Unions

[criticalbass]

Old saying--"Every management has the union it deserves."

I have worked in Labor Relations quite a bit. The biggest problem, and this goes double in uions of Federal employees, is that management is often inept at dealing with unions. The only thing that saved the Feds is that their unions were just as inept as the management.

We have unions because companies treated workers in inhuman manners. Power went to the workers, and power corrupted many of them.

Today, the use of unorganized part time employees has created a new class of serf. Lots of young folks are working two, and even three part time jobs with no benefits. This, if it continues long enough, is fertile ground for a new union movement.

 

[elwoodtrix]

this from another co worker...

What do you think working for corporate america? I work at UPS and after 16 yrs of employment they want to fire me . I belong to the union "Teamsters" but also Oklahoma is a right to work state. I know my fellow employees will not take the risk to post a commet because then their jobs will be at risk. I work in the warehouse, were temp's in the summer time do exceed over 100 degrees on the midnight sift. I suffer from heat exhaustion, only due to being in a warehouse with no air conditioning or adaqute venilation. Every year I have to file a greviance to get the exhuast fans opened so air can circulate in the building but the evening temps can still exceed 100 degrees. Two yrs ago I had fainted several times in the building and was finally taken out in an ambulance, due to heat exhaution. Since then I have filed for FMLA during the summer because the company has jerked me around and has denied work comp. My FMLA has been approaved for the last t
wo yrs. On October 5th, after being back at work since the 27th of Aug, I was told I could not come back to work until I filed under the American Disabilty Act. I was off work for 2 weeks with no pay. I do know that no employer can make you file for this. UPS has not put a Disabled American on their payroll at this building in over 10 yrs. I had this conversation with Hr on the 5th of October with no union rep available. The company wanted me to intiate the paperwork, so they could say that they did not ask me to file for the ADA but that I had chosen to do this and therefore they can say that they cannot accomidate me. HR stated, they will not put air conditioning in our building, therefore leaving me without a job,if I file under the American Disabilty Act, I will no longer have a job after 16 yrs. Do you work for corporate america? What do you think if you were with your employer for 16 yrs and they wanted to get rid of you because you had opened a door to other employees due to the work conditons. I work for an American company that treats their employees like a third world company. I do not and will never ship a package through UPS for this reason. I probably just lost my job over this!

 

[Lurker66]

If your talking to management without a union rep/steward, your leaving the door wide open for the company to manipulate you.

Allways, Allways take a steward with you.

Im pretty sure your Unions binding contract over rides some of the right to work laws pertaining to discipline and termination.

 

[Lurker66]

Old saying--"Every management has the union it deserves."

I have worked in Labor Relations quite a bit. The biggest problem, and this goes double in uions of Federal employees, is that management is often inept at dealing with unions. The only thing that saved the Feds is that their unions were just as inept as the management.

We have unions because companies treated workers in inhuman manners. Power went to the workers, and power corrupted many of them.

Today, the use of unorganized part time employees has created a new class of serf. Lots of young folks are working two, and even three part time jobs with no benefits. This, if it continues long enough, is fertile ground for a new union movement.

this is 100% spot on, esp your last paragraph. Wont be long and these kids will will bring this issue to the front.

 

[Billybob]

Today, the use of unorganized part time employees has created a new class of serf. Lots of young folks are working two, and even three part time jobs with no benefits. This, if it continues long enough, is fertile ground for a new union movement.

Could the recent Wal-Mart strikes be an indication of that?

https://www.google.com/search?q=wal...s=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

And one has to wonder if the amnesty will come at just the right time so that the "uppity" serfs can be replaced.

 

[ez bake]

Seems to me that Unions are made up of people. Some are corrupt. Big evil corporations are also made up of people. Some are evil (and do all the same things evil Unions do). There are news stories of corrupt/incompetent/evil Unions doing massively stupid evil things, but the same is true of corporations.

I guess I'm not seeing where Unions are so bad in comparison.

let me ask this - I keep hearing stories of "you can't fire lazy/incompetent people in a Union". Is this actually true? I thought you could, but you had to do the appropriate paperwork and follow-up.

 

[inactive]

let me ask this - I keep hearing stories of "you can't fire lazy/incompetent people in a Union". Is this actually true? I thought you could, but you had to do the appropriate paperwork and follow-up.

Largely depends on the industry/union/contract. Teachers are practically immune once they earn tenure. Air traffic controllers, on the other hand, Reagan showed were not afforded the protections many other unions received.