Jᴀᴄᴜʀᴜᴛᴜ - Tʜᴇ Cᴀsᴛ Oᴜᴛ

Freakzilla wrote:Nobody said they haven't done good things in the past.

The fact is that they are now driving the companies into the ground.

Freakzilla wrote:What good is your union going to be when there's no work?

SandRider wrote:

Freakzilla wrote:Nobody said they haven't done good things in the past.

The fact is that they are now driving the companies into the ground.

which companies ?
(take your time)

SandRider wrote:I hate to do it, but ....
I'll come back around to this with some hard figures showing
that the UAW has had little to no effect on the downward spiral of GM,
in particular. Corporate line, Freak - it can't be our own mis-management
and bad decsions, it's those communist anti-american organized workers !

the numbers don't add up - UAW wages ain't that good !

Chigger wrote:And enough of this rewarding the executives for fucking up. They should take pay cuts, not get bonuses.

SandRider wrote:

Drunken Idaho wrote:Well if the unions keep crying about it, they can look forward to the lucrative

future of alternative energy...

Omphalos wrote:

Freakzilla wrote:

SandRider wrote:I

can only defend it on the grounds of saving UAW jobs ...

I only support bailing out the auto industry if all UAW contracts are cancelled.
If it weren't for the unions, maybe they could make some money.

I agree wholeheartedly.

Mandy wrote:Yeah, me too. The unions have served their purpose,

now they're just greedy and power hungry.

y'all finished now ? y'all quite thru ?


okay, I'm not going to post this but once, I promise you.
First off, I'm speaking from the perspective of a 35 year union man, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) -(we're "international" now because of the merger with the Canadian Electrical Workers - and I've been against that forever, too, but ...) So one : I'm not talking from something I've heard union-busting Repulican/conservative/corporate/right-wing talkshow hosts/&etc spout. And two: what I have to say pertains mainly to the IBEW, and its role in your life.

I already listed the main benefits the labor movement brought to this country : mainly the idea of a fair, living wage, and the most important in my mind, workplace safety. Those of you who work offices may not appreciate this. Those of you who have ever worked a construction or industrial project will know right off the bat. I doubt there's any folks old enough on here to remember what job sites were like before OSHA. Before the sea-change in company attitude that finally realized the health and safety of the worker was more important than production. I'm gonna sound like a real old fucker here, but you kids don't world where a man's life didn't mean a damn thing to the company. If an unsafe machine took your arm off, you were shit outta luck. No workman's comp, no medical insurance, no goddamn nothing. Your buddies carried to your truck and cleaned up your blood and went back to work, and the company hired another sumbitch to man your station. This change was not brought about by loving, caring, concerned company bosses. It was forced on them by the labor movement.

Do you like your weekends ? If you are a wage laborer, do you like your overtime pay after a 40 hour week ? Thank the AFL-CIO. The establishment of the 40-hour work week, which was adopted by everyone eventually, was the sole work of the labor movement. Ask a Wal-Mart employee how they like their situation. Wal-mart not only will not allow a worker to go over 40 hours in a week, so as not to pay overtime, they classify almost all workers as "part-time", and allow less than 30 hours a week, so as to disallow benefit packages. With such a weak Union presence in the commercial sector, this practice is more and more becoming "acceptable".

Do like little children ? Would you want to see little children in sweatshops & coal mines right here in the good ole U.S. of A., like they are elsewhere all over the world ? No ? Thank the labor movement for child labor laws. (The poor kids of this country thank you , too).

And finally, from my personal point of view : Do you like your electricity ? Do you like the lifestyle you've become accustomed to, made possible only by electricity ? Thank your local IBEW lineman, who built the plants and substations, hung the lines, and goes out in the thuderstorms and ice storms and hurricanes and fixes them for you.

Everybody wants nuclear reactors now. Three new projects are a go in South Texas. Who's going to build them ? Where are you going to get the trained, skilled, experianced workers THAT CAN PASS THE FUCKING BACKGROUND CHECKS required by the government to construct nuclear reactors ? Standing outside Home Depot on a Saturday ? Don't think so. You'll need the IBEW, the Steelworkers, Ironworkers, & Pipefitters Unions.

Druken Idaho mentioned something about alternative energy. The IBEW literally wrote the book on wind turbine power distribution systems. And hydro. And coal. And nukes. The IBEW is responsible for the power distribution grid of this nation. We train the apprentices and journeymen who will construct the new systems.

"If it weren't for the unions, maybe they could make some money." Great corporate line. They'd like you to not only believe it, but teach it to your children. So they can lower the next generation's wages, but continue to pay themselves tens of millions a year. If you are a corporate CEO, that's a fine attitude to have, more power to you. If you're in the top one percent, by all means, vote your interests, and vote Republican. Bust unions. Lower wages. Safety First, as long as it doesn't get in the way of Production. After all, the most important thing in a capitalist society is Profit, right ?

In this time, with the wage & safety standards firmly in place, bad-mouthing the labor movement is like bad-mouthing the ACLU, those people who ensure your continued right to bad-mouth anything you wish.

(dismounts soapbox, returns to bad-mouthing Merritt)(Thanks, ACLU ! )

Mandy wrote:Why should the companies (any company) be forced to pay workers more than the minimum wage?