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#1
11-24-2007, 03:11 PM
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My Dad\'s [censored] Union
My Dad is part of the teamsters union. He drives a truck for Thomas's english muffins. Tommorrow they will likely go on strike and I'm pretty sure that the new owner is going to break the strike and fire them.
Well, my Dad has a really good job. He makes a lot of money and has great benefits considering the kind of job he has. Generally I can't think of anyone who would ever want to lose thier job. How did we get here? Well they were supposed to vote on a five year contract. Everyone from NYC, NJ, and Conneticute was suppose to meet at the union building in Manhatten to vote on it. My Dad showed up, but most of the people from his depot were "too busy" to vote on the contract for the next five years of thier lives. As a result the meeting was dominated by people from the NY depot. We were offered a really good contract. I'm not going to go into details, but to give you an idea the increases in medical benefits were 15%, 13%, and 10% for the first three years. My Dad was pleasently surprised by the contract, and accepting it should be a no-brainer. However, the people in NY don't like thier new depot manager. So much so they decided they will vote down every single contract until he is fired. The union leader tried to explain to them that the contract was over pay and benefits, and that grievences with a manager had to be filed seperately and dealt with as a seperate process. They didn't care and they voted down the contract (the only union under this companies management to do so under the terms of that contract. every other depot wasn't retarded). Tommorrow they are supposed to vote on a new contract. Pissed off at how retarded they were the company has made them a new offer. No benefits or pay increases at all in any year. Obviously, they are going to vote this down and strike. In previous years strikes worked because the company was fairly small and the strike was a threat. Now it is owned by a large multi national that will probably absorb the strike and hire scabs. I'm just really pissed the hell off. These guys have good union jobs where they are making three times what they would make if they lose thier jobs. But they were too [censored] lazy to show up or too [censored] stupid to think with thier heads. 
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#2
11-24-2007, 03:21 PM
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Re: My Dad\'s [censored] Union
That's really absurd. I am sorry to hear about your father's situation.
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#4
11-24-2007, 03:31 PM
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Re: My Dad\'s [censored] Union
[ QUOTE ]
What does your dad think about the situation? Don't worry about your dad. Its very ususual for companies to hire permanent replacements for established unions. [/ QUOTE ] It seems like in a case like this that leaving the union should be seriously considered. I think remaining in a union that is not able to represent your best interests would be counter productive, but I have no idea what the realities are for working in this business without a union.
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#5
11-24-2007, 03:43 PM
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Re: My Dad\'s [censored] Union
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] What does your dad think about the situation? Don't worry about your dad. Its very ususual for companies to hire permanent replacements for established unions. [/ QUOTE ] It seems like in a case like this that leaving the union should be seriously considered. I think remaining in a union that is not able to represent your best interests would be counter productive, but I have no idea what the realities are for working in this business without a union. [/ QUOTE ] My Dad will never leave the union. He is a huge union guy. He hates the way his union is acting, but he will never ever ever cross a picket line. My family has a long union history. My grandfather was a union organizer and a card carrying communist when he was young. My Dad will go down with the union, even if losing his job means he doesn't have a shot in hell of getting the diabetes treatment he needs. What annoys the hell out of me and him is that the people from his depot didn't even show up. They had 150 drivers that were supposed to show up and only 64 did, most of them from NY. How in the hell does someone decide they don't have the time to show up to vote on a contract that will effect the next 5 years of thier live. They are not skilled workers. They drive a [censored] truck. They are gonna go from 80,000/year jobs with health and retirement benefits to 30,000/year jobs with no benefits if they blow this. How can you not show up to vote on that contract?
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#7
11-24-2007, 11:34 PM
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Re: My Dad\'s [censored] Union
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] [ QUOTE ] What does your dad think about the situation? Don't worry about your dad. Its very ususual for companies to hire permanent replacements for established unions. [/ QUOTE ] It seems like in a case like this that leaving the union should be seriously considered. I think remaining in a union that is not able to represent your best interests would be counter productive, but I have no idea what the realities are for working in this business without a union. [/ QUOTE ] My Dad will never leave the union. He is a huge union guy. He hates the way his union is acting, but he will never ever ever cross a picket line. My family has a long union history. My grandfather was a union organizer and a card carrying communist when he was young. My Dad will go down with the union, even if losing his job means he doesn't have a shot in hell of getting the diabetes treatment he needs. [/ QUOTE ] Sounds more like your dad joined a cult than a union.
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#8
11-25-2007, 05:06 AM
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Re: My Dad\'s [censored] Union
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] [ QUOTE ] [ QUOTE ] What does your dad think about the situation? Don't worry about your dad. Its very ususual for companies to hire permanent replacements for established unions. [/ QUOTE ] It seems like in a case like this that leaving the union should be seriously considered. I think remaining in a union that is not able to represent your best interests would be counter productive, but I have no idea what the realities are for working in this business without a union. [/ QUOTE ] My Dad will never leave the union. He is a huge union guy. He hates the way his union is acting, but he will never ever ever cross a picket line. My family has a long union history. My grandfather was a union organizer and a card carrying communist when he was young. My Dad will go down with the union, even if losing his job means he doesn't have a shot in hell of getting the diabetes treatment he needs. [/ QUOTE ] Sounds more like your dad joined a cult than a union. [/ QUOTE ] It sounds to me like his dad has principles.
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#9
11-25-2007, 06:17 PM
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Re: My Dad\'s [censored] Union
[ QUOTE ]
They drive a [censored] truck. They are gonna go from 80,000/year jobs with health and retirement benefits to 30,000/year jobs with no benefits if they blow this. How can you not show up to vote on that contract? [/ QUOTE ] I'm reminded of a Simpsons line: "Can't somebody else do it?" Not to say that your whole story sounds like BS, but... I don't know how else to phrase that. The NY guys don't like their depot manager so they're going to willing lose $80k/year jobs over it? That's so completely logical that I'm sure there's nothing else going on in that situation.
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#10
11-26-2007, 01:48 AM
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Re: My Dad\'s [censored] Union
[ QUOTE ]
My Dad will go down with the union, even if losing his job means he doesn't have a shot in hell of getting the diabetes treatment he needs. [/ QUOTE ] He's not going down with the union, he's going down with a few morons who are risking their jobs (and the jobs of their fellow union members) because their new boss is a pain in the ass. A union is made up of people. It's not a thing that deserves loyalty in and of itself. If the people in the union all start acting like idiots, it may be time to rethink one's loyalties.
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