Originally posted by: 3chordcharlie
Originally posted by: ciba
Originally posted by: 3chordcharlie
Originally posted by: ciba
As for what the union has done? The attorney they are working with (a specialist in their industry) has told them they have the worst contract he's ever seen.
Meaning two things:
1. Every union contract this lawyer has ever seen is better than the one at issue.
2. The employees are certainly doing the right hting in this particular case.
It doesn't prove, show, or illustrate anything beyond those two things.
This is one illustration, but has been typical of my experience with unions (where n=3)
My experience with unions (n=4):
1. Auto union so militant that every time I was given an assignment they filed a grievance claiming it was 'union work' and should be given to union members as overtime. (summer student, non-union)
2. Public Employees Union whose main concern seemed to be securing large pay increases, despite the fact that this drove the employer to hire most employees on contracts, meaning most employees hired in the last 5 years had earned no seniority, no benefits (pay in lieu) and had no pension contributions (summer student, contract, union). I think this union was too focused on it's oldest members, and hung the newer/younger ones out to dry as a result. I would have opted out of this union, given the choice.
3. Skilled trade union at a pharmaceutical company. Their emphasis was on transparency between employer and employees, working conditions (particularly safety in an industrial setting with biologicals in heavy use on site), and maintaining reasonable workload for employees who mostly work highly technical, potentially dangerous jobs. This was far and away the best union local I have encountered, and was only created when a particular executive tried to unilaterally redefine working conditions leaving workers feeling over-worked and unsafe. (summer student, contract, union).
4. Public employees union so deeply in the pocket of management that they worked to ensure pay raises were regularly deferred, working conditions were less than safe, required training was deferred and ignored, and overtime was frequently unpaid. (lifeguard, union). This was the worst experience; lifeguards are mostly under 20 years of age, work with dangerous chemicals, and are subject to enourmous liabiility. Given the young employees and serious responsibilities of the job (even though most of the time is spent sitting or standing beside a pool, and the average day consists of little more than treating one or two nosebleeds), I think some form of advocacy group (union, assigned manager, something) is a very good idea here. This one was highly ineffective, but certainly didn't cost the employer anything. If I had intended to stay at this job, I believe I would have tried to get into the union leadership to initiate useful change.