[TheForge] OT Union Rant (Was Re: concrete)

[Ralph E Douglass]

Aaron Silver wrote:
> 
> I'm of two minds about Unions.
> 
> On the one hand I've seen them encourage their members (my father) to
> strike, and then sold them out in the settlement.
> 
> On the other hand I've seen them come to the defense of my wife and help
> her and the other members save their jobs.
> 
> One thing that I think made the difference is that in my wife's case the
> people negotiating were also the ones affected, i.e. the employees... In my
> father's case I believe that the people negotiating were employees of the
> Union, rather than the ones directly working the jobs.
> 
> It also is worthy to note that in my wife's case the local union was
> totally incompetent, at one point hiring a lawyer to fight the employees
> rather than to represent them. (Once the National Union President was
> notified that got it straightened out that the local unions was supposed to
> hire the lawyer to REPRESENT them, not disavow them!)
> 
> I think that whether Unionized or not, there are employees that are
> interested in making a quality product. There are also people who are
> simply there to get their time in and get their check. They're not
> interested in the product, or whether they're doing the best job they can.
> And those people also can have a Union sticker on their bumper or not.
> (Although knowing how hard it can be to fire a totally incompetent union
> represented employee, even for well documented just cause, I tend to think
> that such an employee will last longer in a Union job than not)
> 
> Aaron

And this last statement is exactly why Unions are now a bad thing. There
should be no person who is exempt form quality or workmanship standards.
If you are not up to snuff then you should be gone. It is all part of
the free market and capitalism ideal that should be in place but has
been perverted.

Ralph

-- 




                                                        
					
"Good is the enemy of Excellent. Talent is not necessary for Excellence.
Persistence is necessary for Excellence. And Persistence is a Decision."