[TwoWheeldTerror]

OK...the dock workers on the west coast are some of the highest paid blue collar workers in the world.

They would HAVE BEEN the highest paid if they would have accepted the last offer...instead they turn it down!!!

I mean $80K start! sheesh..

What is they want?? Job security! Get a freaking LIFE...welcome to the NEW economy...job security is a myth....NO EMPLOYER should be forced to create job security.

Ugh...I HATE UNIONS. They are archaic and nothing but organized crime conglomerates who hold employers hostage and force employees to do things they do not want to do!

(one worker claimed he did not want to slow do before the lock out but was basically told to do it or else)

 

[karl_996]

I used to work at a hospital washing dishes for $17.21/hr(starting wage)

While I was there, there were talks about going on strike because people wanted more money.:confused
these are the type of people that would use up all their sick days(2/month) each month, just because they could.

I was told if I went on strike, I would be fired(I was casual, the union only protected part time and full time employees, but they still took the same amount of dues), and if I didn't go on strike, I would have been fined by the union(whom I had been paying dues to since I had started).

Unions were needed in the 40s and 50s to protect the workers, now they are just another form of corruption.
The union I paid dues too, took in approx $10,000,000 per year.
was that worth what they do? I don't think so.

:doublefli unions

 

[StrickSVS]

Unions are a scam. They used to have their place but those days are long gone. Ever wonder why a car cost as much as it does? There is no way a car costs $18,000 to build.

 

[KawboyZX7R]

I used to haul auto parts to chrysler plants in the motown area. It would take a half an hr to load a 53 foot semi trailer at a suppliers non-union dock, take the SAME load directly to a uaw chrysler plant and it would take at least 2 1/2 hrs to have the same load unloaded. The uaw workers are prolly the laziest people to roam the earth.

 

[PKS Racing Svcs]

I'm with ya on that one Rocket! It's one of the main reasons I left Michigan; it's a closed state. If the company you work for has a union, you must join that union or you can't work there. Screw that!

Not too long after I moved here I helped vote the union out of the company I worked for, and we were treated much better after they were gone. The only people at this place who belonged to the union were the people who were such slackasses that they couldn't hold a job on their own.

Many, many years ago (back in the early 60's) the carpet layers went on strike in Michigan. Carpet and furniture was, and still is, the family business. My family hired guys outside of the union to do the work while the union workers were on strike. We're not talking huge business here, we're talking family business, where a strike could severely damage the company. The entire family received death threats, and to this day I can remember unmarked black sedans flanking our driveway, standing watch. Score one for the good guys!

Nope, no love for unions here.

 

[Korwen]

Yeah more BS we have to deal with, but we can't infringe on peoples rights to fuck us over, nope.

 

[Crusher]

Holy chit Batman.....80k year to work on a dock......$17/hr. to wash dishes.......Where do I apply??:confused

 

[jon super]

My $0.02...

Living near Detroit, I hear stories of union jobs and potential strikes all the time. The ones that piss me off the most revolve around someone making $60K a year with barely a high school degreee (not meant to offend anyone) and complaining about everything. Of course, if I had to stand on a production line and screw seven bolts into the passenger side door of a minivan all day, I might bitch too!

I just wish some people would realize how good they have it (degree or not) and not let the unions fill their heads with visions of power and wealth. Somteimes I think this whole "buy American" thing was started by the unions to put a feeling of guilt in the American public, when all they really want is more power over the automobile indutry.

 

[karl_996]

Holy chit Batman.....80k year to work on a dock......$17/hr. to wash dishes.......Where do I apply??:confused

hey Al, that $17/hr is canadian dollars(less than minimum wage in the states:laughing)

 

[Munnin]

The big secret of the dock worker strike is that it has nothing to do with pay. The union is worried about two things:

1) The new contract would have enabled to company to turn every one over in about 6 months. Which means they would have been the highest paid employees for about 6 months. Needless to say most people turn down opportunities to slit there own throats.
2) The pension fund is no where nearly fully funded. Accounting rules are constructed such that companies can claim “historic returns” on the stock market are guaranteed payments. Those same accounting rules also allow a company to loan its self money from the pension funds. There are other abuses available to corporations too numerous to name here. The whispering in board rooms right now is they hope to delay any clean up actions on these rules until they can either sell out or can declare them selves in default an get government intervention.

