Happy Labor Day....Union and proud of it.

Big Anti Union guy here. I've worked for a union before and it was ridiculous. "Live Better Work Union" is a crock of sh*t. In my experience with the union, the only people who ever benefited were the cry babies and the tattle tales. It was a disgusting experience.

Happy Labour Day from the Builders Labourers Federation of Australia

"The workers united will never be defeated!"

reply to post by whaaa

In unity there is strength!

Amen Bro (sis?), Teamster here in Texas (that's right! Deep in the heart of!) with all the way baby!

Represent!

reply to post by Ferris.Bueller.II

I don't know anything about US unions but I do know one thing. One example does not make a case. You can find examples of bad doctors, nurses, police, fireman, lawyers(!), politicians, generals, computer programmers etc etc

Being crooked and immoral is not the preserve of any group of people but exists in ALL groups.

My father's a part of a Union, and I must fully admit it's saved him a few times when things got hairy at the workplace. I've been wanting to join one, but it's rare to see a job that allows them anymore.


There are pros and cons to everything, Unions are no exception. However, one can't deny that Unions helped workers get rights in the first place, as probably stated earlier than my post.

Also, Happy Labor Day, I hope it was enjoyable for you!

reply to post by whaaa


Man yeah,

Without unions we would all be lost. But we need a new Jimmy Hoffa era right GD now! I do like some of the stuff his son has said.

Here is a great clip from one of my favorite films Matewan featuring James Earl Jones;

Warning; period piece with racial language.

I wouldn’t say that I am anti-union, but I definitely stand against their leadership at this moment in time. I believe that they have become what they once fought against.

I live in a “union town” here in Ohio and it is collapsing. The unions here have out priced themselves forcing the companies to move. Unemployment is rampant and crime is rising.

Unions have to change with the times, what they want in regards to benefits is no longer sustainable. They have to pay more in or take a cut, that is the bottom line.

Originally posted by whaaa
AFTRA/SAG



[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/91927cbb9813.jpg[/atsimg]

If it weren't for my union affiliations the productions companies would take advantage of our years of training and skills learned on the job and barely pay us while they raked in the profits from TV and Films we work on.

If it weren't for my union affiliations I would never have gotten paid at all for many productions.

I waited 9 years to get paid for "Young Guns" a film that made millions, but refused to pay the cast and crew until the SAG lawyers sued them. This is not uncommon!

In unity there is strength!

OK.........conservative right wingers........Call me a "Union Thug" and "duped" or a "people like you"...we have all heard it many times before.

edit on 5-9-2011 by whaaa because: 4f4

SAG/AFTRA/EQUITY member here, I feel ya 100% I'm also in a situation where SAG legal is going after residuals for me and the rest of the cast on an academy-award winning film. I prefer not to say which. but yeah, even with all of our union's issues, I'm glad to be a member.

If you want to know why our products are so expensive, why manufacturers are moving out of our country, look no further than the union. I belonged to one when I was younger, and all I ever saw was how the Union President was in some foreign country every month. Give me a break. I just don't get how people can sit back and think that getting paid $35/hr to build a car is acceptable. Then they turn around and bitch at how expensive they are. Morons, you're the reason they are so expensive! Now I also know some unions are pretty much decent, but UAW, AFL-CIO are a joke! Also, forcing someone to use union labor to build something is wrong as well. A union membership should be voluntary, not mandatory! This is why so many companies are moving to the south. The north is losing jobs and the unions are the reason, like it or not!

Originally posted by Ferris.Bueller.II
...but public sector unions are not needed seeing as the government are their employers, and not an evil corporation. If a private sector union is too greedy, demands too much, and kills the business they are working for, the workers pay with their jobs. If a public sector union gets too greedy and demands too much from their employer, the taxpayers pay, especially if Democrats are in the majority.

I know not everyone has this viewpoint, especially those with their hand in the till profiting in some way by a union. Oh well.

I disagree on the basis that I have...as mentioned...served as a Chief Steward in a unionised public sector workplace, and I was very busy dealing with managers that were rectally sourcing policy according to their moods that day. I also helped to negotiate a contract, so I know exactly what I'm talking about. It may not apply across the board...but neither does your dismissal of all public sector unions!

A collective agreement is a mutually agreed upon document...worked out under tough circumstances, but mutually agreed upon. It is more than wages, it is a set of rules by which workers and employers conduct themselves. Stewards and HR police the agreement, because both sides are quite capable of violating it. As a matter of interest, I even had management come to me and ask about how some of their people were performing.

