Anyone dislike there Union?

[skyking]

I've been a member of two unions, and I have two different pensions to show for it. The first was with the IAM. The company lost all thier contracts(mostly with Boeing) and went belly-up. If I had not belonged to a union, with a seperate pension plan, my retirement there could have been lost in the bankruptcy. It happens all the time, and not just because of owning stock options. People lose all the retirement they have, and it takes years to get it back, if ever. Many unions have some of the best pension plans around, and these plans are contributed to by each different employer. Imagine working for 5 non-union companies over a 10 year period. would you get vested in any 5 year pension plan? NO.
The reason that employers are treating employees the way they should is directly related to unions, on all jobs. Union companies set the standards in trades, and non-union outfits must pay a commensurate wage to keep top-quality employees.
Health insurance is another benefit that came about because of union involvement. If collective bargaining groups had not demanded it, do you think employers would have just given it freeely?
I, for one, am grateful for my union membership.

 

[lepper boy]

The union on my full time job is actually half way decent.. they are trying to get us better bennie's ect.. But for the part time job it just plain out sucks because they take a chunk of my check that isn't very big to start with.. and they are doing me no good, because I have no benefits from the part time job....

 

[Chooco]

unions were a good idea when they came out, the basic idea of protecting the worker but it has become a farce in which the ignorant are favoured and inefficiency thrives. if you look at BC, Canada, it's just rampant with unions and it's destroying the economy. my friend's mom was almost fired because she kept showing up for work 30 minutes earlier and started working, the union representative actually had to take her aside and say "look, you have to stop working earlier than the rest of us or you will be kicked out at which point you will be fired"

 

[alrocky]

Originally posted by: aeroguy
I agree, unions suck. Where I work the mechanics get paid much more than the engineers. They get approximately $0.58 per minute of work = $34.80 per hour = $72,384 per year. A 10 year engineer makes around $55,000. We actually have engineers changing to mechanics... what a waste of talent.

aeroguy has made the wrong assessment and missed the obvious conclusion. The mechanics and their union if fine; it's the engineers who need a union.