What Is Your Experience With Unions?

[KeithP]

I know a lot of people who are against unions. I seriously don't get it. They gave us the 40 hour work week. We get sick days, and vacation time because of unions. We would all be working for $5 an hour if it weren't for unions.

For the most part, they have long out lived their usefulness.

-KeithP

 

[Hugo Drax]

The 1% have a Union, they are represented by folks in K street.

 

[Mixolydian]

It's a mixed bag. There are good and bad things. I would have to say the good outweigh the bad most of the time, however.

Contrary to popular belief, they are very much still needed in this day and age.

 

[rudeguy]

It's a mixed bag. There are good and bad things. I would have to say the good outweigh the bad most of the time, however.

Contrary to popular belief, they are very much still needed in this day and age.

Care to back that up with some facts?

 

[Mixolydian]

Care to back that up with some facts?

There are no "numbers", it's something you have to see with your own eyes.

 

[rudeguy]

There are no "numbers", it's something you have to see with your own eyes.

Are you calling me blind? Are you saying I live some type of life where I don't see the truth with my own eyes?

What are you saying you little runt? WHAT ARE YOU SAYING????!!!!

 

[Slew Foot]

I fucking wish I could join a union. pretty much everyone else in the hospital is union and. they get fantastic pay and benefits.

 

[JM Aggie08]

It's a mixed bag. There are good and bad things. I would have to say the good outweigh the bad most of the time, however.

Contrary to popular belief, they are very much still needed in this day and age.

In what industry, exactly?

 

[Dirigible]

I've never been in a union, but I like them overall. No poll option for me.

 

[shortylickens]

Butchers, bakers, and greengrocers of America.

They were good to me.

 

[BoomerD]

I worked union for most of my career. I always called the difference between union pay and non-union pay, "non-union dues."

Why the fuck would anyone want to do the same job for $10-$15/hr less...with poor or non-existant benefits? Aren't you afraid people will find out you can't add?

Unions aren't for every job or industry. I've never argued that they are, but some jobs, especially construction, NEED unions to help watch out for their employees.

As mentioned above, unions brought us or helped lobby for:

Weekends
All Breaks at Work, including your Lunch Breaks
Paid Vacation
FMLA
Sick Leave
Social Security
Minimum Wage
Civil Rights Act/Title VII (Prohibits Employer Discrimination)
8-Hour Work Day
Overtime Pay
Child Labor Laws
Occupational Safety & Health Act (OSHA)
40 Hour Work Week
Worker's Compensation (Worker's Comp)
Unemployment Insurance
Pensions
Workplace Safety Standards and Regulations
Employer Health Care Insurance
Collective Bargaining Rights for Employees
Wrongful Termination Laws
Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967
Whistleblower Protection Laws
Employee Polygraph Protect Act (Prohibits Employer from using a lie detector test on an employee)
Veteran's Employment and Training Services (VETS)
Compensation increases and Evaluations (Raises)
Sexual Harassment Laws
Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA)
Holiday Pay
Employer Dental, Life, and Vision Insurance
Privacy Rights
Pregnancy and Parental Leave
Military Leave
The Right to Strike
Public Education for Children
Equal Pay Acts of 1963 & 2011 (Requires employers pay men and women equally for the same amount of work)
Laws Ending Sweatshops in the United States


Are unions perfect? Fuck no. Any union is only as good as its members and officers, but given the choice, I'll take a union anytime.

FWIW, in the unions I've worked with, there was no protection of lazy, worthless fucks...if you couldn't do the job, you got fired. The union would investigate the reason you were fired, but the contract specifically said, "The employer is the sole determiner for the qualifications of the employee." I never heard about any grievance being filed filed for being fired for being lazy or incompetent.
Any member fired and sent back to the union hall 3 times for not being qualified for the job had to go to the union's training center to be tested and qualified before they could be redispatched for work in that category.

 

[BoberFett]

The couple of times I've been in unions, they were shit jobs with shit pay and shit benefits. But the union still took their cut. Not sure what they did to earn it.

I don't personally like unions, I prefer to negotiate on my own because I'm a far better than average employee. But I can see why they exist, and have no problem with them existing for others.

Being forced to join a union is bullshit though.

 

[MongGrel]

I used to be, is overall positive IMHO.

I wasn't forced to join it but I did, a bargaining unit with a contract that has been enforced for years is a good thing.

Of course why Honeywell shut it down more or less at the time, and outsourced my job, I think Unions probably vary a lot these days.

It's more a fuck the middle class thing these days, the Board of Directors feels they do not need them, even over Senior Engineers objections.

 

[child of wonder]

Wife's first nursing job out of college was union. It was really depressing to see how her pay was all laid out before her. At year 2 she'd make X, at year 3 she'd make Y, and so on. All the other nurses with more seniority took all the days off surrounding holidays and some that had been there 10+ years had so much time off they'd take EVERY Friday off during the summer meaning no one else could take the entire week off.

Since it was hard to fire people, many simply slid by giving minimal effort. No matter how hard my wife worked, she would always make X, then Y, then Z as the years went on.

 

[werepossum]

I lived near Peoria, IL which is home to Catepillar corporate and a huge UAW union force.

