Originally Posted by Bestworking:
I know what I'm "talking about" because my father and brothers were union. We have friends in unions. Most of my husband's family are union. I've had employees that were in unions. I don't know why you don't believe people in unions tell stories about others that they work with being worthless but the union protects them. Haven't you ever known of someone that needed their *** fired but was safe because of a union? Armchair quarter-backs? It's not a deep dark secret RP. Anyone in a union can and do tell you all sorts of stories. I know speaking against a union upsets some, but come on, you have to admit it is full of waste and fraud.
One other thing RP, you are upset about what I said about unions but you insinuate that businesses or companies won't treat their employees well without a union looking over their shoulder and forcing them to do so. That is just not true. I have never been in a union, my husband has never been in a union, and before we started our own business we worked for other companies. Neither of us can tell you any horror stories about being mistreated. If we had been mistreated and put in dangerous situations we'd have left. And like I said, we would never put our employees in dangerous situations, make them use dangerous equipment or work like "slaves" for very little money. The only ones that ever worked like slaves for very little money around here are us! When someone mentions minimum wage my thoughts are "show me someone willing to work for minimum wage besides business owners". Now of course I don't mean all the time RP, but when things get tight do we cut our employees checks and tell them that it was a lean month? And lastly, we have no desire to mistreat anyone, employee or otherwise, and if employers do that, it's a very poor business decision on their part.
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OK, for one, I'm not upset about anything.
I just haven't ever seen a union employee NOT get canned for cause that should've. Any union employees that deserved to get fired-GOT fired. If the company has cause-there's not much even a good BA can do for him.
Yes, I've heard stories from other union workers about 'so-and-so's worthless ass should be fired but the union protects him,' and it usually turns out that the person telling me about so-and-so just plain doesn't like him and wishes he'd be fired, but so-and-so doesn't actually deserve to be terminated. THAT'S how those stories get started.
I didn't insinuate that companies won't treat their employees well without a union looking over-You assumed it, obviously. What I DID say was that MY company was one of those that DID mistreat their employees until we organized.
The last place I worked, I outlasted two different companies 2 different contracts with the school board-23 years) because I liked working there so much. The company took good care of us. Everybody was happy. The board got excellent service from the same professionals for a lotta years, the company had pretty much ZERO turnover, Union employees were happy and proud to work there. Not so where I work now.
I dunno...Maybe it's because the terminal I work at is possibly a tax write-off for the company. Maybe it was just the POS former manager got the company accustomed to not having very many expenditures at our yard, Maybe the company just doesn't like Alabamians....We are the only terminal this company has in Alabama.
If it were not for the longtime professional drivers we have there now, people would hafta learn a new Spanish name for their driver every week.
Oh....wait.....not with Alabama's new immigration law... Nevermind.
When I first got here and started work, morale was extremely low, turnover was high, the equipment sucked and all that other stuff I told ya about up there ^. Any one of us could've gotten canned just because the boss was having a bad day.
Once we organized and blew the whistle on our POS boss, the company came all the way over from the U.K. and kicked ass and took names. Things got some better. It never would've happened without forming a union.
Maybe you run your business right. Lotsa folks around here don't. Everybody steals from everybody else. I've seen it all around the area-I've read it in the papers... and ya can't convince me otherwise. People steal here like nowhere else I've been.. Maybe cuz they can't seem to be able to make a living. I dunno.. Where I'm from- 'fat dumb and happy' people don't need to steal.
Summin's wrong with the picture 'round these parts..
Lemme ask you this: What do you consider 'very little money?'
What would you figure a Class B CDL driver with a P and S endorsement and a quarter-century of experience, an immaculate MVR and clean criminal background check is worth per hour?
Where I come from he's worth $26/hour, currently. Other places around where I used to work, he's worth at least $17.50/hour. In Huntsville. AL, he's worth $17/hour.
Know what he's worth in Florence? Currently $11.67/hour.
Know what he was worth two years ago? $10.77/hour.
No health insurance-Oh sure, the company offers it, but nobody can afford it...
(I tell people to not even bother giving me that crap about how I'm hauling the 'world's most precious cargo' when trying to justify the peanuts they pay me when the guy who transports my garbage to the landfill makes twice what I make a year.).
Show ya somebody who'd work for minimum wage? Mexicans. They work HARD for it, too. Not anymore, though.
I wouldn't want somebody who's only been in-country for a couple months and doesn't speak English well transporting my kid, either-whichever country he was from. That would just be a logistical nightmare. I've seen it happen up north.
Nobody in my line of work in their right minds would work for minimum wage. Not after what we hadda go through to get licensed and stay licensed.
I have to drive charters just to make ends meet. All the ones I can get. Before we organized, nobody but the boss' buddies were allowed to drive them. Working 30+ hours per week while the rest of us were lucky to get maybe 12-15.
Turns out that charter pay is basically minimum wage. Yup. Put somebody in a $65,000, 15-ton juggernaut and fill it with priceless cargo and send 'em packing to the football game a hundred or so miles away. For minimum wage.
("If I could PAY YOU LESS, I WOULD-But it's against the law...")
Does that make sense to you? How much is a kid worth? How about 65 of them?
Sometimes (and I shudder to think!) You get what ya pay for. (That fat chooch who lost the bus over the bridge in Huntsville cause he wasn't wearing a setbelt) Florence is very fortunate to have a group of drivers who love what they do and care about the kids they transport-cuz they sho ain't in it fer th' money.
Unions are still necessary. My workplace is a prime example of that.
Sure, ya hear about stuff-but unless ya live it-ya don't really know it.