Let me start by saying I'm a teamster with an active withdrawal card. I just left a from making a delivery at a DOD contractors facility (Raytheon)shaking my head in disgust. I had to deliver electrical supplies. I get to the dock, the (Raytheon) electrician told me I can't open the back door of my truck and unload until an unloader comes down here to do it, that it's a union thing. 20 minutes later (the electrician stood there with me getting paid) the " unloader" shows up, he looks like he is 70 and. Said, " oh I can't lift that bundle of pipe, let me call a lumper". I told the guy I can break down the bundle and make it easier to move, he said no, and 15 minutes later the unloaders older brother shows up scratching his head. After 45 minutes the bundle of pipe (400' of 2"EMT in 10' sticks 40 pieces total) and the ten boxes are unloaded. The electrician then process to tell me he can't move the stuff, only transporters can do that.... So with that scenario played out, it amazes me at the amount of money/labor it took for a simple process that would have taken me 5 minutes to do. I can understand unions are needed in some situations still, but crap like this is totally taking advantage of it, and I can't see how a union is needed here. And spare me the union gave you the 40 hour work week argument, it's 2015, not the roaring 20's anymore!!! I held a union teamster driving position for a month and quit because it was the almost the same scenario I mentioned above. Thoughts? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I could write 10 pages on why I hate unions. But it should be as simple as this. Here is a job I'm offering, here is the wage I'm offering. Do you want it? No? Ok next please.
That pretty much sums it up. Working in the construction side, I like when they get out bid for a job and don't get it then come picket in front of your job site saying how bad it is because it's not union. You didn't get the job, just go home ha.
I wouldn't say there is no need for unions. They did serve a purpose at one point and if you do away with them it would be easy for things to get out of whack quickly. IMO if people want to create a union they should feel free to do that. With that said, no one should be forced to join a union and if employees expect to do this then maybe employers should be able to collectively bargain as well? I personally would never join one and don't view them positively but I'm not a fan of making laws that restrict peoples freedom of choice or speech.
I can see how unions can be a good thing. It keeps a sort of balance to prevent companies from abusing its workforce. With that being said I believe that a lot of unions are taking advantage of the system. I work for a mining company. The union games that get played are unbelievable. Jobs that should take a half hour take an entire shift. Don't get me wrong there are a lot of good hard working union members where I work but there are also way too many slugs.
I manage Union employees. I had one job where I supervised around 25 union employees of a couple different unions.(each Union has its own work rules, and both unions would fight for the work, even though they did not want to do it)I worked as the sole representative of management for half of my shift. I would go to work at 130 AM and I felt as if I were preparing for combat everyday. Nothing but confrontation the whole shift. I would battle to just get some people to actually perform work. And when they did work it was usually counter productive or flat out sabotage. Not all of the employees, but enough to make it extremely difficult. There were 9 people in my job in the Pryor 10 months before I took that job. I made it a couple of years and finally told my boss I had enough and after some battling with upper management and hiring a lawyer I was finally able to be reassigned. The funny thing is the union president eventually became the supervisor. I have managed other facilities where the employees, who are all Union members, work like a well oiled machine and do whatever it takes to get the job done, in spite of the Union.
I've been both a union carpenter, and a non union carpenter. I hated the union part of it. I would try to do something and get told I couldn't because that was a laborer's job. Even cleaning up an area to do some work in, I couldn't do. I had to wait there for 20 minutes while someone cleaned it up for me. It was very irritating.
Unions flat out cost the United States most of our steel and manufacturing jobs. Locally, we have a commercial apartment building being renovated. The general contractor hired a union carpenters crew to put in all the new windows. These are small double-hung windows like you would have in the bedroom of your home. The union crew of five guys were instructed by their boss to install ONE window per day. They did, for weeks. The building owner threw a fit and brought in two local non-union carpenters. Those TWO men averaged 4 windows installed per day. They were also willing to work for less per hour. Unions are organized theft for the most part.