I remember growing up with classmates that had parents who were executives at Cat getting death threats. UAW workers dropping jackrocks (a welded together ball of nails) onto the driveways and streets of "scab" workers during strikes. Dogs of executives being shot or poisoned. Just all sorts of bush league shit.

Plus being in the corrupt state of IL sooooo many regulations and rules were put in place to force people into using union labor that it made so many things a lot more expensive. As I was leaving the state a year ago they were in the process of trying to kill a bill that forced all new buildings *including* residential homes to having fire prevention sprinklers installed. You can think the steam fitters for that one getting pushed in. They were the only ones allowed to do the work. Thank you jeebus that somebody finally saw the light and the cost that it would add to houses and retrofitting older buildings and started the process to kill the bill. But the scary thing is that it was *very* close to being made into law.

I did not grow up in an area that promoted a positive union image even though my Dad is a union guy.

Oddly, I've had much the same experiences, including the local push to fire sprinkle new houses. Local factory of a national chair company had a union come in and try to intimidate its workers into going union. Didn't go over well and the thugs were run out of town. However, those same workers who were making damned good wages working off their asses for piece work pay then got hosed, company almost universally fired them at 28 to 29 years service (nice pension with thirty years service, next to nothing for 29/364) and they have since been replaced with illegals working for a flat $10 or so per hour. So in spite of the union's atrocious behavior, the workers would have been better off. Conversely, I watched a couple local foundries' unions strike repeatedly, refusing concessions and demanding wage increases. Those companies tried to do the right thing by their workers rather than moving production to Mexico like their competition, but the union drove them out of business. Those workers would have been better off without the union (although those who managed to retire before the companies went tits up made out like bandits.) I've also seen the trade unions compete with non-union shops while consistently delivering better work.

Poll needs a choice for "Never been in a union but support them". Like anything ran by humans, unions have their good points and their bad points but in general, the good outweighs the bad.

 

[MongGrel]

The 1% have a Union, they are represented by folks in K street.

Pretty much this.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Wife's first nursing job out of college was union. It was really depressing to see how her pay was all laid out before her. At year 2 she'd make X, at year 3 she'd make Y, and so on. All the other nurses with more seniority took all the days off surrounding holidays and some that had been there 10+ years had so much time off they'd take EVERY Friday off during the summer meaning no one else could take the entire week off.

Since it was hard to fire people, many simply slid by giving minimal effort. No matter how hard my wife worked, she would always make X, then Y, then Z as the years went on.

Time off is just a poor contract. Most Unions want a happy balance between new & old members. The CWA had vacation time set up so vacation calendar would be posted for 10 days, full weeks off by seniority then posted for 10 days for individual requests by seniority. That way tenure was respected but it didn't trump everything.

 

[MongGrel]

Wife's first nursing job out of college was union. It was really depressing to see how her pay was all laid out before her. At year 2 she'd make X, at year 3 she'd make Y, and so on. All the other nurses with more seniority took all the days off surrounding holidays and some that had been there 10+ years had so much time off they'd take EVERY Friday off during the summer meaning no one else could take the entire week off.

Since it was hard to fire people, many simply slid by giving minimal effort. No matter how hard my wife worked, she would always make X, then Y, then Z as the years went on.

And the way things are going these days, you might work as the years go along without one and not get a raise period in some cases.

Or even go backwards, in my case.

I did get a raise a month ago, but still not anywhere near where I used to be atm.

 

[brianmanahan]

all of the guys at my dads employer were in a union but decided to drop out of it. they weren't seeing any benefits, just the union taking their money.

 

[RockinZ28]

Been union in the past. Definitely way more pros than cons in my experience.

Current employer is non-union, but I wouldn't be in it if it were since I'm management.

They bone my workers pretty bad though. Lower wages, 0 paid vacation, high benefit costs to employees. No way I'd work here in their position.

 

[Mai72]

Wife's first nursing job out of college was union. It was really depressing to see how her pay was all laid out before her. At year 2 she'd make X, at year 3 she'd make Y, and so on. All the other nurses with more seniority took all the days off surrounding holidays and some that had been there 10+ years had so much time off they'd take EVERY Friday off during the summer meaning no one else could take the entire week off.

Since it was hard to fire people, many simply slid by giving minimal effort. No matter how hard my wife worked, she would always make X, then Y, then Z as the years went on.

That's the downside to being in a union. Most give minimal effort when they know that their hard efforts aren't going to be rewarded.

It shouldn't be like that, but it's human nature.

 

[corwin]

Belonged to a union when I worked for Boeing about 16 years ago...they did nothing for the people who actually worked, but the slacker shits were protected like gold

 

[Naer]

Only have a vague understanding of what a union is

 

[corwin]

Only have a vague understanding of what a union is

When they were truly needed they were a collective bargaining force that brought about some equality between the workers and management...in their current form they basically protect the weakest links in the workforce against being fired for being worthless shits:\

 

[Mixolydian]

When they were truly needed they were a collective bargaining force that brought about some equality between the workers and management...in their current form they basically protect the weakest links in the workforce against being fired for being worthless shits:\

bullshit. "bad" employees get fired all the time at my work.