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Heavy Equipment Companies
QUESTION:If a majority of workers vote to decertify, the union is gone. Thus,
workers at the plant choose to be in the union. Simple fact.Yeah, right.
The workers choose to be in the union solely because they want the job.
Your argument doesn't contradict one iota the idea that there are workers
that are forced to be in the union because they don't want to be in the
unemployment line. Saying that "workers at the plant choose to be in the
union" doesn't say that "all workers at the plant choose to be in the union"
You have a real problem with quantification. Surely there are workers
who don't want to be in the union, but they do not constitute enough
of a minority even to force a decertification election.
ANSWER: looks like Yackadamn knows about as much about organized labor
as he does about nuclear power. (interested parties --> sci.energy)
He reads a book and he's an expert. Well let's talk about unions.
I've carried a union card for both the Operating Engineers (heavy
equipment operators) and IBEW and my mom spent 15 miserable years
working for an international-level union thug.
Decertification. Even in a right to work state like Tennessee (open
shop), that is a joke. The job steward and the business agent are the
closest things there are to union.gods. Particularly in areas where
layoffs are frequent and the union has a hiring hall, if you don't kiss
the BA's ass, you don't work. Period. And on the job, if the job
steward decides you're not a reliable "brother", out you go. I got my
first job as a heavy equipment operator from a couple phone calls made
by my mom's boss. he told the TVA to put me to work and he told the
Local to issue me a card. Voila. A similar phone call could have had
me on the street just as fast. Even whispering in your sleep about
decertifying the union is enough to show you the permanent unemployment
line. Everyone from the job stew on up keeps his little black list of
people who will never work in the union again. And the International
reps who supervise the locals traffic in blacklist names to make sure
the people who get blacklisted never work again in the Union. That is,
unless he buys his card back. Going rate back in 1973 for the IUOE was
$5000 and that got split between the business agent and the
international rep. Decertification elections are few and far between
enough that most make the national news.
Or let's talk about discipline. The local union has the power to fine
members for violations agains the "brothers". A violation could be
as innocent as a bulldozer operator, helping an oiler by moving
a Gradall out of his way. His cranking that equipment that he was not
assigned to took away a job opportunity from one of his brothers according
to union logic. If one of the "brothers" complained and the job
stew wrote me up, he'd be tried before the whole local in something
amazingly reminiscent of a lynching. The business agent would read
the charges to whatever collection of brothers attended the meeting.
Then he'd give a speech inciting the crowd to a frenzy. Then the
job stew would make his speech. The accused would get a chance to speak
at the end, usually over the jeers and threats of the mob. The BA
would recommend punishment which could range from a fine to a layoff
to losing one's union card. Anyone in the mob could object, whereupon
the membership would vote on the punishment.
I never had this happen to me cuz I had "influence" but I attended a few
meetings and witnessed it happen to others. It was like a ritualized
killing except that all that got killed was a man's job and his dignity.
It was not uncommon to see a grown, middle aged man on his knees begging
for his job. Given these conditions, I challenge everyone to contemplate
Yackadamn's claim that getting rid of a union is as simple as
calling a vote and kicking them out. Riiight.
I haven't even mentioned yet the violence that comes from being a
troublemaker or worse, acting like a scab. My mom described to me the
organizational work her boss used to do to make sure the violence was
properly done so no one ever got caught. Crossing these thugs could
very well cost one his life.
What I've described is how it was in the 70s and 80s in a right-to-work
state (open shop) where one cannot be forced to join a union. I can
only imagine what it is like in closed shop states where unions can force
the company to accept a closed shop contract which precludes any non-
union workers.
This demonstrates what is so frustrating about watching the mindless
repetition of company pap in this thread or worse, such as Yackadamn,
reading a few books and acting like the expert. The problems with
the auto companies have been everything EXCEPT pay. The shadow government
that the unions constitute in closed shop states and the wasteful
work rules they force is the real problem. Don't look at salary; look
at how many of those salaries the company is forced to pay.
Consider what I as an engineer at TVA, had to do in order to have a
pressure switch calibrated. I had to have an electrician to unhook the
two wires, a pipe fitter to unhook the 1/4" tube, a sheetmetal worker to
unbolt the thing, and a teamster to carry it back to the shop where an
instrument tech would work on it. And when I boarded the elevator to go
back to the shop, an operating engineer was sitting there to push the
buttons on the ordinary automatic elevator identical to those in any
office building. I could even do my own work as long as I had all
those guys sitting around doing nothing.
We heard a union guy whining here previously that "the company" in all
its evil splendor, wanted to actually have workers do more than one
job as the work demanded. In other words, when one job worked out, the
employee would go do something else. The Union way is to have the first
guy go sit in the gang box while another, previously sitting in the box,
does the other job. This is oh so typical. Not only does it cost the
company bunches, it reduces the employee to little more than a robot.
The risk of inadvertently stepping on someone else's job description
destroys any initiative the worker may have had.
I knew my days as a union worker were over when I got called in to the boss's
office and chewed out for the 3rd time for working too hard. The boss and
the job stewart sat on one side of the table and I was on the other.
The complaint was that I was making my "brothers" (engineers, remember)
look bad. Unfortunately most people just fold and draw their checks.
Oh, I guess I could have decertified the union, at least according to
Yackadamn. Sure I could.
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