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Author Topic: time is right for a union  (Read 43414 times)

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Content1

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Re: time is right for a union
« Reply #50 on: May 20, 2009, 08:06 »
You have plenty of ways to hurt the company.  Mostly just by showing up. . .

You left out the drum- ba boom boom.

You show by your "Jay Leno" like humor why a union would not work.  That comment will not win friends and influence people.  It doesn't promote people to work together for a difficult goal as Unionization in a down economy.  Belittling each other does little for the cause, although is feels good to the sender.

Offline Already Gone

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Re: time is right for a union
« Reply #51 on: May 21, 2009, 10:07 »
The down economy is as good a time as any to form a union.  In fact, it may have prevented the economy slide as we now know it.  Even a republican like me can see that there has been a lopsided allocation of wealth in this country for decades.

Rather than fund retirements and benefits, employers are outsourcing jobs to call centers in India, setting up 401(k) plans that cost them little or nothing to operate, and relying too heavily on the idea that they can "save their way to profit".

The Social Security Trust Fund is a prime example.  Any program that relies on a payroll tax can't be solvent if the payroll that is being taxed continually shrinks.

Instead of staring at the bottom line every quarter, companies need to look at the health of the engine that produces long-term profitability.

Equitable investment of the wealth that a company creates must include a fair compensation for those who are doing the heavy lifting.

Everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY, needs to look beyond what is in this for me today, and pay some attention to what will sustain us in the long term.

A union that provides - or promises - only short-term economic gain is as doomed to fail as the company who ignores its own long-term viability in favor of this quarter's p&l statement.

But, a little humor isn't going to hurt anybody.  Lighten up a little.  The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and we still live in the world's greatest country.
"To be content with little is hard; to be content with much, impossible." - Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

BuddyThePug

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Re: time is right for a union
« Reply #52 on: May 28, 2009, 10:46 »
Not even a pug? ;)

Who said pug?  :)

diparyar

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Re: time is right for a union
« Reply #53 on: May 29, 2009, 01:17 »
ust 2 bee again it, mabe eye stillam?

but iffin it aint gittin any better w/o tha onion, then lettus give it a go

peace

aykt

rapidray

11 for 12

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Re: time is right for a union
« Reply #54 on: May 29, 2009, 10:25 »
Well this fall the time is right with 3 sgrp's and 2 head jobs this fall.These 5 jobs will eat up the techs and if you don't confirm right away you may see a big bump in wages or a couple of back up union contracts  get awarded and then the ball will start rolling for this for higher wages
« Last Edit: May 31, 2009, 08:33 by 11 for 12 »

Content1

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Re: time is right for a union
« Reply #55 on: May 30, 2009, 01:16 »
1/2 way through each s/g replacements they let a lot of people go.  Don't purchase that Mercedes yet.

Offline Rain Man

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Re: time is right for a union
« Reply #56 on: May 30, 2009, 07:02 »
During my ride of getting long in the tooth I have been a member of 4 unions.  I don't have anything good to say about any of them.
"Giving power and money to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenaged boys." -P.J. O'Rourke

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ballscratcher

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Re: time is right for a union
« Reply #57 on: Aug 07, 2009, 12:34 »
Lots of animosity.................... .

A Union is nothing more than an association of like-minded individuals.  The IBEW, for instance, isn't really the Union but is, instead, the representative of an organized group of people.

The IBEW (of which I'm a proud member) cannot seek higher wages from an employer; that's up to the membership.  The IBEW (I'll restrict my Union comments to the IBEW but it is representative of all Unions) employs folks (representatives, VPs, negotiators, etc) who have some expertise on labor issues and will advise a Local / Unit on potential job action but, again, has no power to impose its will ("it" doesn't have any will; the "will" is owned by the membership of the Local / Unit).

Whether you're for or against Union representation is your own business but it's terribly important to understand what a Union is and, equally important, what it is not.
When a contract is being sought, the membership votes on all of its elements.  When choosing who gets what job, when, the selection criteria is established in the contract upon which a vote was taken.  Seniority tends to be the leading factor but it doesn't HAVE to be; that's up to the membership.  If the membership writes into the contract that job selection should be based on height, that becomes the standard.

When we (Comanche Peak Chemists and RPs) first organized, we received a pretty healthy raise.  Since then, we really haven't gotten much; in fact, we've lost wages with respect to inflation.  Has the Union failed us?  No; we ARE the Union and we've bargained for everything that we could get.  It just so happens that the supply and demand equation leaves us on the short end of the stick.
If the desire to form a national Union is driven by money, my recommendation would be to stop trying to organize.  The effort, in my humble opinion, should be based on working conditions, number of slots allocated for outage positions, guaranteed wages and benefits for the duration of the contract, a grievance procedure to halt arbitrary treatment of members, the cessation of double secret probation (is that still being practiced?), a standard for the determination of Per Diem rates, a standard for the determination of wages (an ANSI 3.1 technician receives $X.xx / hour anywhere (s)he works for example) and other protections afforded by labor laws.

Union dues:  Typically, the monthly dues are equal to one hour's pay.  Most of that amount is returned to the Local / Unit.  Dues increase only if the membership votes to increase them (to build an office, for instance).  One hour's pay per month.....it's only $100.00 if you make $100.00 per hour OR if you've voted to increase them.


If you're successful in your organizing effort, IBEW Local-220 will support your effort completely.

Bill Nichols
billnich@hpnc.com

Content1

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Re: time is right for a union
« Reply #58 on: Aug 07, 2009, 03:55 »
A union based like the united auto workers that leads to corrupt people making use of your dues for liberal causes is bad.  A union based on standards that a person can meet on merit, not another good old by network, is good. 

Not everyone would join, but once the members got a good reputation of people performing reliably, so the utilties and recruiters could say, "He is a member of the XYZ Professional RP union, we know he/she does good work."   You must be ready to have standards to remove the unqualified, and training to assure people stay qualified.  Are you ready to take on that kind of task?  A professional association vs. just a union.

 


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