Please vote only if you are "of working age." Also if you'd like to provide anecdotal info, tell us if you reside in a R2W state or not. Poll will be private.
I could not vote because no option for "I used to be". My experience with unions are mixed. Good: - You always had a pay bump and cost of living raise whenever it was time. - You know you had protection from unlawful labor practices Bad: - There is a huge aspect of socialism. There is really no incentive for anybody to work harder or gain more skills because everybody will get the same pay raise regardless of your performance - The selection of who gets laid-off is based on seniority- period. I saw a trend that the more seniority they had, the lazier they were knowing that they have job security over the newer hires. - You have no option to NOT be part of the union - A trivial work related process for example - repositioning a work table is grounds for complaint. The reasoning behind that is that you are taking away a union members job. You should have sent a work request to have a union member (specifically hired to move tables) to do that job. This creates a lot of red tape which slows down a lot of the processes.
The vast majority of today's unions are corrupt and run by money hungry bastards. See how hard it is for an under performing teacher to get fired, or a mail carrier, or a police officer who has complaints against them. Unions were initially created to help improve work conditions, wages and other things during the industrial revolution. They are no longer needed because there are government regulations in place now that do what they do. See the economies in right to work states, the vast majority are thriving while those that aren't right to work are horrible. The numbers speak for themselves.
You mean the same government that is being bought and paid for by executives and corporations left right and center . . . Have seen the stats on how much MONEY the lobbyist for corporations funnel to government officials Are you SERIOUS in thinking this could not be used to sway and peel back union made gains? You cannot be serious. They already attempt to rewrite overtime rules. . which would basically repeal the 40 hours work week They already attempting to scale back pay rates with the whining about competing internationally. . . They already constantly battering government EPA regulations The have limited their accountability for their massive ***** UPS that hurt people. . .through tort reform YET AND STILL the government will not be swayed and corporations will be good citizens???? OH HELL NAW!!! I am not buying THAT BULLSH** Rocket River
Don't buy it, you don't have to. It is a free market, so either adapt or die. That is the problem, unions don't want to adapt. Most want to get paid the same or more regardless of market conditions. See California's financial crisis for details. You may say that it is the corporations being greedy, but in Detroit only 7% of 8th graders are proficient in reading (PDF). Their teachers are protected by unions, so the students continue to decline. Again, the metrics prove that unions are an outdated and horrible system. Detroit automakers have struggled for nearly 3 decades while Kia, Hyundai, Mercedes, Toyota, Nissan, BMW and countless other foreign auto manufacturers have thrived building cars in the south, in right to work states. Don't like the way a business treats you? Don't work there. I've been a member of a union, I was forced to be when I worked on a year project at NASA JSC, and it was the biggest waste of money in my life. The union did nothing for me, yet I had to pay dues. Meanwhile, the head of the union drove a freaking $100k Mercedes and was onsite a total of about four hours per week.
Unions are a good thing(or can be, depending on which industry). The unions here in Texas will run circles around the unions up north. When the union is about fairness, and giving workers a decent living wage to support their families, I don't see what the big fuss is about. Whoever complains about Unions are just Yuppie subdivision people.
B.S. Nevada is a Right To Work state, which also has the highest unemployment in the country. The numbers don't mean jack, especially when the Unions only employ 12% of today work force. Oklahoma probably has the best success as a right to work state, but even then... i wouldn't really call Oklahoma " thriving" I don't know where you are getting your numbers from. But they are not correct.
No, we're realists. Show me one industry where a union worker can and will outperform a non-union worker? Being in a union has nothing to do with the quality of work performed, in fact most studies prove the contrary. A union is there to protect itself, and it's members... not the companies or organizations they work with. Again, the proof is that right to work state economies are leaps and bounds ahead of states where they are not. My aunt has worked for the US Postal service for over 30 years. She has been reprimanded for grabbing the parcels for hour route herself because she was tired of waiting on her fellow union employees dragging their asses. These same unions are the very reason the USPS is the most mismanaged government entity to date.
Oklahoma has the best success? You do realize Texas is a right to work state, right? Houston has the #1 economy in the US, and the 40th worldwide (including countries)! Educate yourself. Nevada is in the ****ter because they have no economy or industry. They thrived for their tourism and gambling, and when that bubble burst so did their economy. Feel free to read up on their economy.
