Comments on: What’s In A Name

By: NoBamaNoWay

NoBamaNoWay — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 10:40:48 +0000

i don’t care if hitler himself is against unions; so am i. and if you’ve read very many of my posts, you know that nobody is more against the fat-cat corporations and corrupt politicians that exploit the working people in america, but unions are not the answer. they make the work environment absolutely unbearable, IMO, for both workers and management.

By: NoBamaNoWay

NoBamaNoWay — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 10:27:21 +0000

you *should* be able to be fired “on a whim,” outside of blatant cases of discrimination against protected classes. that whole “grievance” process is a bunch of bullshit that makes it impossible for a boss to do his/her job. it’s no wonder that no company with any options whatsoever will do business with a union.

By: NoBamaNoWay

NoBamaNoWay — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 22:31:34 +0000

the real question is where does it state that the voting WILL be private. if it doesn’t specifically say that the voting is private, it will be done in the open.

By: NoBamaNoWay

NoBamaNoWay — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 22:17:49 +0000

you said it Andrew; that has been my experience with unions as well. it’s sad because god knows that the working people in america are in dire straits indeed. unions are really no different than organized crime rackets, and you can believe that if they get the right to make people vote in public, there will be some serious intimidation and retribution for those who don’t get on the team.

i worked at a cement plant with a union a couple years ago and there was one guy there who had crossed the picket line on one of their strikes *20 years ago* and he was still considered to be a pariah by almost the entire plant (hourly workers).

he was actually a decent guy and one of the better workers, and he had to have some backbone to do that in such a small town. he paid for it, though, and how many other people would be willing to be ostracized for 20 years in order to go against the union?

By: candymarl

candymarl — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 22:10:48 +0000

My husband worked in a union shop and was a member. He never received any such information. Under the Constitution our elected representatives are required to listen us and abide by our wishes.

That ain’t working out too well now is it?

(See, Obama, Barack, Nancy (impeachment’s off the table) Pelosi, the 2000, 2004, 2008 elections)

By: candymarl

candymarl — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 22:02:46 +0000

Let’s make a deal! Where’s Monty Hall?

By: candymarl

candymarl — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 21:45:12 +0000

Exactly AnneinPA. Unions were originally organized to protect workers from out right brutality by business. Workers were threatened, beaten, and even killed by businesses without repercussions.

It seems the original intents unions were established for have has been lost.

By: andrew191

andrew191 — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 20:20:14 +0000

“everyTHING they latch onto” pardon.

By: andrew191

andrew191 — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 20:16:50 +0000

As I wrote, I have other issues with unions besides their love of extortion and theft.

Our economy, businesses, and productivity all respond favorably to efficiency and innovation. Over the years, union membership and influence have been waning despite the millions they spend (often contradicting the wishes of individual members) bribing government to produce and promote pro-union legislation. This is because unions kill efficiency and innovation, and the market is phasing them out as a failed concept. If unions were such a good idea right now, why do they need to petition the government to produce legislation to prop them up?

Unions have sucked the life out of every they latch onto. Our education system no longer responds to the needs of our children, it responds to the wishes of the teacher’s union. Our Auto industry? Governmental construction and infrastructure creation? You name it, unions either destroy the businesses they exploit, or they drive them off-shore. And everytime I see the union label, I wonder what percentage of the cost of that product will eventually wind up in the hands of organized crime.

By: cynic

cynic — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 19:50:26 +0000

America was built by Americans who build things…

…and, I’ll be quick to add, by millions of hardworking immigrants, who play by the rules and are destined to become as much Americans as any of us.

The vast majority of us can trace our roots to people who came from somewhere else.

By: cynic

cynic — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 19:33:46 +0000

Careful. Your true stripes are showing, and they might not be seen by everyone as entirely red, white, and blue.

By: cynic

cynic — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 19:30:47 +0000

Yep. By the way, the American Chamber of Commerce was also the primary lobbying group that got E-Verify removed from the stimulus package, and is the primary lobbying group attempting to block its renewal as separate legislation. How does that inconvenient bit of information grab people having traditional, grassroots, pro-American conservative values? Pro-America means pro-American worker, folks. America was built by Americans who build things.

By: MrMike

MrMike — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 17:22:36 +0000

Instead of quitting the union you could have asked for you membership to be put in inactive status and remained a member even though you weren’t in a union shop. But then you couldn’t rail against the union then, could you?

By: MrMike

MrMike — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 17:16:30 +0000

Really?
Could you link to a financial disclosure statement that unions are required by law to put out every year and send to their members?
Those statements list the amounts collected in dues and other fees, the salaries paid to officers, the amount spent on lobbying and campaign contribution down to the last paper clip.
Would that corporations were held to the same standards.

By: MrMike

MrMike — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 17:01:46 +0000

WOW! I’m surprised I had to go down this far to read a defense of the free choice act.
Having been witnessed in a few organizing attempts in the work place and now working in a union shop, allow me a few observations.
As the law now stands all it takes is 50% plus one majority to authorize a union to be your collective bargaining agent. In reality, an organizer won’t approach management unless they have 65% to 75% of the cards signed. They know that the employer will dispute the cards and ask the NLRB for an election. Since elections can’t be scheduled in a timely manner the employer has free rein to root out and terminate suspected union sympathizers and brain wash the rest in captive audience meetings. If elections could be scheduled to take place within a week after the authorization cards were presented and disputed we wouldn’t need this act. But that will never happen.
I live in a “fire at will state” that means you can be let go on a whim and it is on your dime to prove discrimination. With a union I have a grievance procedure, if I was fired unfairly I get reinstated with back pay.
On the other side, I had to do fix a machine the operator destroyed by a careless act then fix it again less than an hour later for the same reason. Nothing happened to the operator because he went hunting with the assistant plant manager.