Labor Unions...Good or Bad?

[Mr.Nick]

Unions are shit - half of the (in house) truck drivers are drunk fucks...

One nearly killed me by by almost dropping a load on my head/body...

Probably wasn't an accident.

Oh BTW, put me an you in a cell and we will see who walks out alive bitch.

 

[theDoctorisIn]

Unions are shit - half of the (in house) truck drivers are drunk fucks...

One nearly killed me by by almost dropping a load on my head/body...

Probably wasn't an accident.

Oh BTW, put me an you in a cell and we will see who walks out alive bitch.

Nothing funnier than ITGs.

 

[Immanuel]

It is not the unions or the vast majority of people who work in them that are bad. It is the corrupt individuals who manage them that are bad and the people they employ to "encourage" compliance.

Immie

 

[Mr.Nick]

Probably wasn't an accident.

Oh BTW, put me an you in a cell and we will see who walks out alive bitch.

Nothing funnier than ITGs.

You think I play games??

This isn't a threat it is a fucking fact...

I've had it with old men talking shit like they're something but in reality they're nothing.

Being an old ape that knows jack-shit doesn't define an individual - nor does it make a fucking idiot a hard ass....

 

[Mr.Nick]

I have no time for fucking pricks and lots of time for good honest debate...

 

[regent]

How about the Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, The American Medical Association, the America Bar Association, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, The Disabled American Veterans Association, the NAACP and all the thousands of other organizations should they be disallowed?

 

[Mr.Nick]

How about the Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, The American Medical Association, the America Bar Association, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, The Disabled American Veterans Association, the NAACP and all the thousands of other organizations should they be disallowed?

What do they do for anyone?

Not to mention some are organizations and not unions...

Of course we have the Catholic (or even Christian church) which helps tremendously in times of need...

 

[OpenJumper1]

I belonged to a branch of SEIU over 10 years ago in a car Dealership(GM no less. lol) At THAT time healthcare was paid, for you but not family. You had a paid pension and so on. But besides all that...it's not like that now(btw) and I'd say since 2000 unions aren't the same. The workers getting snookered by the union thug bosses, and why bother with unions b/c you can get fired or laid off at any given time. So where's the worker protections? there aren't any there is nothing different between unions and private sector anymore

 

[Lovebears65]

I think there was a time and place for unions. I think those times have passed. Also I think all unions should be abolished in the public sector. When our tax dollars are paying you , YOU SHOULD not allowed to strike period. Teachers should be judged on their merit and not how many years they have been teachers because that makes them lazy when they know they cant be fired

In other words ...

we tax payers should be able to fuck over public sector workers.

If the military cant strike either should teachers , firemen or police men. Just saying. Its our tax dollars paying them. they are hardly getting screwed over when teachers only work 9 months out of the year with tons of vacation time. They only work 180 days. What is there to bitch about

 

[JoeB131]

Are labor unions good or bad for capitalism and economic growth?

Explain in 300 words or less, please.

They are good for Democracy.

The biggest lie that has every been told is that investment creates jobs. Bullshit. Consumer activity creates jobs, and unions make sure of consumer activity by making sure that working people get a fair share of the proceeds of an enterprise.

That in turn spurs more consumer activity as other working people make stuff that they buy.

So it is no surprise we enjoyed our greatest prosperity in the period between 1945 and 1975 when the workforce was mostly unionized and people were bringing home good wages.

its no surprise that you apparently think time stopped at that point and the world just stood still.

The biggest lie that has every been told is that investment creates jobs. Bullshit. Consumer activity creates jobs, and unions make sure of consumer activity by making sure that working people get a fair share of the proceeds of an enterprise.

That in turn spurs more consumer activity as other working people make stuff that they buy.

your view of economics and business is, well, infantile.

Well, actually, it's practical.

Frankly, we've tried "Supply Side" economics for the last 30 years, and it's failed miserably.

Time to go back to Keynesian economics. It seems to work better.

 

[PredFan]

Private industry Labor Unions = bad

Public Sector Labor Unions = Pure evil

 

[Skull Pilot]

perhaps the problem here is the people doing the negotiating for the government.....

No it's the fact that government will only give jobs to union labor.

thats not true.....we have private companies doing things around here all the time from plumbing to Electrical to maintaining the AC units....

All non-union?

You do realize that private companies can still be union shops don't you?

I used to deal with state government projects and not one was ever done by a non-union shop.

 

[JoeB131]

Private industry Labor Unions = bad

Public Sector Labor Unions = Pure evil

why?

I think there are some valid criticism to be made about unions. They are too big, have gotten to complacent in many way.

But the alternative, what we had before then was worse.

Public Sector Labor Unions came about because of patronage and politics. That career professionals found themselves demoted or fired when someone won an election so that the idiot cousin of the new adminstrator could get a job.

 

[Truthseeker420]

I assume you are talking for America in general so I would have to say good.

 

[Mr Natural]

Unions are shit - half of the (in house) truck drivers are drunk fucks...

One nearly killed me by by almost dropping a load on my head/body...

Probably wasn't an accident.

Oh BTW, put me an you in a cell and we will see who walks out alive bitch.

