On Strike!

[665ae]

Well...

The UAW is on strike with Chrysler.  Looks like I'm going to have a little unexpected vacation   I don't have to hit the picket lines until tomorrow...

So... what multitool would be the best for picketing?   

[Grant Lamontagne]

Good luck Mikey- my wife was on strike for 5 month a couple of years ago.  It's hard stuff to get used to, and make sure you keep your nose clean on the picket line.  I remember when CAW went on strike here a number of years ago, things got pretty violent on the lines a few times and we (security) had to seriously hurt some folks.

If poo hits the fan, stand back because strike security and line breakers aren't hired for their even tempers.

Def

[665ae]

Damn... my strike lasted a whole 4 hours... I didn't even get to enjoy it!

Looks like I'm back to work tomorrow... grr... (I was looking forward to a couple days off )

[J-sews]

Bummer.    Oh well, there's always next year...

[Grant Lamontagne]

Take a few days off and tell them no one informed you that a decision was reached!

Sorry you lost your vacation, but I'm glad to hear you are going to be ok.  When Kim went on strike we lost about $17,000 for the year in lost wages alone, and the union treated them much worse than the company ever could, but then who do you complain to when the union treats you like smurf?

I worked a few strikes back in the day, and the postal strike and CAW strikes were the worst.  Making it even worse is the cops are unionized, and so they look the other way when picketers start breaking laws.  The longer a strike lasts, the less anyone wins.

Def

[665ae]

One of the nice things about working where I do (commonly referred to thruout the corporation as "the country club") is we don't have to deal with a lot of the stuff the big plants have to deal with.  When I was down "on the picket line" yesterday everyone was calm, there were no police in sight, and "plant security" was hanging out on the other side of the fence having conversations with the picketers.  Plus, at the height of the picketing, I think we had maybe 40 people spread out among 5 gates.  Hell, the back gate where I spent a little time had 3 guys at it.  When I got there they had already put up a canopy, had a radio and some chairs, and someone had brought a Grill and they were getting ready to make lunch...

[Grant Lamontagne]

Nice.  When I went to the CAW lines I was part of a small team (5 officers) escorting executives in and out of the building and got to deal with picketers who needed 2x4's to hold up those heavy cardboard signs.  There were 5 of us and usually about 15-20 of them, and they were usually pretty well worked up by the time we got there.  Picket captains can be a wonderful thing... 

So, since we were outnumbered and were responsible for the safety of others, not to mention wanting to go home with our own skulls intact, we hit them hard when they came for us.  Have to put them down so they don't get up again too.  Some of those guys will never work again as a result, which is a bad thing all around, and there's no reason for it.

Kim's union was pretty pushy when they were on strike.  No bbq's, they weren't allowed to sit, they weren't allowed to trade their picket shifts with others (which was a real pain as many had to get part time jobs to make ends meet) and they had to carry their signs at all times.  If they were caught breaking any of those rules, they lost a week's worth of strike pay.  I hate to think what the union would say if the company tried to be that pushy!

Worst part is, these folks are used to a much nicer atmosphere- more often than not, the company has pizza, donuts, coffee or other treats waiting for people when they get into the office.  Terrible working conditions I tell you....

Def

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

Worst part is, these folks are used to a much nicer atmosphere- more often than not, the company has pizza, donuts, coffee or other treats waiting for people when they get into the office.  Terrible working conditions I tell you....

Def

Are they recruiting ;D

[Grant Lamontagne]

Yes well I have spoken to some folks that work there and all they can do is complain about the deplorable way they are treated.  One woman told me once that she'd been there for 27 years and only had three good managers in that time.  I pointed out that after 27 years of doing the job, she should be well past the manager stage, because you have to be pretty stupid to be at the entry level position after almost three decades.

Ungrateful sow.  I used to have guards working for me that had been working out of the same office for as long as I was alive, and still making $7/hour.  This twit I was talking to got regular raises and was making a small fortune for what a kid coming straight out of school should be doing for half the money.

Def

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

Yes well I have spoken to some folks that work there and all they can do is complain about the deplorable way they are treated.  One woman told me once that she'd been there for 27 years and only had three good managers in that time.  I pointed out that after 27 years of doing the job, she should be well past the manager stage, because you have to be pretty stupid to be at the entry level position after almost three decades.

Ungrateful sow.  I used to have guards working for me that had been working out of the same office for as long as I was alive, and still making $7/hour.  This twit I was talking to got regular raises and was making a small fortune for what a kid coming straight out of school should be doing for half the money.

Def

Some people are never bloody happy though

When I was supervising, there were always those people who had been in the job too long, and were so lazy and complacent, it used to frustrate the hell out of me, but it's so damn hard to fire people over here

[CQC-7]

When the steel mill went on strike back here a few years ago it lasted for well over a year.  It was so long that the local pizza shop decided that they would have "strike night" where striking workers would go and show their ID badge and get a tray of pizza for about half the cost it normally would have been so they could feed the family.  People were selling their boats and new trucks left and right.  It was awful for the area that I lived in.  The mills have never recovered and they are shutting down one after another.

[Grant Lamontagne]

I am not a union guy, and I never will be.  I'd hate for any union members here to think I am beating on them, but it all boils down to unions being the antithesis to growth and evolution.  When entry level workers get paid exorbitant sums for their skill in being so skill-less that they can't improve themselves, costs of the final product or service go up.  When it comes to products especially, there are always folks that are happy to do it cheaper, and that's why manufacturers are moving plants to Mexico, China, Pakistan etc.