I am guessing a majority of the people on the board are asian work as engineers, doctors, lawyer etc. So I think most people aren't going to be in unions.
my only experience with Unions was when we wanted to shoot a couple of standups for a show called Big 12 Showcase. We were at the arena in St. Louis that was the home of the Big 12 basketball tournament at the time (late 90's). We were forced to hire a union guy to plug in a light for us at $75 an hour. It was the biggest waste of money ever. He literally had to plug in a cord into a socket and then stand there and watch us do all the work. From that year on we shot from outside the building, and were extremely happy when they moved the tournament to Reunion arena in Dallas. If we have to use union people..we just won't shoot at that location anymore - its a waste of money for us to hire somebody to watch everyone else work 99.9% of the time.
As a teacher who is part of the union, I can tell you that it isn't all that difficult to fire under performing teachers. Unions are definitely needed today. Here are some facts about union states verses right to work states. I posted this in the other thread. Here are some facts. 1.The average worker in states with "right to work" laws makes $1,540 a year less when all other factors are removed than workers in other states. 2. Median household income in states with these laws is $6,437 less than in other states ($46,402 vs. $52,839). 3.In states with "right to work" laws, 26.7 percent of jobs are in low-wage occupations, compared with 19.5 percent of jobs in other states. http://scorecard.assetsandopportunity.org/2012/measure/low-wage-jobs Here's more According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the rate of workplace deaths is 41 percent higher in states with right to work, where unions can't speak up on behalf of workers! bullet The percentage of people younger than 65 with employment-based health insurance is lower in right to work states (62.1 percent) than in Michigan (70 percent). bullet More workers go without health care in right to work states (15.4 percent) than in Michigan (11.6 percent). bullet Right to work states have a poverty rate of 12.5 percent, compared with 10.2 percent in other states. Also, infant mortality rates are 16 percent higher in right to work states. http://www.miafscme.org/RTW_overview.htm Union states have less poverty, more insured workers, safer working conditions, fewer on the job deaths, higher median incomes etc.
I'm a member of three different unions. All three have some problems. I've found one of them to be almost completely useless and more of a pain than it's worth. The other one is about a 50/50 mix of good and bad. The third union is exceptional. It requires high standards of its members, and keeps them from getting stepped on. There are still problems with any of them, and some people I've talked to in the first two unions of opposite opinions about the effectiveness of them.
All of your financial metrics are flawed because the ACCRA Cost of Living Index in right to work states is generally MUCH LOWER than non right to work states. As a teacher you truly believe that our education system is on the right track? If that is the case then why are charter schools so popular and why are their results so much better than traditional education at a lower cost per child? EDIT - Of course not ALL unions are bad, but it is safe to say that a good number of them are... and that the union model is simply not sustainable in the global economy.
Charter schools results aren't better. Some charter schools have succeeded where others have failed. Plenty of other Charter schools have failed. Some public schools have succeeded in at risk areas. Others have failed. The wages are only one part of the statistics I posted. Worker safety, infant mortality etc. Are all also better in Union states. Poverty would have the reverse skewing of numbers because in places with a higher cost of living, the salaries are going to be higher. Yet poverty is worse in right to work states.
Many right to work states also generally have a higher minority population which is directly attributable to increases in poverty numbers (read the south). Sad, but true.
FB...I appreciated these numbers that you posted in the other thread, but I am curious why you are only presenting the earnings without the very necessary cost of living adjustment? The cost of living in RTW v union states is very different. The index in union states is at 117 for 2011 and 94.5 in RTW states in 2011. Applying those index adjustments yields $45,161 median cost of living adjust salary for union states and $49,102 for RTW states. Unions have made huge strides to make workplaces safer, but I think the higher wages aspect of unions is very questionable. I'd like to see more data.
1. There are problems with the USPS . .. one of the main ones is people wanna run it like a business. . it is a public service. . . 2. So she would not have gotten reprimanded for infringing on the job of a non union worker? That anecdote has nothing to do with unions and everything to do with business. If someone decides we not moving fast enough for them . .and starts grabbing computers out of inventory .. union or no . . I'm lighting into that *ss cause we are responsible for tracking etc. . .and they don't know the process and they could be putting isht out there that is not ready . . etc etc etc. . and who has to clean it up???? US!! because their impatient *ss didn't follow procedure. .so that anecdote is complete crap! Why should the union protect the company that is not willing to protect the employee? Company *****s on employees and people like yourself are find with that . .they think companies should basically OWN ITS EMPLOYEES and TREAT THEM ANY KIND OF WAY CAUSE THEY HAVE THE MONEY AND THE POWER. but when the employees band together in solidarity and gain a little power and buck back . . people like you cry how unfair it is. You wanna talk about 100K mercedes. . . There are GOLD PARACHUTE JUMPERS leaving with MILLIONS after running a company into the ground. . .and they may set foot on the factory floor 4 fours A YEAR!!! RunTellThat Rocket River
