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Unions - Good or bad?

degsme

Council Member
hmm I'll type slowly.

Texas and other weak union states LAG average per capital GDP creation. IOW the LACK of unions is hurting those economies....

And for anyone who understands economics, this comes as No surprise....

I typed slowly... do you understand now?
 
so? You get fleeced at union shops for trade shows so this means all unions are bad and we should just do away with them...typical right wing response to a complicated question. When I think of unions, I think of the trades. Union workers in the trades are more educated, more skilled and more experienced at what they do. They are also more dependable. Think of the pipe fitters union. Do you know what a pipe fitter is? My brother in law is a 30 year member of the pipe fitters union just like his dad was before him. He works in missile silos, hospitals, university labs, oil refineries, chemical plants and all sorts of extremely dangerous places where the slightest error in his work could blow the place up or send the wrong gas or chemical to the wrong spot. He is being trained by his union constantly. Or how about the masons union? Ever watch an hombre build a wall or a brick building? Go to Acapulco and let me know how safe you feel in the thousands of condos and buildings they build down there with cheap unskilled labor. Built a house lately with the cheapest framers and carpenters? You get what you pay for.
 

degsme

Council Member
Heya, again I am really not saying the middle class should take a bath. I agree that our pay differences between execs and workers are way too extreme right now (highest, by far in the world). My post questions the negatives of unions, and even if you fully support unions, you must be able to see the other side as well in cases of low production and also attractiveness of jobs in the states vs. overseas. The guys in the gym were my examples, and like I said to MA, I understand this isn't always the case.
Except Dave you
  1. Don't know the guys in the gym were Union
  2. Don't know what the SLA in the gym was
  3. Don't really have an example of unions at all
And you are using in particular an industry in which workers currently have an incentive to stretch every gig to its maximum.

By complaining about unions in this setting and the Lost Wages COMDEX setting, you very much are talking about having the middle class take a bath. Odds are actually that the Gym guys ARE NOT UNION. And that is what gives them the incentive to stretch every hour interminably.
 
if only folks like Dave could get as worked up about executive perks and pay as they do about some poor schmo at the lower end of the pay scale...then he may have some legs to stand on here. But alas, folks that focus on union pay are really more worried about peers getting a better deal than they are about their superiors fleecing them like sheep. Inherent in this hatred of unions by most right wingers is an unformed bias within their class against anyone having a better life. They could care less that most of the truly outrageous compensation goes to the top because they truly believe that they are not their equals much like a serf thought the lord actually deserved to take all his crops. At the core of this insane view of our economy is the myth that we live in a meritocracy that rewards hard work and skill on a scale based upon compensation. The more money you earn, the smarter you are, the better you are and so on and so on. That is at the heart of the right wings fantasy about our nation. They cannot fathom how a CEO can get a golden parachute despite the company going under but they sure can see that union guy making 30 bucks an hour sitting on his butt in the corner of the trade show.
 

degsme

Council Member
if only folks like Dave could get as worked up about executive perks and pay as they do about some poor schmo at the lower end of the pay scale...then he may have some legs to stand on here. But alas, folks that focus on union pay are really more worried about peers getting a better deal than they are about their superiors fleecing them like sheep.
2 years ago in the midst of massive layoffs at my company - I expected the EVC (Executive Variable Compensation) to come in at zero... It was a whopping 30% bonus.
 
I go to vegas for trade shows every year. Other than the one I went to at Encore, we get good rates and decent service at every event. Vegas is a great venue for trade shows. The food alone is worth the trip and when you are on an expense account, who cares what it costs? Waiter...more champagne please.
 
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