My wife makes $25/hour to answer the phone all day.  The non union call centers around here pay $10/hour to start (not a great wage, but significantly better than McDonalds or retail) for the same work.  Consider that there are 1,800 people employed by my wife's company in our province, which means that a private call center could easily have 4,500 folks providing better service to the customers for the same money.  Probably at least 20,000 people if they moved the call center to India.

Then, the overpriced workers go on strike, complaining that there's no job security any more.  Welcome to Planet Earth people!   

Def

[665ae]

I am not a union guy, and I never will be.  I'd hate for any union members here to think I am beating on them, but it all boils down to unions being the antithesis to growth and evolution.  When entry level workers get paid exorbitant sums for their skill in being so skill-less that they can't improve themselves, costs of the final product or service go up.  When it comes to products especially, there are always folks that are happy to do it cheaper, and that's why manufacturers are moving plants to Mexico, China, Pakistan etc.

My wife makes $25/hour to answer the phone all day.  The non union call centers around here pay $10/hour to start (not a great wage, but significantly better than McDonalds or retail) for the same work.  Consider that there are 1,800 people employed by my wife's company in our province, which means that a private call center could easily have 4,500 folks providing better service to the customers for the same money.  Probably at least 20,000 people if they moved the call center to India.

Then, the overpriced workers go on strike, complaining that there's no job security any more.  Welcome to Planet Earth people!  

Def

I guess I don't understand how me wanting job security is a bad thing, or how complaining about a lack of job security is a bad thing. 

I think the biggest problem in business (and with people in general) is the absolute focus on profit with no concern for how you get it.   With that kind of mindset I can see how Unions would be a horrible thing.

Why is it that I, as a Union member, am being portrayed as a lazy, overpaid, underskilled worker who's bringing down the company because I won't let them do whatever the hell they want with my job?

Former Chrysler CEO Tom Lasorda received somewhere in the neighborhood of $3 million dollars in bonuses in 2006 while the company lost money.  Other Executives at Chrysler made quite a bit too, even though they were managing a company that was losing money.   Yet, I still hear about how it's the overpaid workers that are bringing the company down.  How many people in India could they have hired for what they paid in bonuses to the Executives? 
 

[Grant Lamontagne]

I am not suggesting that you are a lazy, overpaid, underskilled worker who is bringing down the company.  It's not a personal thing, and you are absolutely right that the upper management is also part of the problem.  $3 million dollars is a hell of a lot of Neons.

Job security is a thing of the past these days.  Unfortunate, but true, and everyone has to realize that sooner or later.  Some jobs are still more secure than others, but no company can guarantee X number of years anymore.  Look at how many big, stable companies have bit the big one in the last ten years.  Nortel should have never gone under, and being firmly entrenched in one of the fastest growing markets, telecommunications, should not have been able to go under, but they did.

They could have bought India for what they paid to those executives, I agree.  That's the problem with putting kids in charge of the cookie jar.  Our local politicians just voted themselves a 21% raise because they felt they'd earned it.  No one else did, but we weren't given a vote.

That is also the sign of a problem in the company.  The rats are trying to make certain they have a good ship hand to go to in case theirs does indeed sink fast.  By paying themselves huge bonuses, they not only pad their nest egg, but they also create important points to put on their resumes when they get to the next ship.  If the bosses are seeing the company in trouble, it seems like they would be a poor choice to start complaining to about job security.  Any agreements they make are bound to go under if the company does, leaving you guys flat on your butts.

And, on a personal note, I think I've gotten to know you well enough over the past year or so Mikey, that you don't seem like the type that would have any job issues to worry about.  If the effort you have put into helping this site is any indication of what you are like at work, I doubt that you would be in danger of being let go if there were any choices in the matter.  You seem to know what you are doing, and you put effort into it, and enjoy yourself as much as you can while doing it.  This seems like a good reason why you are in "The Country Club"- I don;t imagine goos assignments like that are handed out at random to any schmoe who walks through the door.

The point is, you have managed to build yourself into a worthy asset, which is what business is about, not paying someone $60/hour to bend sheet metal.

Def

[znapschatz]

I am not a union guy, and I never will be.  I'd hate for any union members here to think I am beating on them, but it all boils down to unions being the antithesis to growth and evolution.  When entry level workers get paid exorbitant sums for their skill in being so skill-less that they can't improve themselves, costs of the final product or service go up.  When it comes to products especially, there are always folks that are happy to do it cheaper, and that's why manufacturers are moving plants to Mexico, China, Pakistan etc.

My wife makes $25/hour to answer the phone all day.  The non union call centers around here pay $10/hour to start (not a great wage, but significantly better than McDonalds or retail) for the same work.  Consider that there are 1,800 people employed by my wife's company in our province, which means that a private call center could easily have 4,500 folks providing better service to the customers for the same money.  Probably at least 20,000 people if they moved the call center to India.

Then, the overpriced workers go on strike, complaining that there's no job security any more.  Welcome to Planet Earth people!   

Def

I am a Union man, and always will be.  By your own admission, you have beaten on some to the point of crippling them.  I don't associate with company thugs.  Goodbye. 

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

Guys let's try and keep politics out of this, It's something that no two people can agree on so how about we leave it there ok