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Termyn8or -> RE: Union vs non-union construction, pros and cons (2/10/2009 9:26:32 AM)
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fr
There's good and bad in everything. My buddy was in local 5 and went though the apprenticship, I saw the books. The training was quite extensive and even though he left the union, he is highly competent in the field. However only certain unions are like that. First of all local 5 does not ever discourage high performance. The more brick you can lay the better and if you pass up the oltimer too bad. As a result, when he left the union he took with him some serious earning power. In the case of building say a large garage, you get him either a good enough laborer or enough laborers and he will build it in a day. Some companies pay say a buck a block, he loves jobs like that because he can make killer money. I am talking near a grand a day. And everything is done perfectly. He got alot out of that union.
You have to be sponsored in to local 5, and their Uncle did it, but originally for his sister. This is the football playing dyke I was in love with, but physically she couldn't handle it, so a phone call got made and he was in the union.
On the other hand, many unions you just have to get into after like thirty days on the job. There is no training to speak of, no standards or anything like that, it is simply a solidarity, if everyone else has a walkout, you must walk out. For some among the lesser skilled this is their only avenue to fight expoiltation. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Some companies are so ruthless that even that does not work. I seem to recall an effort to unionize the meat department at Walmart, Walmart's response was that they simply don't have a meat department any longer. Closed it down and concentrated on selling TVs and other toys, and did just fine.
This is a form of war, just on a smaller scale. Management wants everything done yesterday for free and labor wants to get paid for taking a nap. Those are extreme ends of the spectrum but it's true. When I went over my Uncle's house in the middle of the day and wondered why he wasn't at work at the Ford plant he calmly told me he had somebody else to punch him in and out. I thought it was wrong then as I do now, but in this case it was one of my kinfolk filling their bags with bread, so I shut the fuck up.
Lucky for him he didn't work for Ford before the union. They paid unprecedented wages but the work was very hard. People actually died there. But the money was great, and the company still turned a profit.
Actually, looking at the big picture which is something I tend to do, the unions just followed suit "or suits". Management was happy to abuse it's power, but then when the unions got into power they abused it just the same.
Human nature. What else can I say.
T
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