Grow up, junior.

 

[Zoom-boing]

There is still a need for unions because there are still companies that treat their employees like shit. My husband is an assist. mgr. for Sherwin Williams paint (he worked for M.A.B., SW bought them and nearly every other paint company around here out). Both M.A.B. and SW treat their employees like shit. Raises and performance review are close to non-existent. The stores are minimally staffed - one mgr, one assist mgr and if you're super lucky you might get one part-time person. Stores are open 7 days/wk, 7-7 M-F; 8-5S; 10-5 Sun. Oh they won't allow you to work more than 44 hrs/wk so kiss any over time good bye. They fired Bob after the shit hit the fan in 2008. Bob had been with the company for 20+ years, was 55 yrs. old and his wife had health problems. The company blamed the shitty economy. Thing is . . . after they fired Bob they extended store hours per day then extended store hours to include Sundays. They needed Bob but basically said fuck you to the employees who remained, you have to pick up the slack. While companies have the right to hire/fire whoever they want, someone tell me how it's ok to let an older worker who's been there for years go? Especially when that worker is needed? Loyalty means nothing? Bullshit. And note, this guy wasn't some slacker jackass type, he worked hard and was good at his job. The company didn't give a shit.

They hired Dave about a year ago. Dave was a 23 yr old kid living with mom and dad. He frequently didn't show up, did a half-assed job, his father even came into the store to bitch to the mgr (who is the biggest asshole that God ever created) about his kid's hours and stuff (yes, Dave is a basement dweller). After months of putting up with b.s. from this kid they finally gave him the boot. Know why it took so long? Because as awful as this kid was he was a third person in there to work. wtf? What the hell kind of way is that for a company to treat their employees? Why the hell should the employees have to work like this? They're on their 3rd or 4th part time helper kid . . they all quit because the hours are shit and the way they are treated by the company is shit. I don't blame them for quitting.

My husband had been with M.A.B. for 18 years (in computer operations at the main office) when SW bought them out. He took this position over getting laid off. He believed (hoped) that SW would treat their employees differently. He was wrong. He's been looking for another job with zero luck. In the meantime? He can't even get the day off so he can be here for our daughter's graduation party. So don't tell me unions aren't still necessary. As long as there are companies that treat their employee like a pile of shit there will be a need for employees to unionize. And yes, I've told my husband countless times to get together with other store employees and unionize. Apparently that advice is falling on deaf ears.

 

[Harry Dresden]

Dude they're just lazy....

Our quota was like 180 pieces when I was debossing and forming steel - if we worked the whole time we could have done 220.

We spent the last couple of hours fucking around on our 3pm-1am shift.... Dudes would go to the "bathroom" and read news papers while their partners would go off and talk to other employees.....

The production was like 60% of what if could be if workers actually worked full-time, instead of playing games and wondering off for 45 minutes at a time.

and i worked for a non-union company making Torque Wrenches.....just about the whole floor used to go out at lunch time and smoke some Pot....how much work do you think we got done?......

Yeah and if you got caught your ass was fired.....

When I was union I could show up to work drunk as fuck (if I wanted to) and there was absolutely nothing the owners of said business could say or do..... They could take a point away of my 20 points.... oooo

I could also just take days off to boot - that was 2 points.

Hell you could show up at 12:45 am and work for a half hour and it would be a point...

The union controlled everything and the business controlled nothing...

we used to do it with the fucking 2 guys put in charge of us.....so much for getting fired....

 

[Harry Dresden]

Unions are shit - half of the (in house) truck drivers are drunk fucks...

One nearly killed me by by almost dropping a load on my head/body...

oh and of course that could never happen in a non-union shop....right?...

 

[Harry Dresden]

Unions are shit - half of the (in house) truck drivers are drunk fucks...

One nearly killed me by by almost dropping a load on my head/body...

Probably wasn't an accident.

Oh BTW, put me an you in a cell and we will see who walks out alive bitch.

internet tough guys......you do realize you just made yourself look like a asshole.....right Nick?...

 

[Nosmo King]

Unions provide apprenticeship programs and worker safety and health training. Unions are the only means whereby the commodity of labor (and face it, corporations view labor as a commodity not an asset) can get a fair shake in the free wheeling universe of modern American Capitalism.

Unions provide for fairness in pay, benefit, health and safety and many other work place issues.

I understand why Conservatives hate labor. They have been indoctrinated to think that way. The corporate shills they read and listen to are paid by those who want to wring every once of productivity out of a human and then toss it aside like so much scrap. They don't want a prosperous Middle Class anymore. They want bigger stock prices.

Unions force a work environement where the best trend to the least acceptable.

Jim and Joe both get 6 sick days.
Jim uses all of them...3 as additional vacation days.
Joe uses only 3 of them....and loses the other threee...but hey...he was onlyh sick 3 days.

They both get the same raise per union contract.

Next year both Jim AND Joe use all of their sick days, even though neither one was sick for more than 3 days.

So you are against paid sick time? If both employees are under the same contract, and both labor and management signed the contract (calculating the terms of the contract are fair for both sides) why is it the union's fault?