[TheForge] unions ( was Re: Re: OT: several questions and thoughts )

[Demon Buddha]

terry l. ridder wrote:
> hello;
> 
> comments intermixed below.
> 
> On Sat, 4 Feb 2006 schade at acegroup.cc wrote:
> 
>>
>>
>> http://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm
>>
>> In 2005, full-time wage and salary workers who were union members had
>> median usual weekly earnings of $801, compared with a median of $622 for
>> wage and salary workers who were not represented by unions.
>>
> bob, remind me again how the unions stood up the united airlines
> management and the bankruptcy court again. wait that is right they did
> not.
> 
> bob, remind me again about how the united airlines employees' and
> retirees' pension system were protected during the bankruptcy. oh, wait
> the pension system was in default and turned over to the federal pension
> agency to bail out.
> 
> bob, remind me again how much the executives of united airlines
> sacrificed in salary and benefits. oh wait they did sacrifice anything,
> in fact they received roughly $100 million usd in bonuses.
> 
> bob, what were you saying about how good unions are again?

	United attendants lost about 12% in salary and completely lost their 
pensions.  had the courts not reinstated the pensions, it would have 
stayed lost.  The AFA sold the flight attendants down the river.  So did 
the pilots.  The pilots asked the attendants to support their contract 
negotiations and they did.  Pilots got their juicy contract and then 
refused to aupport the attendants as they had agreed.  Things were tense 
on flights between the parties for many months.  But karma stepped in 
and the courts threw out the cushy pilot contract and they were forced 
back into negotiations.  Ha ha ha... for once the bad guys took it in 
the neck.

	ALl the while, the airline was making record profit.