 

[khuram0786]

hey Al, that $17/hr is canadian dollars(less than minimum wage in the states:laughing)

yeah..but you said "starting off" so that implies it was a while back..hence, you were bring home the bling bling (sorry, couldn't resist..lol) when you were a wee lad...and this had to have been a long time back (the Great Depression perhaps?) b/c you're like 60 or something, right?

 

[RoadRashed]

If you ever have A LOT of time on your hands....and want to read a 1168 page novel that explains why and how unions exist........read Atlas Shrugged. Unions and their members are just a bunch of "looters". Minimum effort for maximum pay. They think the world "owes" them a living...that it is their "right" to be wealthy........but they have no concept of EARNING your money. The place I work has warehouses all over the world. When I am allocating equipment for a job, I specifically avoid using one of our few Union warehouses. The lazy bastards there take 3 times as long to get anything out.........and it is usually in shitty condition. They no longer care about quality or quantity.......because they don't have to. They just show up and get paid.......... Man they piss me off.......

 

[TrafficDiver]

If you ever have A LOT of time on your hands....and want to read a 1168 page novel that explains why and how unions exist........read Atlas Shrugged

Atlas Shrugged is my favorite book.:thumb

 

[ziadel]

Unions are really not needed today...
decades ago, yes, but not now...

 

[Hyrowler]

Teamsters! Don't get me started! I'm on the front lines of this battle day in and day out. I've been in more fights with union members at the west coast convention center docks then I have been with my sisters. Jurisdictional violations, labor disputes, those fuckin breaks they take!!!!!! Ok I'm done.

 

[JGard18]

Unions and Fraternities: For people who can't get by on the quality of their own work.

 

[RoadRashed]

Atlas Shrugged is my favorite book.:thumb

Holy crap! I never thought I would ever hear that from anyone. My drafter bought it for me almost a year ago. It took me a few months to just dig in and start to read it. I only have about 100 pages more to go........if I can just get through the never ending radio speech of John Galt. My drafter quotes that book on a regular basis. I hope you are not as strange as he is.

 

[SalKhan]

I like onions.

 

[O.W. Kenobi]

I used to work at a hospital washing dishes for $17.21/hr(starting wage)

While I was there, there were talks about going on strike because people wanted more money.:confused
these are the type of people that would use up all their sick days(2/month) each month, just because they could.

I was told if I went on strike, I would be fired(I was casual, the union only protected part time and full time employees, but they still took the same amount of dues), and if I didn't go on strike, I would have been fined by the union(whom I had been paying dues to since I had started).

Unions were needed in the 40s and 50s to protect the workers, now they are just another form of corruption.
The union I paid dues too, took in approx $10,000,000 per year.
was that worth what they do? I don't think so.

:doublefli unions

You can't be forced into a union. Why did you allow them to deduct union dues if you did not want to enroll? I had an employer long ago present me with a union card (union supermarket). I promptly threw it in the garbage and never saw one deduction from my paycheck. Problem solved.

 

[lightner22]

You can't be forced into a union. Why did you allow them to deduct union dues if you did not want to enroll? I had an employer long ago present me with a union card (union supermarket). I promptly threw it in the garbage and never saw one deduction from my paycheck. Problem solved.

It is my understanding that if a company goes union, they HAVE to hire union employees. So to keep a job, you would have to pay union fees etc. My wife manages a cleaning company and her employees that work within DC HAVE to pay dues because DC has a "union only" policy for cleaning services. Her company pays way over the union minimums so her employees end up paying for nothing. They were given a vote at the start, and which ever side wins, the rest have to conform to.