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[hipshot]

Since we have some folks who adore the folks who adore the unions (and mindlessly babble on about how the unions are the good guys), I thought I'd toss this out there. It's just one of a large number of media exposes I've seen, and it pretty much jives with what my experiences with unions have been. The unions served a great service to the country once, but through aligning themselves with, and supporting THE PARTY, some of them have become just like the greedy politicians who empower them. Of course, this particular union has a long history with organized crime, also. Ain't America great?


http://www.clickondetroit.com/video/15908257/index.html

[POGOGOLF]

Since we have some folks who adore the folks who adore the unions (and mindlessly babble on about how the unions are the good guys), I thought I'd toss this out there. It's just one of a large number of media exposes I've seen, and it pretty much jives with what my experiences with unions have been. The unions served a great service to the country once, but through aligning themselves with, and supporting THE PARTY, some of them have become just like the greedy politicians who empower them. Of course, this particular union has a long history with organized crime, also. Ain't America great?


http://www.clickondetroit.com/video/15908257/index.html

Now there's a huge shock.         

[matap]

Check the video @ 3:58.  "Bowling arse" union workers. 

[RocknRoll]

Union goons!

[Underdog]

Unions have pushed the american worker to the edge of extinction. We have priced ourselves so high that companies cannot afford to pay anyone and make any type of profit. Look at Detroit and you will see what unions will do to all industries that they are associated with....

[Gumbo]

This may come as a shock  but you don't have to be union to cheat the company. Go to any corporation, and watch the folks pouring out early and claiming overtime.
I guess we want to put the blame somewhere, but could it be our own greed. And we wonder why everything is going off shore, something to think about 

[hipshot]

You're right Larry, you don't have to be union to cheat a company. But a number of unions have become so powerful that they can do it with impunity. Trying to fire a union member is a costly, and often futile, endeavor -- even with irrefutable proof of criminal acts. Many unions espouse that entitlement mindset that we all know and love. Many of them have evolved into an organization which the employees work for - not an organization working for the employees. I recall even back in the 70's that in the eastern seaboard union states construction supervisors were drawing double time and a half while they were home asleep at night, because a laborer was at a site all night to make sure the sump pumps didn't run out of gas. That was all thanks to the unions. That's all paid for by the consumers.

I went to work for a railroad when I first moved to Texas, and membership in the union was mandatory. Before long I got told that I (along with all of the union members nationally) had to strike because an affiliated local in the Republik of Kalifornia (refrigeration, not even railroad) "needed our support" in a contract negotiation. Pretty shitty, huh?

Anybody remember when the pipefitters' local rioted along the ship channel, set several refineries on fire, and beat up a seventy-something year old gate guard at one of the plants (so they could enter the premises illegally to "demonstrate")? One of my neighbors was a union steward, and he was crowing that night about what a great job the union did for its members. Well, the union didn't do sh!t for its members that day - other than make them look bad - and the neighbor took great offense to my comment that what I saw was a bunch of stupid thugs blindly following the directives of a bunch of overpaid crooks. They risked a lot of lives and property, and beat up an old man who had nothing to do with their "noble cause," and were stupid enough claim that they were performing a service. More and more often, the typical union mentality.

Now, I'll be the first to say that not all unions are that far gone. But---too many of them are. When I worked for HCSO I joined the deputies' union. I joined for one reason -- the union had a good law firm on retainer, and on duty or off, 24/7, if you got into a shitstorm they would send an attorney directly to the scene. That can be pretty comforting if you have to shoot a crook and Q Ten comes up with a preacher's wife who will testilie that he was handcuffed and lying face down in a ditch when you shot him. Or when you're chasing a gangbanger who just killed someone in a carjacking, and he runs a red light and takes out a family, and Q Ten is in front of the wreckage telling the cameras that you were chasing the wrong car and it's your fault that family died for no good reason. Anyway, like most such unions, this one was affiliated with the AFL-CIO. That means that they lean so far to the left that they think Ted Kennedy and Bill Clinton are paragons of virtue. Every month they sent us this union rag, about 30 or 40 pages of the Democrats' propaganda. I really got sick of reading that I, as well as all of the other members of our local, were "tirelessly working daily to implement stricter gun control legislation to make our world a safer place to live." I don't know a single cop who buys that "gun control is crime control" BS that the Dems won't quit repeating, but the Dems' influence over the AFL-CIO and its affiliates has turned them into extensions of the party's agendas, and they haven't shown the least bit of hesitation to knowingly lie about what I, and the other members of the union, stand for. No one in the union liked it, but you can't tell the AFL-CIO that they're lying -- they, like the politicians, ignore our objections and insist that they know what's best for us. And more and more Americans are turning into sheep and accepting those edicts from the politicians. I could go on and on about the unions. The bottom line is that too many of them have become too powerful, too greedy, too eletist, and their memberships have accepted that because the unions feed them more and more benefits for less and less work. And to say that the unions are not a major factor in the collapse the automotive industry is absolutely mindboggling.

