Unions in the workforce...

Are any of you in a union where you are employed? And if you are, do you feel comfortable with your job security?

I'm in one and it's a pretty strong union. We are in negotiations for the new contract next year. Our current contract expires in about a year and they're asking for our input for the negotiations. The biggest thing for me as far as what they're asking we want would be more paid days off, but it's not an option to mark.

We have a list of things to mark what your top priority is and they include:
Hourly Wages
Pension benefits
Health and welfare benefits
Safety conditions on the job
Job security
Excessive overtime
Harassment by management
Subcontracting
Production standards

Getting this in the mail just had me wondering what other unions are like.

I've been in the union where i work for the lady 17 yrs.. And ever contract we get is shitter ever time...

Unions once served a great purpose in this country. Not so much any more. IMO now all unions do is take money from the people they allegedly represent so they can line the pockets of the Union Leaders and support communist politicians.

Unions destroyed GM and because of union contracts, they drive up the cost of goods and services in the market place.

I to am in a union and let me tell ya if I had the choice I would drop out of it. My union blows donkey balls. Our last contract sure we got a $3000 sign on bonus but our health and welfar went from 100% coverage to now I have a $2500 co-pay per year. Now I know that's still better than 90% of the country but it's hard to swallow that $2500 a year! Not only that but the god damn dues keep going up. I now pay $225 a month to be in a fucking union that I hate!!!!

The steel workers union I am in has its up and downs. some shit they really fight for and other they just act like who gives a fck. I will say this though, our union really came through for recently and have really been fighting for all of us lately. But this has not been the norm in the past....

CH3NO2 said:

Unions once served a great purpose in this country. Not so much any more. IMO now all unions do is take money from the people they allegedly represent so they can line the pockets of the Union Leaders and support communist politicians.

Unions destroyed GM and because of union contracts, they drive up the cost of goods and services in the market place.

Click to expand...

Dead nuts on for me. Our Union is fucking garbage. I fight with our "union reps" and "union president" more than I fight with the fucks that they are supposed to protect me from. They're a bunch of pompous fucks in my experience. We missed the boat when we didn't get on with the Teamsters years ago. We can't strike or anything for that matter so there are no balls behind our Union. The only reason we "negotiate" new contracts is when the city wants to fuck us. We've been without a contract for 4 years now. In the years before that we got a 1 1/2 % raise, but or health insurance went up by 50% and our coverage went down. Also we used to get 75% of our medical covered when we retire. Now it's 75% of what today's cost is..... so you can imagine how little that will translate to when I have enough time on to retire.
That's why I want to get the fuck out of here and this state before I'm vested so I can get my money back and get into a decent retirement somewhere else

I too am in a union. I do like the pay and the work has is ups and downs. I know that the union dues I pay go more towards the union reps pay and PERKS and a lot of what they get is beyond belief. If you speak up against them is a no no. Sorry but I am not a yes man. That being said we do get 15 dollars more than our non union counterparts. Being where I live at a lot of our work falls under the Davis Bacon act so non unions have to bid jobs at union rates. I do make a very good wage and never made under 40hrs week in the past 11 years of work or laid off. The only bad part recently that I was pissed about is that our health coverage went from 90% to 80% and that was due to Obama Care or Romney care (I dont care if you are on one side of the fence or the other they are pretty much the same thing). When it came about and they have to cover people now who have kids up to 25yrs old is horse shit. At 25 you are an adult make your own path. You are not entitled to a damn thing and you need to earn it. I personally got things over and above my union benefits from the company I work for because I dont miss work and am pretty good at what I do but it took me years to earn it. Unions can be a great asset if properly done to protect the worker but its now evey person for themselves and nothing really union about it. I can go on and on about this but I went off topic. For me the order I would pick in my own situation would be the exact same as your BIGNWV but raise production standards or quality or work. that is what is supposed to seperate us from our non union counterparts. As for this election I dont want either as President but wished that Ron Paul was pick over Romney. You can agree or disagree but this is my own opinion

The Dude said:

That's why I want to get the fuck out of here and this state before I'm vested so I can get my money back and get into a decent retirement somewhere else

Click to expand...

You're delusional if you think when the economy collapses all personal wealth that isnt in gold, silver, beans, bullets or land will all be whipped out. Wont matter if you're hear or in the mountains. Any kind of pension weather its here or elsewhere is going to be whipped out.

