Originally posted by: Red Dawn
Originally posted by: EMPshockwave82
Originally posted by: Red Dawn
Originally posted by: EMPshockwave82
When you assume...............
I get it, you're in a union.
There are hard workers in unions, there are also piece of shite workers in unions. I've seen both and I've always been one of the hard workers. The wonderful thing about the union is that even though I bust my ass to do my best every day I get the same amount of raise at the end of the year as the person I'm working next to that takes HOURS worth of breaks.
Once again. Get off your high horse.
PS. quoting appears to be broken?
First of all why do you care what the other guy is making as long as you get your raise? Secondly in Construction if you aren't worth a shit they don't keep you for the next job so in essence you do make more than the guy who takes a lot of breaks besides I've seen Union members who goofed off shit canned and the Union didn't raise a finger to get them their job back.
Why should myself and a person that I greatly outperform get the same raise and be paid the same? Because we've both been doing it for the same amount of time?
Unions FTW
Theres nothing that says your employer can't pay you more than you co-worker if they determine you are worth it. They do it all the time in the Building trades.
I haven't worked a "regular job" for union scale in 10+ years. Once in a great while, if I was between jobs for a couple of weeks, I'd take a short-term dispatch (less than 2 weeks) that "only " paid union scale, but for the most part, I always got $3 to $10 over union scale. Contractors know the good hands and keep them happy and well paid.
Sure, you can hire "Joe Blow" out of the hall, who is required to meet certain minimum qualifications to be dispatched for that piece of equipment, but he may not be a top-hand. He'll get paid union scale while he's there, but if the job slows down, he'll either sit at home waiting for more work, or get laid off and sent back to the hall.
The companies will keep their top hands busy even when work is slow, rather than lose them. Equipment always needs repairs or servicing of some kind. GOOD hands don't need to be told everything that needs to be done. They see something and either do it themselves, or if the work belongs to another craft, they make arrangements to have that work done.
I've been a foreman on large crane jobs, general foreman over large crews of Operating Engineers, and barge captain many times.
Barge captain is by far my favorite position. I enjoy the challenges and responsibilities that go with the job, and always push my crews to their absolute max when we have work to do. When we're slow, (at the mercy of tides, materials, etc.) we relax and tend to maintenance, have a crew BBQ, maybe even get in a bit of fishing.
My superintendent knows all this, and refuses to send us home because he KNOWS that the work we do it top-notch and we produce more than most other crews. Maintenance on a barge/crane working on saltwater is a never-ending chore. There's always rust to chip, things to paint, oil to change, things to grease, that alone can keep you busy 12 hours per day, and is why I have at least one qualified deck engineer to tend to it.
I worked non-union for a couple of years when we lived in the Rockies and unions weren't common, so I have a lot of personal experience to back up my judgements of non-union contractors.
Do I think that every job out there needs to be unionized? Hell NO!
BUT, I think that every worker (regardless of his/her field has the RIGHT to be unionized if the majority of employees wants it.
I know that some unions and union workers have given unions a bad name. I personally am not too fond of the Teamsters, even though I were one...
"I'd rather have a sister in a whorehouse than a brother in the Teamsters," is a pretty common attitude in construction trades.
The construction trades don't put up with slackers, drunks, lazy fucks, or otherwise worthless workers. If you can't or won't produce, you're GONE, and while the union may question the firing, they rarely fight it, especially if you document everything. (as you should do before you fire any worker)
As a business agent, many, many times I had to deal with people who had been fired for a variety of assorted things. The fuck-offs usually got sent to our training facility for testing, and if they passed the minimum qualification test, they could be re-dispatched, but if not, they couldn't be dispatched until they could pass.
Operating heavy equipment is different than most other crafts. A back-hoe operator, dozer operator, or crane operator can do a LOT of damage and/or kill a lot of people in a quick amount of time if they don't know WTF they are doing. We do not tolerate fuck-ups, fuck-offs, or slackers, and we demand a high level of competency to be considered a Journeyman.
My union was the driving force behind crane operator licensing here in Kahleeforneeya. Many other states and large cities have had similar programs for years, but the
NCCCO is the toughest there is, and is slowly being implemented by many other states and agencies.
Needless to say, the RATCO contractors and their ABC fought this tooth & nail, because it limits the personel they can put in a crane, AND it drives up the cost of those qualified crane operators.
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