Unions .... are you for them in TODAY'S society?

They don't... which is why raceways walls are out-of-plumb.

Thats the other side I was refering to earlier.

Blame the builder!

 

I do not understand your reply. Which part "don't" they?

 

Around these parts the Unions get the jobs unless the Builder wants a huge inflatable rat and several laid off Union workers hurling insults and disrupting traffic for taking the lower non-Union bid.

 

The builder is Union and uses pre-built walls that are slapped together like a jig saw. This allows them to save money by having factory guys making less build walls. The Union Carpenter is then in Lego Mode and pieces it together. Sadly this type of construction in these parts will set you back 280 large for a 2400 square foot palace.

 

I can ALMOST assure you that the bolded isn't true. And if it is - yikes.

If the lowest bidder got every job - we'd all be in world of hurt.

NOT saying that the lowest bidder isn't getting more action then they used too, though.


AND - to answer your questions (that wasn't directed at me, mind you )

If the non union company does more work (jobs) then can make their lower profit margin work.

 

They don't do that here in my area. We don't need to here, we bid the same jobs and win the contracts.

 

They don't receive "much" of a profit that is.

Relative to what the rest of the world calls profit.. will say (for the sake of argument) like 30% mark-up.

They don't receive anywhere near that on a single project.. like 1 house. They must do lots of houses to make the profit.

You savy?

 

I have worked in the public school system and the county government coming on 11 years now. There is a TREMENDOUS amount of wasteful spending. Why? Because we have "use or you lose" oversight. That means that a specific department has to use the monies it has been allocated or they lose that quantity of money the following year. Say for example a department in the county governmetn is allocated 100K for relief workers. The either spend that 100K or they risk having that relief workers fund reduced the following year. I work in a building that wastes money hand over fist due to inefficiency, based on the stupidity of our leaders and from the "use or you lose" unwritten rules that take grip over everyone in our county. I squirm every single time I hear that someone stupid has paid a relief worker $150 a day to work a shift in our building, needlessly. I feel in my heart that money could be used to feed all the homeless folks at our county homeless shelter that day. But in the county government we don't share, we protect our own budgets. That leads to big time waste....I could go on and on about MORONS making 70K a year in the county government while I work circles around them and make substantially less. A guy could be a puke and still retain his job in the government........UGHHHHHH.

 

I assure you that is how it works, again, I only speak for the commercial sector and again I only speak for my area.

Although a client does not have to choose the lowest bidder, they have free reign to choose the contractors of their choice.

 

Why did you leave Sprint? If you are worried about supporting the brotherhood then you should have gone with at@t, they employ Unionized Call Centers. at@t and Verizon charge more because they have larger networks, are investing more into future technology and because they can. Both companies increased their customer base by over 5 million customers while Sprint lost millions of customers, there must be something to that cheaper pricing approach to stop the ship from sinking.

 

I understand what you are saying, it just didn't read that to me last time.

My company bids work at 13% profit margin.

 

My wife is a teacher.. she deals with this regularly.

The govt. allocating money.. what another joke!

So.. in her school district for example... the grounds crew gets 10 million to spend. They HAVE to spend it.. or the school looses it. So if they're short money in the school.. they can't touch the ridiculous money in the grounds department.. so they just cut art class. (metaphorically speaking)... and the grounds crew buys new lawn-mowers.

 

I was ready for a change.

So they charge more money because they can?

And you complain that a painter is making $36 and hour..... I just find that funny.

 

Your labor rate must be more in line versus the labor rate here. Here there are companies that have to use Union labor. In Chicago you more or less have to use Union labor due to the politics of things. We are seeing a phase where there is a shift away from Union labor. The builders that own the hunting property I started hunting last year used to use Union companies to avoid the Rat and drama, now they are doing what they have to in order to survive and the Rat is in full effect.

 

Simple business Scott, more overhead and a better service. Larger native network with better overall coverage and more reliability in the network.

Some bow companies charge more for a bow because they can, right

 

For the record, I am not a pro union guy.

I am pro my fellow Americans making a good wage so they can take care of their family kind of guy

Union or non union, I don't care. I just want to see everyone succeed and live a good and fulfilled life.

 

There is a marked difference in non union vs union pay scale here as well in most all of the trades.

 

Mike, I was a special education teacher for 6 years and my wife has been a public school teacher coming on 11 years, so I KNOW what you are saying.

I live in a county with the second largest school system in Virginia, and it is growing. Our county government is also extremely large. I am a supervisor in a position that does not deal with budgeting. I supervise people and do not have any say so over budgeting. But I find myself getting into it with people above me when they make stupid, selfish decisions and waste the tax payers money. It is a difficult position to be in because I care about the tax payers dollar, it means a lot to me.

 

Word.

 

I know this point all to well, we have a neighbor that is a Principle in the Elgin school district and they are laying off over 700 teachers this year, including the one that got stabbed in the eye!!!!