The idea that someone in this country can make over $200,000 a year and have this sad of a grasp on the English language is really pretty much all the explanation of the UAW that we need.
The reason that people are ragging on you is because of your very poor grammar, combined with a complete lack of punctuation. It makes it very hard to understand what you are writing and severely cripples your argument.
Oh and On topic. My grandfather was one of the main players in Organizing the union in the first unionized meat packing plant in the USA. I have a history of having union labor in my family… The unions have run their course, they have succeeded to accomplish what they set out to do, create fair, safe and humane working conditions. At this point the unions are Hurting this country far more than they are helping it.
LOL
Unions became self-serving entities. The workers were safe, they were getting paid a fair wage, and the unions had nothing left to do. But they were now big business and were employing lots of people that didn’t actually have to work for a living anymore. Those guys surely didn’t want to go back to swinging a hammer or turning a wrench, and the only way for them to keep those cush gigs was to keep the dues rolling in. The only thing they could fight for anymore was higher wages and shorter hours.
What amazes me is that so many union guys can’t see through the haze of those $200k/year jobs and realize that all these union bosses are making three times that just to negotiate or less.
But, it also just goes to show you that everyone ultimately votes and bases their politics on one single thing: money. It’s a plain fact that this country can continue to (over) pay a few functional illiterates $200k/year, or can offer truly fair wages to a lot more people and keep the economy going.
I sincerely doubt our illiterate friend is making 200k. This is the internet after all.
I would also like to get in line to complain about a union made masterpiece American auto or two
Funny how the Japanese car plants in America do so well and put out a better product than the union controlled American plants.
Actually, the 6.0L & 6.4L Powerstroke engines are built by Navistar in two different plants - one UAW and one non-union. But many of the component parts are outsourced to wherever.
A 2006 has about a 70% chance of coming from a union shop.
Do you know where the leak is coming from?
It’s actually not that hard. Let me demonstrate:
Start with a base skilled trades wage of $32/hour.
Use your seniority to get on 3rd shift (midnights) to get the 10% shift premium.
Work 12 hours a day 7 days a week.
40 hours straight time + 20 hours @ 1.5x = 70 hours
12 hours Saturday @ 1.5x = 18 hours
12 hours Sunday @ 2x = 24 hours
Total = 112 hours
So now we’re up to $3942.40 a week. Multiply it by 52 weeks a year and you get $205,000.
Now, we need to remember that there’s probably 4 weeks or so of paid vacation in there, so we’re not going to work any overtime on those weeks. But then there are 16 paid holidays, and if we work them we get double time for every hour worked on top of the vacation pay, which amounts to “triple time”. The holidays should more or less cancel out the vacations, and some contracts allow you to draw the vacation pay without actually having to take it, meaning you can “double dip”.
Now, who wants to work 12/7 every week of the year? Well that’s the trick - figure out how to avoid work and find somewhere to sleep. Midnight shift is great for that…
Is this supposed to be English? 
YOU said it - not me.
I was once a member of a union and most of the “union rules” we had to follow was not only asinine, it was counter to good customer service. While I think unions once provided an important service to American society, they have now gone the way of the ACLU, NAACP, and KKK. They cause stagnation and are nothing more than a “good ol’ boy network”. They can still be useful if they choose to do the right thing; but as the poster I quoted in this post is proving, it’s all about the money.
The fact of the matter is the labor unions’ focus is to get their members more money for less. While I’m sure a lot of them deserve what they’re paid, a good percentage of them are not worth a fraction of that amount. Why? Because they protect the lazy and hold back the best and brightest. They stifle initiative and free thinking and foster nepotism. Unless you’re well-connected to the union “management” or are willing to grease some palms, you cannot always advance based on your job performance and actual productivity.
Basically, it’s akin to having two bosses to answer to. And anyone who has been there, you cannot effectively have two masters. Basically, all the most of current unions are doing is adding to the cost of the goods and services without adding to the quality. Cost that is then transferred onto the consumers – hence the higher cost of production in these United States.
