Happy Labor Day, There is power in the Union!!

[thereisnospoon]

What's wrong with workers organizing for their rights? The corporations have the supreme court as their unions. Remember citizens united? Unlimited funding to buy off politicians. Enabling a corporate person to claim a residence in Ireland while doing business in this country? No, better to worry that a guy might be making enough to have a decent life and maybe a retirement in his old age.

Small problem: Union workers were being paid ten times what non-union workers were being paid to do the exact same work in the seventies/eighties.
Coincidentally that was about the time when major US manufacturers pulled out of the US leaving piles of rusting factories and permanent unemployment.
The unions bosses/Mafia bosses were still lining their pockets though.
If you want to know who fucked over the American worker look no further than your local union.

So union workers were making 10x what non union workers were? In 1970 I was making about $4.00 p.h. union. So non union were making $.40 and hour? Really!
Now I always hear this "union thug" thing from the right wing. I never met one, but there are bad ones in every profession. Show me where non union skilled tradesman were making 50 cents an hour back then in California.

Ahh....Not so fast.....Your union was charging your employer probably 50 to 100% above your pay scale.
Case and point....The Carpenters Union Chapter in upstate NY is all wet over the fact that a hotel chain "Turf Hotels" is using in all of its new construction a non union drywall company.
The union claims the Company is not paying the NY State union scale of $49 per hour. True but not accurate. The union charges that figure but the workers are not paid that rate.
Niatrust Drywall pays the hourly rate it deems appropriate. The Union is inaccurately invoking the NY Statute. That is it applies only to PUBLIC projects. Turf Hotels is a privately owned company and as such is not bound by any competitive bidding process mandated for public works projects. The bottom line is the union bosses believe their members deserve the work and the fact the union does not get Turf Hotel's work incenses the union management.
Decades ago unions could literally shut down projects if they felt they did not get their 'due respect'. Those days are over because unions no longer have the support of the general public.
Another example is that of GM before the federal government stepped in. The average labor cost to manufacture a GM vehicle in a UAW plant was a little over $70 per hour. That included wages pension fund and benefits.