[TheForge] concrete [GONE OT, run for the hills!]

[Andy Vida]

The problem sits on both sides of the proverbial fence.  The unions
rose in reaction to some rather unpleasant practices of the companies
that operated.  In principle, those who did not like the work were
free to go elsewhere and perhaps should have, but in the real world 
things are not always that easily decided.  The reality is that many
(most?) of those workers became defacto slaves to those companies,
largely due to low wages that disabled them from saving enough to be
able to move elsewhere, a particularly troublesome predicament when
one is in a one-employer town or has been black listed in a larger
city such as NY.  In those days, work history and references really
counted for something.

I fully understand, and to a degree appreciate, the rise of unions, 
but in the end they proved to be every bit as vile and corrupt as 
the companies they were supposed to protect their members from, and
 in some cases they were not only worse, but far so.

Today there is fairly strong labor law in place to protect employees
from at least to most eggregious dangers and injustices, and given
that reality I see no need for unions.  You should have seen the NY
Times!  Union shop like no other;  you go to the evening shape (stand
in line to see if you can work for non-union types) and if you get in,
the rules are very strict.  For example, there have to be no less than
THREE pasters (guys who paste a new web of paper to the old one when it
runs out so the press doesn't have to be rethreaded).  One man can do
the job, but the union won't have it.  Back in the early 80s, non-union
workers coming in on the evening shape got at least $11/hour, a union
wage.  If you came to the shape long enough, you probably moved up on
the list and after awhile you could get your union card, which in those
days could then be sold for up to $100K.  Ya, that's right, one HUNDRED
thousand dollars.  Bloody racket, and a pretty good one if you had a
stomach for the politics.  Many shapers would be told to make themselves
scarce... go find a place to take a nap for a few hours because there
was nothing really for them to do.  They were just balast for 
maintaining quota precedents.

As much as I don't care for unions, if they are eliminated my fear
would be that lobby pressure would mount on congress to begin
altering extant labor law in favor of corporate owners.  Unions have
in fact served some good purpose in this nation.  the fact that they
have largely evolved into corrupt and otherwise despicable entities
is pretty much a foregone conclusion where American culture is
concerned.  It's just the way we are as a people.  Visions of big
pies make people here go simple.  I'm sure it happens elsewhere as
well, but I cannot speak for those places.

Clyde Wynia wrote:
> 
> Sure, and all the quality concrete work in Mexico is done by well paid,
> highly skilled union men?
> 
> > Another reason much of the concrete work in the U.S. is bad is that there
> > has been a concerted effort by the contractors and gov. to break the
> > skilled trades unions.(all in the name of cost cutting) We are now seeing
> > the results of this in inferior work and the lack of well trained workers.
> >          What you see now on jobs (mostly nonunion) is a few lead
> > men(knowledgeable)  and a bunch of vocational school grads. with only a
> few
> > years experience. This makes for a lot of mistakes. All to save a few
> bucks.