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S yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!
I guess this would go in the political forum.
Are unions still a good thing? Are they the powerhouse they once were? I've never been in a union, but my dad's business is union. We employ ironworkers and electricians. We pay a load each month to them for their benefits, so I guess being in one is good for that reason. Every year they get a new contract which includes a raise for them and more we have to pay in benefits.
He would love to get out of the union, but I don't think he ever will be able to. I know we have lost out on some bids because we were undercut in price by a non-union compe or.
I thought I heard that TX is not a big union state?
Anyway, just curious to see what y'all thought of them.
S yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!
I think Unions have gone from trying to help workers, into a business en y. I can't 100% say they are useless, but as a business owner, i'm 100% against them after seeing the havoc they've wrecked on the auto industry.
WHOOOOOTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!
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Unfortunately, we've been union for over 50 years, so you know we're stuck. We have 1 electrician and pay minimum four grand a month just for him. One person!
And people wonder why business is outsourced.
We do a lot of defense work, so they usually are pro-union. We just lost a big job with Boeing by a lot to a non-union company.
Are checkers at grocery stores union? I know some stores are. Not sure about HEB?
Unions can be a good thing or a bad thing. They are good when the workers have little or no power and bad once they realize how much power they truly have....once they realize how much power they have they drive up the cost of the their labor which drives up the cost to the rest of us...and like anything else they are can become corrupt at the leadership positions really easily.
Very well said.
Safeway/Randall's has a Union...that's why they're largely out of business now.
It is a tough issue. I used to represent large employers who had issues with unions. Unions made it tough to terminate unproductive employees. Often, the unions would defend these employees to the point of absurdity. However, at the same time, I saw corporations mistreat employees who didn't have similar protections in place.
It's a complex issue and largely depends on the people involved and the specific situation you're looking into.
I was gonna say Safeway was. I used to shop there when I lived in San Francisco and I recall a checker saying they were.
This is what we pay to the I/W per month based on total hours worked.
vacation $3.68 (a wash as we deduct from their paycheck)
annuity $3.43 (what is annuity)
welfare $7.58
pension $6.81
apprenticeship $0.87
admin trust $0.03
LMCT $0.06 (don't know what this is)
WCTF $0.02 (i think this is some workers comp thing. We already pay comp)
Impact $0.25 (have no idea what that is either)
Every July 1st, they get a raise and the rates go up.
Hence, they get 'laid off' and collect unemployment. And if you're gonna lay them off before the end of the day, you have to pay them 2 hours show up pay. They also get non-taxable travel and subsistence reimbursement.
Texas is a right-to-work state. We do have Unions, but they're not nearly as prevalent as in other states.
Thank god.
Here in Texas, you don't get unemployment if you were terminated for good cause (or is it just cause[?]). It's been a while since I've done the employment law thing.
I see. We're in CA and most of our jobs are in CA, but if we have a job in another state, we hire out of their hall.
I work deli, and I'm in a union...UFCW 1546, I think.
Yeah I used to work at Safeway too, great holidays, pay and benefits but the prices put them out of business.
I didn't mean Randall's for the other choice though...whatever they became after Safeway...AppleTree maybe? Something like that. The unions killed them at least in Texas because no other grocery chain in Texas had one...they couldn't stay compe ive.
Safeway is union here also, but that is not why their prices re so high. I could see them being a little higher than Walmart or WinCo over here, but their prices average about 30% higher. No way the union benefits cause that much more. They can go themselves.Yeah I used to work at Safeway too, great holidays, pay and benefits but the prices put them out of business.
I don't like most unions, but they are a necessary evil. I despise most unions, but there are still a few good ones out there that do get proper benefits for their employees without going overboard. Unions are part of the reason the Metals, Auto, and Airline industries are dying in the USA. Workers losing their jobs from these industries should realize that they can only push for more benefits so much before it is cheaper to outsource, or push people to buy foreign like Toyotas. Taxes are the other aspect. That's another subject, so I will leave it that if America, which has the 2nd highest corporate tax rate, was far lower, we wouldn't be losing so many good paying jobs to foreign compe ion.
Unions are communism.
....unregulated capitalism is communism too...
I don't know where you live but that Union is why their prices are high.
When I worked at Safeway 25 something years ago they paid about 3-4 more dollars more per hour than any other grocery chain in Austin. I know because I worked at a couple of the other ones. Every place else paid about $3.35 an hour and Safeway paid about $7.00....and there were other perks too.
HEB is non union. All I know is that the UAW union made it possible for my father to get hired at GM which got us out of the migrant fields and allowed us to live a nice middle class life and for him to enjoy a nice retirement on a 5th grade education.
We know go round and round about unions. I think they served their purpose back when workers were getting the shaft but I don't feel they are needed as much today.
"back when workers were getting the shaft"
household income has held steady/declined since 2000, while CEO pay has skyrocketed to several 100x average salary.
GDP has increased OK, productivity has increased very well, but the lower 98% has gotten shafted and excluded from the increase in national wealth.
Repugs have removed workplace protections national level, and in TX right now the corps are fighting to reduce workers' rights to sue for workplace injuries, while financing the TX Supreme Court judges.
The story is very clear: the top 2% are ripping off the govt (see mortage bailout as only one example), while aggressively suppressing the lower 98%, and ripping them off (eg: health insurance prices, health care prices)
Would unions help workers today? Probably not, the top 2% are have the country by the short and curlies and won't ever let go of that power.
Can childishly, trustingly naive "workers" even now see how they are getting ripped off by the mortgage bailout? No, they have have been dumbed down to be docile, fat/dumb, TV-narcotzied victims for the predatory top 2%.
They started out as a necessary evil, now they are as corrupt as what they once fought
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