What's your opinion?
 

Unions or no unions! Unions help workers,no unions help company execs...Who deserves a decent pay check? What are your opinions?

The only bad thing about a union is everyone makes the same pay. You work your butt off and the slacker next to you pulls the same paycheck. Doesn't sound fair to me. I work in a "Merit" shop company. Your paid based on performance. They treat people very well here. I wouldn't consider a union because management treats it's people very well. Just my opinion where I am now.

Thanks lucky. Some companies don't care about their employees. Your a "lucky" one.

as far as being paid the same..... in my case we are qualified electricians...... if we have a special skill of some sort.... we can get extra money.... as far as the slackers...... as a foreman i give them their pink slip.... dont need them.... hour pay for hour worked....

if it wasnt for unions we would still be working for peanuts..for long hours.... and in poor conditions. we have come a long way... yes there are those who make a bad name for unions......

there are some great companies that have GREAT executives that take care of their employees...non union even.... but they are far between. i know of local company that the kids took over, and they got so greedy and they didnt take care of the employees... like their dad did..... tis a shame.... that all people can think of are where they can squeeze another dime out of someone else....

I know of a company (a non union) that the CEO got 5 million dollars as severence pay, and he knew they were shutting down a warehouse, and he was asked what should we say when we give them last check say " welp thats the way it is" and was laughing about it,,...

mho ...... he got his money didnt care for any one else .....Most of those exec type dont care for any of there employees they just look out for them selves...

Fairfax plant here...... on strike dont care about those who work and put there cars together....... companies imo could get rid of some dead weight in the white collar area......

But there are GOOD and BAD in both....union and non union........

I work for a union company and the thing that bugs me is that most people think it`s about money. Yes, I do make a good wage and benefits but i have been with the company 22 years also. Where the union benefits me is when management makes bad decisions they can`t push it off on the hourly workers when the **** hits the fan. I have had a few occasions were a steward and I have met with a mgr trying to discipline me for something that went wrong and the union will turn it around and give it right back to them and point out it was mgmts bad decision and not my work that led to the problem. We`ll get up and walk out and thats the end of it.

Unlike non union business I cannot be forced to work without pay or overtime,cannot be forced to do a job I have not been trained on(safety issue),cannot be forced to work unsafely,break the law,etc. I have found that most people who dislike a union has never worked a job that needed one. Many jobs are better,even non-union,because of jobs in the past that were union.

I have worked in the union construction trades for 18 yrs now. I have been a superintendent for a contractor and have sat on the executive board of the union. All I can say is that they both have pros and cons. I think that alot of union members have lost sight of what a union craftsman is supposed to represent, quality work for good pay. I am a second generation union member and when I got my start, you learned your craft and performed your job to the best of your ability. I have seen my share of slackers hide behind their union card and that is the worst "con" that there is. Every union that I know of has a set of bi-laws and contained in those bi-laws are rights and responsabilities. Many members forget the later of the two. The pros are a safer work enviroment, good pay and benefits, and for those of us who work in the construction trades where you may work for several companies in a year, a centralized body to keep pension and insurance funds instead of trying to track them from company to company. I guess the bottom line here is................union wages are paying for this HHR

I think, being pro-union, that the unions should get back to their original reason for being, and forget all the other BS. I agree with most everything in the previous posts. The company runs the business, the union makes sure it is safe and fairly run. Ditch the slackers, they lose jobs for whole plants! In both the white collar and blue collar world. I also think it's a shame that an institution (the union) had to come about because everyone would not "play nice". Go ahead, make a billion dollars, but remember those who toiled to get it for you, and share.

Actually, non-union companies can't make you do those things either. There are too many laws on the books, and lawyers in practice, that protect workers from situations like this. I've been a maintenance supervisor now for over 20 years and would be fired immediately if I tried to make my employess do any of these things.

"saints"....as I remember, and I may be mistaken, but FEDERAL LABOR LAW, OSHA, etc. prevents may of these situations from occuring in NON-Unionized facilities/companies.

Your last sentence probably says it all.......Unions in the past suported the worker. Not to sure about today. Seen to many bad things happen that unions supported. But it also goes the other way.....companies do, well you know, etc. etc.

In 1994, I wrote a research paper in college stating that unions were very important at one time but they ruined themselves with excessive benefits and job protection. Now federal and state laws protect workers as good or better than the unions ever did. Big business is slowing eliminating unions by sending work overseas, a move they'll regret in the long run. Sending your only manufacturing plant to a foreign country with limited laws and questionable government is never a good move.

Now that I work in a non-union state, I wish I had union craftsmen building my home. The quality of work down here is appauling and nothing gets done on time. Our newspaper printed a picture of a home with the brick wall bowing out from the interior wall. The bricklayer was either too lazy or too cheap to install those little metal straps that would hold the brick in place for a lifetime. I have exhaust fans in my bathrooms that blow into the attic instead of through the roof. All that does is dampan the wood and draw termites!