Unions Suck

[Terminal23]

L.A. Transit Strike May Strand 500,000
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp...nguage=printer
A pox on all you lazy no good for nothing union workers.
Unions served a purpose at one time,now all there good for is blackmail.

And workers' rights.

[sao95]

a tidbit, chicago equipment operators (union) will be making $100 dollars an hour next year, the contracts are signed, the hundred dollars is their hourly wage + the amount the company pays for their benefits....

[Ed_S]

So... just so I've got this straight & in perspective, are you saying that the lives, livelyhood, and health care of those 2,200 workers are less important than the temporary inconveniencing of passengers?

Have we really reached the point that we are so self-centered that our personal convenience comes ahead of supporting our fellow man's attempt to better his life? Or merely MAINTAIN that life?


Did you READ the article?

The parties are at odds over the mechanics union's health fund, which is in dire financial shape. The union wants greater contributions from the MTA to cope with soaring medical costs. The MTA pays nearly $17 million every year into the fund, which is administered by the union and pays for the medical coverage of 2,000 employees and retirees.

The MTA hasn't increased its contribution to the fund in more than a decade and rising medical costs have forced the union to spend fund reserves to keep up, Silver said. "They were waiting for us to run bone dry," he said.

The transit agency accuses the union of mismanaging the health trust fund and cites an independent audit that found the union wasted millions of dollars.

In its latest offer, the MTA said it would give the union money to keep the health trust fund from going bankrupt but asked for temporary control to restore it to financial health.

"Union leaders basically ran the trust fund into the ground and now they want the taxpayers to bail them out," MTA CEO Roger Snoble said in a statement.

Hmmm... been to a doctor or hospital lately? They are the real enemy here! Prices keep skyrocketing unchecked, they can charge whatever they want & you'll NEVER get an "up front" firm price - but that's all OK, right?
So how can a union fund or insurance possibly keep the same level of care/ coverage w/o an increase for TEN YEARS??
Leaders "ran it into the ground", huh. Use a little common sense - if a fund's income remains constant while expenses go up drastically every year, how does one NOT deplete that fund?

But I guess demanding that the employer pay enough to keep things the same is blackmail, right?

[pickel]

If it wasn't for unions and it's members, you'd be getting coolie wages , no benefits, and always remember..." If you don't work on Sunday, you don't work Monday. " My father and men like him fought ( actually, physically) in the thirties and forties to get where me and my brothers had a decent place to grow up in, clothes on our backs and food on our plates. If I wasn't in the IBEW now, my standard of living would be worse than Walmart people. Maybe you should RECALL the tranportation's dept. management, instead of blaming the union for sticking up for a fair deal. Maybe Gray Davis can write a bill for the taxpayers to kick in a few bucks before he's gone???

[Pexster]

Someone in another thread essentially asked "Why ask union members to give up what they have -- instead ask why you don't have the same or better?"

An appropriate wage and benefits package may (what the h_ . . . DOES) lie somewhere in between each sides' positions, but let there be no mistake, if the unions are destroyed, all workers will eventually suffer.

To claim that their relevance has passed is simply wrong. It will be death by a 1,000 cuts and everyone will be working for Wal-Mart wages/benefits.

We pay too little for our food as it is. If we want local, small businesses to survive, we must support them. Go to a farmers' market -- go to a butcher -- go to a fishmonger. With careful selection, you can eat better, healthier, and for less!

[Knothead]

Originally posted by Ed_S

Did you READ the article?Hmmm... been to a doctor or hospital lately? They are the real enemy here! Prices keep skyrocketing unchecked, they can charge whatever they want & you'll NEVER get an "up front" firm price - but that's all OK, right?

I think you are absolutely dead on, there.

I had a physical recently, and I DID try to get an idea of the cost beforehand. No way.

3 days later, I get a bill for $1,200.00!! That's about $600 per hour.

At this rate, these vicious greedheads are gonna not only deplete every union treasury, but they're going to own everything in existence!

And the @#%^*&@+ lawyers are helping them do it, too.

The sooner something gets done about these incredibly powerful CRIMINALS, the sooner America will be able to not only become economically competitive with the rest of the world, but we may even get some rest, too.

[Bill in SD, CA]

Some of you people complain about corporate profits. You think it's in cash in the bank. That's not the way accounting works. Most of the profit is on paper not in paper.

I have a great idea ...... why don't you invest in a company that promises not to make a profit. Sound like a good idea? If you're a socialist or worse it probably does.

So a company makes a profit. How do you think they can afford to open up new stores and expand their business? It's from profit. And gee, guess what? They hire more employees. What a novel idea.

Wages go up, taxes go up, health care goes up and you expect the companies to foot the bill?

Companies do not pay taxes and they do not pay added costs.

The costs are passed on to you and me.

Bill

[Knothead]

Bill, how could a rational person disagree with what you're saying? Of course a company should be profitable. Goes without saying.

I think the major disagreement is in the WAY these "people" do it...

[MTAtech]

The argument is that unions are not needed any more but they were needed in the 1930's. Well, what has changed? Are employers more enlightened?

The obvious answer is no. Compare companies that are not unionized with those that are and one will see that unions are still needed to protect workers from abuses of management and the owners.

Where I work, the workers, other than managers, are unionized. During hard times managers are the first to get their wages frozen and have increased contributions for medical and insurance. Why does upper management do this? Because they can. Managers have no recourse while the cuts to union workers must be negotiated.