I am curious as to what the deal is with this administration and the unions. I am watching Fox News and they are showing the AFL-CIO get together down in Miami. You know the place right? The resort where rooms cost at least 325.00 per night. Joe Biden shows up and they are having a closed door session with the leadership.
Did I miss something or didn’t I hear that the auto industry is going under? They couldn’t find a better and cheaper place to hold their get together? Sounds like the American tax payers are just getting fucked over again. People were bitching when CEO’s took corporate aircraft to go to meetings, but no one is saying a word about this meeting which is nothing more than a mini vacation as far as I am concerned.
I think that the union, dems and the press have been very good at making the unions look monolithic. The Republicans seem unable to get the idea across that the membership is a seperate entitiy from the union leadership. I don’ think the two are aligned. Leadership wants more immigrtion in the hope of more members. Members probably don’t like the idea of cheaper labor moving in country.
Afflicting them with Biden is one of the worst things I can legally think to do with them.
On a somewhat related note, does anyone know how Biden got that bruise in the middle of his forehead? I haven’t seen anything on it, but it was quite apparent on the news yesterday.
The only money the union officials are wasting is the dues they get from their members. If the members are cool with it, then it’s not anyone else’s business. If the members don’t like it, they can vote for different leaders.
No offense, but the corruption and misappropriation of funds I’ve seen in unions at the local level is pretty bad. I have no idea how much worse it gets as you go up the chain, but it can’t get better…
My wife has to deal with her company’s closed shop union and their nonsensical, ridiculous “grievances.”
Recently a supervisor asked if anyone could stay and do some overtime to get some work out the door. Someone volunteered and the job got done. The union found out and “grieved” the matter until the senior union guy on that project got paid the hours as well.
Another person was gone for over 30 days for a simularly ridiculously grievance. Now she’s grieving the fact that she was asked to take a urinalysis (company policy is that if you’re gone for 30 days, you take a piss test).
When grievances get to a certain level, they are handled in Southern California for this union. My wife recently tried to ship some corrborating documents there but the delivery was refused because it was through FedEx, a non-unionized business.
Wasteful, self destructive, and stupid. That’s what I see of the unions. Not needed and a bunch of cattle following the feed truck their leaders are driving. Yeah, go vote Obama because he’s for unions and he won’t take away your guns. Neither will Biden, right? God knows how many millions are going to be wasted of this “stimulus” money on union BS. Maybe they can build another multimillion dollar golf course, ru a few more companies into the dirt, and stay at more expensive resorts with Joe Biden, sponsor of the last AWB.
I think this is at the heart of the issue. In most cases union leadership work for their own good not the good of the union members. In that way union bosses are mini-politicians.
Unfortunately, sometimes organizations turn into the exact type of organization they formed to oppose.
8 hour workday - Union fought for and won
OT over 40 hours - Union fought for and won
Lunch breaks, etc.
Watch the movie Matawan if you can find a copy.
Footnotes: Of all the characters in the movie, the Sheriff ‘Two Gun’ Sid Hatfield was the most accurate portrayal. Yes, he is related to the Famous Hatfield clan.
Unfortunately, the unions were proven to vote mainly the way their leadership told them to which is against the Republicans. So the Republicans judge the unions on their actions . When you get right down to it, the unions are all about money with their hands out. The Republican/conservative policy of earn what you get and get ahead through merit are contrary to union principles. You can search this very site and find union members making smug remarks about the amount of money they get paid (not earn) compared to their non union counterparts while our economy tanks. And that’s why I don’t mind if any or all of the Big Three tanks. UAW is a dodo bird that needs to be put down. The Teamsters are also stupid, lazy flightless waterfowl that need to be extinct.
Littlelebowski, Why would you or anyone want unions to fail? Many people would be affected. Your union hatred is obvious. As always i am proud to be a union member. And hope all people union or not can make a decent living. If you dont like unions work somewhere else, don’t buy union made products. Proud UAW member
I too am a proud 38 year member of a Plumbers and Pipefitters Union, United Association. I work hard, have never been paid for a day I did not work, no sick
pay, vacation, blah blah. I have the initiave to attend state of art classes on
welding and hold many certifications that have enabled me to make a good living.
I travel across country on my own dime to take a welding test at some nuclear
powerhouse, or refineary, or chip plant and if I fail test and I have I drive some-
where else.
I have voted Republican since I returned from Vietnam, and there are many like me,
to think we are mindless automons who follow all the wishes of our administrations
is ridiclous, and frankly makes those who spout such invectives ,as rabid and ignorant
as the other sides rants.
While I doubt that we’ll be able to keep this from spiraling into another “less filling, tastes great” argument as to whether or not unions are bad/good…
The question posed is, as I interpret it: where does union leadership get the gall to be among the voices calling for bailout money, ping the CEOs of the companies they represent for executive excess, then turn around and use sun-drenched high-end accommodations to hold a get-together that could just as easily be handled by an appropriately-sized Holiday Inn Express in Wichita, Kansas?
Said question posed by the OP does not impugn those that are individual union members of whatever ilk, either directly or through implication. It poses a question about the leadership you voted into office to represent your organizations. Knowing it won’t work in the least, I’d suggest speaking to the question instead of using it as a platform to justify unions, however interesting it is to note lockstep response to start making excuses for them.
It’s been heard before, and is not germane to the question posed. Hell, dig a bit and find out if it was the gov’t that selected the location! Then this whole thing can go away and we can get back to being everyday, run-of-the-mill violence-mongers.
they have outgrown thier usefullness to say the least. Having been a teamster for going on 10 years I can honestly say the union is in part of why our country is on the roads to ruins. A union member is not judged on effort or quality of work, but on seniority alone. The sense of entitlement is sickening, which is painfully obvious with the UAW refusing to take conscessions in detriot, while the rest of america is starving. they think they should be immune from the effects of the economic downturn.
Meanwhile, a guy like myself, goes to work every fucking day and puts 100% in every day he can, simply because that’s what I was taught to do, knowing I could get laid off at any moment because I am near the bottom of seniority, even though I work harder and longer than 80% of the rest of the union leeches I work with. Did you know that most union shops can’t even have annual performance reviews?..my old boss was only allowed to meet with ME to ask how HE was doing a supervisor…WTF?.
How the hell is that the American dream?, smells like Socialism to me.
I won’t even start on where my dues go. every damn newsletter I get from the union is dems this dems that Obama is our savior…and since the unions are for the most part filled with ignorant fucks, they follow like sheep.
I see “proud to be a union carpenter” stickers all over, and thier always on the back of 3/4 ton trucks, suv’s and such…I always think…do you idiots realize that your voting for a guy that wants to either take away or charge you double for that little piece of heaven you keep parked in your double wide garage and wax every saturday?. SHEEP.
My last union rep vote, the scum were all running unapposed, WTF?, did I wake up in Iran?, is Hugo Chavez my new business agent?.
I am not against the idea of worker representation or bargaining leverage of a union. But what America has come to know as “the unions” have grown toxic and will eventualy help lead her off the edge of a cliff.
Here’s to all the pensions you 30 and outers, think you’ve got coming, LOL.
