool, etc. Detroit played it up, but the consumers ultimately are responsible for demanding said products.


They still continued to make said cars even after people were moving towards smaller, fuel-economic cars.



Posted by mis0

It is unreasonable to expect them to retool in 6 months, which is the span of time in which oil prices spiked and pushed stateside gas to over $4/gal. They have to plan ahead, and seeing as nobody knew what the elasticity of demand for gasoline actually looked like, they couldn't have predicted the problem. Nor could they has predicted the economic downturn which has really hurt them.

I'm not really trying to defend Detroit, but they weren't entirely to blame for everything that has happened.




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire

Obviously they're not entirely to blame, but it might've been a good idea to not continuously push big cars throughout those six months. Though one would hope a business exec would've seen something like this eventually happening and at least had a few plans for it. Everyone else seemingly did.




Posted by Bj Blaskowitz

well the union's caused the bailout to collapse, so I guess they'd rather lose their jobs than take a wage cut. Pretentious pricks.




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire

Yeah, laughed pretty hard at that. **** are they thinking.




Posted by BLUNTMASTER X

not that long ago the car factory just outside of my town invested in some top-of-the-line robotics and automation that dramatically increased their car production every day. the union asked that rather than increase car production, the same amount of cars be produced and extra time left over from faster production be given as an extra break and an earlier closing time for workers... but have them still be paid the same wage. no ****ing kidding.

there are good unions and there are bad unions, the problem is basically that anyone, when given a lil bit of power, goes totally nuts with it.




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire

dude who does construction gets paid twenty bucks an hour for a regular job. union job though? fifty bucks an hour

ridiculous money.




Posted by ☆Ezhno☆

In Right to Work states like Arizona, they don't do anything but leech your money and pretend to do something. Old east coast unions are pretty cool though.




Posted by Foppy D

I knew some people that worked part-time for Publix, a grocery store, in high school as baggers and whatever BS jobs they give kids in a grovery store. They said at least once every 2 weeks a rep from the company's union would practically harass them for not joining the union, when it took like $10 out of their pay check but offered them some kind of security or something...I just thought it was funny. Companies should know that if a kid starts to work for you while he's in high school, he does not want to make it his career. Only when you hire retards who are 3 years out of high school and have a GED or used to be really into drugs would they want to make a career out of retail.




Posted by specopssv44

yeah i worked at albertsons for awhile in highschool, and the union dudes were serious *******s about everything, I refused to join repeatedly, eventually they told me if i didnt join now i would be banned for the rest of my life and would "never be able to join the union".... i told them to **** off and quit...

my dads a manager for rocketdyne and he always has to deal with union reps trying to tell him who he can and cant fire.




Posted by Foppy D

The funny thing is that Georgia is a fire at will state, so a union can't protect you from being fired, at least I don't think it can.




Posted by Y2kMISFIT

I am in local Union 449, teamsters... thats right led by Hoffa's son, lol.
I been at UPS for 2 and a half years and being a teamster is great. The benefits outweigh the salary especially when you haven't been there very long and not full time. My medical is pretty much 100% paid for, and I get to mouth off to supervisors. GO UNIONS!!




Posted by syndrome

Unions are great ideas until they force you to pay a large chunk of your income to them without giving you any benefits whatsoever (like when I worked at Safeway).

Which is why I don't like unions.




Posted by WillisGreeny

National Avg bus driver salary: 22,000 a yr

My town's bus driver salary thanks to a strong union: 40,000 a yr