As far as Auto Industry and the UAW, they need to fail. The way US Auto Makers have done business may have been optimal back in Henry Ford’s day but not in today’s dynamic marketplace. Yes, people will unfortunately lose their jobs and probably their homes. But if the powers-that-be had any kind of intelligence, they will learn their lesson and transform the industry into a leaner and more productive version (much like those “other” auto makers who are smart enough to keep the UAW out of their factories and empower their workers to play an active role in improving the way they do business). JM2CW.
This is because the non-union plants usually provide ALL their workers with the capability and authority to make a difference in the quality of tehir products. These plants not only optimize production time by providing their workers responsibilities in multiple areas (versus the traditional assembly line of specialization), they also take each and every one’s suggestions into consideration and implement those that provide a positive outcome to the overall performance of the plant. These plants also use progressive techniques and current technology to produce the optimum number of units instead of trying to flood the marketplace regardless of actual demands.
Basically, non-union plants do pretty much the exact opposite of what union plants do because their reason for their very existence is simple: TO MAXIMIZE PROFIT. Plus, they don’t have the UAW around to counter these efforts. Unions could care less about plant profits as long as their workers can keep their salary levels. Otherwise, these workers could not keep paying their union dues (and the union management cannot receive the pay they “deserve”. JM2CW.
Some of you are treading dangerously close to Personal Attacks.
I think I could probably struggle by in working 5 days a week and still pulling in $150K with lifetime medical benefits and a pension. :rolleyes:
Makes me wonder why I spent all that time and money on college and law school.
This is the most ludicrous thing I’ve read here. The money the (admittedly overpaid) executives get is a drop in the bucket.
i don’t know of any UAW member making that much. Why should the blue collar workers be given the blame for this and be expected to take pay cuts and cuts in health benefits i don’t see any of management being asked to do any of this. I also didn’t hear of anyone blaming bank tellers when the banks are getting a 700 billion bailout.
The unions are one of the major reasons the car makers are having a hard time. The other is bad decisions on the direction of the market, what sort of cars/trucks to produce, etc and bad decisions in giving in to union demands. The third reason is general spillover form the bad economic juju in general.
The unions have negotiated unreasonable health care benefits that have created cost structures that are a huge major burden to the car companies. We are talking major billions of dollars (versus the few hundred million of all the executive pay combined). Go look it up. The unions negotiated pay and benefits that outweigh the benefit (work) the workers do. This is said from a purely economic sense.
For your last sentence: bank tellers did not form ultra powerful unions that forced through unreasonably high benefit and pay packages that created cost structures that are not economically feasible.
I am anti UAW and both my Girlfriend and her father are part of it. He of course is a Democrat (who thinks Osama doesn’t want his guns melted) and openly brags about how drinking alcohol and smoking was okay on the assembly line. He also brags that in the 80’s and early 90’s there was 3 people to do one job on every shift and they were all making $35+ per hour.
Um, ya…we are bailing out the UAW which is a complete disgrace to every hard working American out there.
Any UAW member who thinks Democrats are actually fighting for them is insane. This may come as a “News Flash” but all Politicians have been letting your jobs go overseas since the 70’s.
P.S. I drive a Nissan Frontier, and I’ll be happy to see 3 companies fall for making pathetic products.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27984006/
Riiiiight
Towards the end of that article it shows who this bailout is for. It isn’t for the shareholders or the customers, it is for the Greenies to get their Shitbox Treehugger 1000 and the UAW to keep its pockets full.
Because if you are any good at what you do and are in private practice, you can make a lot more than that depending on how hard you want to work.
And give 53% of it back in taxes to the government that is so much wiser at spending it than you could possibly be.
Don’t ever forget - 47% of something is more money that 100% of nothing!
i smell a troll. lol.
And that’s how I read it too.
Before OSHA etc… the unions had a place. For that matter I’m not opposed to VOLUNTARY associations either. But the way they exist in Michigan etc… is obscene.
They’ve not only damaged the companies they work for, but they refuse to recognize that they are the reason jobs are going overseas and to the south…they’ve priced themselves right out of the marketplace.
And the amount of the bailout is beyond me. Ford’s market cap is 6.something billion. You could literally buy the entire company for a fraction of what they’re getting.