There will always be bad players on either side, but a collective agreement is the rulebook.

One more thing I noticed...when grievances and contracts go to binding arbitration by mutually agreed upon neutral labour arbitrators, they generally rule in favour of the workers. That should tell you something.

Bottom line...don't judge unions by their worst attributes because big anything is open to abuse. Judge them by the efforts they make to keep the workplace a fair and productive environment for employer and employee alike. As has been previously mentioned, it wasn't the unions that sent the manufacturing overseas.

You will always have my support. The American worker built this country not the elite!

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


You know, if you don't like unions, that's fine.

But don't try and wreck someone else's celebration.

I'm pro-Union but I highly doubt that my place of work will unionize. It appears the money-grubbers have managed to scare the change-jinglers with tales of the "big bad union".

Originally posted by Ferris.Bueller.II
Happy Labor Day back to you!

Got to love unions, especially when they steal from taxpayers! I do have to admit our country would not be where it is today without them.

Uni on leader draws lucrative pension perk based on false information

Every month, Thomas Villanova gets a $9,000 reminder of how lucrative it can be to serve as a union leader in Chicago.

The sum is part of a city pension that comes on top of the $198,000 annual salary he is paid to represent the interests of thousands of city workers.

Yup, I pay $44 a month for what? Some fat arse to suck up a portion of my pay so I can trade my labor and experience next to a guy who bullcrapped his way in? We have so many workers in our shop with little to no education in the field and they bullcrap their way in and then the union protects them and when I get pissed off because they feck up all the time and I have to fix it, I am wrong and get fired? Makes sense to me!!! I have been with the comapny 22 years, have gone out of my way to promote and help the company grow, I have done more for the company than all the other "employees" combined, yet I get fired because I ask, the union steward who is fed up as well, if it would be wrong to "escort" Joe Blow off the property and give him a little education on how things are done. Yea, unions are great for socialism and comunism, but not for America. If gutless wonders would stand up for themselves we wouldn't need unions. Know history people. If the entire popualtion came together and said F-U to these corporations, and walked out, what would the corps do? Just have to man up, no union needed and walk out together, individually yet together. THAT is solidarity, not a union.

Originally posted by MorbiSemper
My father's a part of a Union, and I must fully admit it's saved him a few times when things got hairy at the workplace. I've been wanting to join one, but it's rare to see a job that allows them anymore.


There are pros and cons to everything, Unions are no exception. However, one can't deny that Unions helped workers get rights in the first place, as probably stated earlier than my post.

Also, Happy Labor Day, I hope it was enjoyable for you!

RIGHTS? We are all born with natural rights, the right to labor is one, protected by "State" law. Not just legislation but actual case law. I hate it when people say the union got them "rights". You have a right to hunt and fish without a license, you have the right to own property without registration, you have the right to operate an automobile without being licensed, supported again by case law, NATURAL RIGHTS, people do not ENFORCE THEM. The government was created to regulate commerce AND THAT IS IT!!!!!!!!!

If you don't know you have any rights, THEN YOU DON'T HAVE ANY RIGHT!!!

Unions aren't as good as they sound.

My fiancee's union decided that a raise lower than inflation would be good, also many things got clawed back --> the contract the idiots at work decided to vote for this agreement. Can't save the stupid. Unions are there to try and get you to sell out for as little as possible while the company pays off the union heads. They are a total rip most of the time.

The best you can do is quit your job and destroy the economy, lead simpler lives, and diminish that evil military industrial complex of yours that requires chattel partaking in their machine to fuel it with bodies for fighting and production, and taxes all in combination.

To those that hate the unions....

Stop watching Fox because the personnel are all union members. Hypocrites that bad mouth other union working men and women members while at the same time enjoying the benifits of being a union member themselves. Even Rush, Sean and the rest are AFTRA.

dpeaflcio.org...

reply to post by whaaa


When managed correctly a Union is an important entity for the American worker. In fact America needs more, stronger, better managed Unions because without them Corporate America will just use us up and leave us out to dry.

If it were not for unions two men could bind a contract between each other for the price they agree upon.

If it were not for unions labor costs on projects would be affordable to the small person.

reply to post by whaaa


One of my favorite moves of all time. Young Guns II

Happy Labor Day to you as well . . .

Unfortunately, Unions have become the bloated bureaucracies they originally formed to protect workers against . . . it's more about the dues than the people.