Look at Greece, the Soviet Union in 1989, and Argentina in 2001 if you want to see what its going to look like here in the states when it all goes to shit. Best thing you can do is surround yourself with like minded people who believe in freedom so you can rebuild and protect yourself after the collapse.

There are going to be some very tough times in our future. We have too much debt and the laws of economics do apply here in the US. Its just a matter of time.

the unions destroyed my city with the overpaid and underworked General Motors workers and the plant closed and all the other supporting companies (janesville, wi)...also the public unions and their "cadillac" health and pensions where they didn't pay in baslically, yet the taxpayers supported them and their early retirements and collection of them were unsustainable...the unions were good many many many years ago, but they're nothing more than legalized mafia doing racketeering on the people...what they did good in the past is supported and protected with laws now...unions are no longer needed and the people are realizing it finally...TGFSW!!! (thank god for Scott Walker!!!)

CH3NO2 said:

You're delusional if you think when the economy collapses all personal wealth that isnt in gold, silver, beans, bullets or land will all be whipped out. Wont matter if you're hear or in the mountains. Any kind of pension weather its here or elsewhere is going to be whipped out.

Look at Greece, the Soviet Union in 1989, and Argentina in 2001 if you want to see what its going to look like here in the states when it all goes to shit. Best thing you can do is surround yourself with like minded people who believe in freedom so you can rebuild and protect yourself after the collapse.

There are going to be some very tough times in our future. We have too much debt and the laws of economics do apply here in the US. Its just a matter of time.

Click to expand...

That's what I'm getting at. I want land. I want land that we can hunt on, store supplies, fish, fresh water, and prepare on. Florida will be over run by criminals and violent scumbags. We are totally and completely over run here. You will see how bad soon enough. At that time I'll hopefully have a couple "extra acres" you can invest in. You know war strategy as well as anyone. Will 8 of us have a better chance on 1/4 acre surrounded by the worst society has to offer or 10 acres no less than 1 1/2 hours from the nearest city? My "pension" and retirement are afterthoughts. All of the money from my retirement accounts will be used to buy land and a house. The Pension is just a bonus if things last that long. If they do, I'll already own my house, cars, and anything else. We will do just fine on a 50k a year pension for Silk and a 70k pension for me.

irish_2003 said:

the unions destroyed my city with the overpaid and underworked General Motors workers and the plant closed and all the other supporting companies (janesville, wi)...also the public unions and their "cadillac" health and pensions where they didn't pay in baslically, yet the taxpayers supported them and their early retirements and collection of them were unsustainable...the unions were good many many many years ago, but they're nothing more than legalized mafia doing racketeering on the people...what they did good in the past is supported and protected with laws now...unions are no longer needed and the people are realizing it finally...TGFSW!!! (thank god for Scott Walker!!!)

Click to expand...

What he said.

Our union has it's faults, but for the most part they stay pretty loyal to the workers. Of course you've got our head steward who makes deals with the company to give himself less work or an easier day at work. I don't think there's really much that you can do about that, 90% of the people would do the same given the oppurtunity. As long as it's not completely fucking the other workers around him it doesn't particularly bother me. The only time I really get pissed is when you have a legitiment bitch and they don't want to stand up to the company because it might hinder their position in these "deals." And our steward is great friends with our union rep and our union rep is close friends with the union division rep and so on. So basically if you're going to try to go over the head stewards head then you'll get blackballed and if you try to go over the reps head you deal with the same. Of course eventually things will blow over, but it's bullshit in the mean time.

As for our contracts and job security, we'll never be without a union and our jobs are very well protected. The only thing that would probably keep us from working would be when the economy completely plunges and people have no money to spend. Now will that be in our lifetimes or the next? No one knows, but I think we're all pretty positive that it's going to happen.

And you can't work as a non-union worker in our company. The only people who are non-union are the company workers and new hire that haven't made the union yet. As I'm part time I make a little more than half of what the full time workers make, but I don't have to pay for my health, vision or dental insurance and it's fully paid for through the company which in turn is better healthcare than the full time workers pay for through the union. With this fact, there's a lot of people who will never go full time because they're just working there for the great benefits and have other jobs on top of this one.