posted 01-29- 07:42 PM               

IN ESSENCE.

What I mean by that is, This past summer I worked for a contractor remodeling a large upscale hotel.

Everyone started at 7 Dollars an hour. (its hard to find work around here)

It didn't matter how much experince or education you had.

You started at 7, me with a college education and others with great experince.

Yes there was people that only deserved 7 and people that deserved less.

The boss said that after 3 months you would get a raise to what he deamed appropriate. You had to prove yourself. Its somewhat understadable. Althogh I think 4 to 6 weeks would have been better.

In the 6 months I worked for that guy I never got NOTHING, and he admited that I'm proved my speed and was a good worker. He kept stalling and stalling until he laid me off a couple weeks before christmas. ( nice guy eh?) Me and one other worker were the only guys left working for him.

ANYWAYS.

I feel that earlier in the job if all of us would have formed a type of union we could have pushed him for more pay, really what could he do. He was already going through unskilled losers at the rate of a couple a month. There really wasn't anyone willing to work for that kind of money with our skills at that point.

THAT is when I think a union is a good idea.

I don't think unions that take dues and crap are a good idea.

It should just be the workers getting together to form a powerfull group when they feel they are getting the shaft from the company they work for.

They should however understand the costs envolved with doing business. Which it seems a decent percentage of people don't.

I wish I could have said all that better.

Maybe after I hear some others opinions I can refine my point.

Simple unions can be good.

Overgrown bloated ones that harm the company they work for are not.

Belive me I hounded this guy and he just wouldn't budge.

Oh yeah one guy did get a raise, he had to quit and come back and then threaten to leave again.

He was single though. I have a kid to support and couldn't walk away into an uncertain job market.

posted 01-29- 08:54 PM            

Spanky,
Mirth is right for a change. A lot of companys
have a little side business going on. It
is fighting unionization or fighting the
union they all ready have. Money is allocated
for this out of the company budget and it
is a regular part of their doing business.
It doesn't take a very big company any more
to have a human rescorces or labor/employee
relations department for the express purpose
of avoiding unionization or attempting to
bend/break the union they do have. This often
includes a legal team of lawyers.

Unions have to have funds to represent their
workers. Offices and accounting staffs have
to be maintained, rooms and lodging for
negotiators, the list goes on and on, not
to mention a strong strike fund. Often times
the size of the strike fund can determine the
outcome of negotiations.

It would be nice if it worked like you say.
Just a bunch of workers get together for the
common cause of getting a raise or better
working conditions. Unfortunately, companies
are just too strong and too determined to
thwart unionization. The only way things can
get done is through orginzation. This takes
money.

I can only speak from my own experience about
whether a union is good or not.

I graduated from high school in 1966. Worked
a couple of crap jobs and ended up in a non-
union factory making $2.75 an hour doing
maintenance work. When I hired on at a near-
by UAW represented factory I went to 3.60 an
hour to sweep floors. I worked at that
factory for 30+ years. I made a good living
for my family. Much better than the non-union
workers I knew. I was able to retire at a
fairly young age (50). None of this would
have been possible without the UAW.

posted 01-29- 09:18 PM               

A small factory with 100 workers against a small company that just makes one thing in that one factory.

Not 20000 people against GM.

LOL

Still sucks though, Why can't all the workers just select one UNPAID worker to represent them and say give us better working conditions or we walk?

Try replacing a 20000 person skilled/trained workforce overnight.

posted 01-29- 09:40 PM            

The unpaid rep goes back to the workers
telling them what the employer said. This
scares the shit out of about half of them.

Then after a few days, under the employer's
constant observation, lo and behold the
unpaid rep makes a serious mistake on the
job and gets fired.

The second unpaid rep gets real hard to find
and any talk of a raise, working conditions
or a strike quiets right down.

posted 01-29- 11:27 PM               

HEHE thats exactly what my boss would say to me every time I broght the subject up.

Right up until he let me go a couple weeks before christmas. fucking bastard.

posted 01-30- 03:48 AM            

Now, in some places unions do serve a good purpose. Some unions are reactive to their members and are truly looking out for the employees best interests...mine however isn't. They are a bunch of lying, stealing, lazy, weasely (is that even a word?!?), bastards.

OK, I'm done... I feel better now... oooohhhh look! The nice men in the white coates have come to play again... I really like that padded room...

posted 01-30- 06:45 AM               

See I get what smokeys saying but I really don't belive in the dues, If its all going into a pot that needs a huge percentage of the workers to sign something to use it then fine.

If its going into a strike fund then fine.

But not to pay anyone.

As soon as you pay someone it taints the whole system.

I feel this way about goverment too.

posted 01-30- 01:53 PM            

We've thought about doing something lihe that... dort of a union agaisnt the union. Turns out it is actually illegal to do. You see, we already have a union ant they are on a 20 year contract that was last renewed in 1985 - therefore, according to the state, we already have all the representation we need. There is no mechanism in place to deal with what is basically a corrupt union... and that's where the problem lies. Unions exist almost outside the bounds of law and are very hard to control or force to do anything. Hopefully when the union contract comes up in 2005 we can do something about them - until then we are still getting screwed.

The real kicker is that in the county MOU (basically the cotractual hiring policies of the county) it actually says that you do not have to be a member of the union or pay the union dues... the problem with that is that there is a state law that says all Cali. govt' employees must either join a union or at least pay the dues... so while the County appears to be looking out for us... the State is forcing them to let the union screw us over.

Oh well... at least the dues aren't a huge amount like they are in some other lines of work. Gotta look at the bright side I guess...