Okay, rant off now.

[nomercyambulance]

To hipshot, Wow! Well said.
Is it true that if one of the "Big-3" fails and falls under somekind
of finacial protection, will the union contracts default? I heard this
somewhere and as part of that conversation, I seem to recall that the
collapse would allow the auto maker to continue straight payroll
without the unions influence, fees, dues etc.
Your opinion

[hipshot]

I have no idea how the UAW contracts will fare if any or all of the big three automakers collapse; I haven't even explored that issue (what's the point?). From what I've heard, the media has decreed (and who better to shed a little light on reality than the media?) that the real issue is the Republicans trying to break up the UAW and the Democrats trying to save the UAW (and by extension, civilization). The truth has no place in this issue; there are more important things at stake.

Anybody here conversant with the role the unions played in Colt's decline? I know..... I know....., Bush did it.

[RocknRoll]

Wow - good job Jim.  The lack of personal accountability coupled with the corruption, power and greed have destroyed the basic good that unions did decades ago.  The same can be said for corporate leaders and 100% of politicians.  Any group, big or small, will eventually fall victim to cliques and mob rule.  Perhaps that is why lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride are the seven deadly sins???

[hooter]

 Perhaps that is why lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride are the seven deadly sins???

Damn Pete, you impressed me with your knowledge of the Deadly sins until I Googled 7 deadly sins and for some reason they were listed just as you listed them and in the same order. I'm disappointed now. My hero was not the bright shining star I figured him to be. Think I'll just go get drunk(er) 

[hipshot]

Wow Pete, you sure do have a deep insight into the motivational aspects of the contemporary American labor union. Are you some kind of union boss?

[hooter]

Jim don't google "union corruption". I would but my day is already in shambles as it is. 

[hipshot]

Al, I doubt I could handle it.

Although I'd guess a higher percentage of politicians is corrupt than union leaders, I do believe that the audacity of the corrupt unioneers sways the balance to the unions. Hell, just their attitudes do that! Back in the early 70's I was welding and fitting pipe for Brown & Root. I had my welder welding out some fits and my helper grinding and beveling some cuts. I was doing the torch work. I ran out of oxygen, so I broke down the cutting rig, capped the bottle, and threw it over my shoulder (that was before I was old and decrepit). As I started toward the bottle rack, a helper who had worked in a union shop before he came out to our plant got all over me. He told me that hauling bottles was a welder's helper's job, and I was screwing the welders and fitters by setting a bad precedent (not his exact words), and I'd better put the bottle down and get a helper to do it.

We had a lot of good laughs at this poor, brainwashed moron's expense during the very short time he was employed there. I had to wonder how a union shop ever gets anything done with mindsets like that. I believe that "Thou Shalt Not Cross Crafts" was their first commandment, and worshipping at the Altar of the Union was more important than getting the job done efficiently and within a reasonable timeframe. The really sad thing is that B&R was notorious for dishonesty and cutting corners, but that union guy made them look like they had a great work ethic (and a lot of the hands DID have a great work ethic, in spite of all too often pathetic supervisors/management).

[hooter]

I had a simular incident over a fork lift when I worked on the freight docks. I couldn't believe the mindset of some of them at that time either.