I now have the "right to work"

#1
So it's the law now for better or worse here in michigan, the newest right to work state.

I dont think the work places will become dangerous over night or at all in the future.
I can always call MIOSHA out to the jobsite if they try to force me into an unsafe work situation, never going to happen at my company since they preach "safety safety safety" and if someone gets hurt the internal investigations are brutal.

I myself have no respect for the unions after belonging to one where the president was under indictment and the other did nothing for us except raise our dues while they lost our benefits and left us with no pay raises over 8 years.

I wonder how it will be at a job with mixed union/non-union employees, I can see problems cropping up.

Back in the day when unions were started/needed they were great and did a lot of good to make jobs safer with better pay but now they just take the members money and turn around and tell the members who to vote for.

You'd be hard pressed to get me to allow a union back into my wallet.
 
#2
Ya You lucky dogs , That Law and a dollar will buy you a cup of coffee

We have been a Right To Work State for 63 years and it hasn't done crap for us but keep low paying jobs around for people to work at :shrug::eek:ut:
 
#3
Yeah I dont know how it will affect pay although I am making more at a non-union company doing basically the same job as before but all that came about before this law so it doesnt really count I suppose.

My personal experience with unions, just little unions you know like the "UAW" and the "TEAMSTERS" and the "AFLCIO" (you may have heard of them) has been far far less than a good experience for me.
They say timing is everything so I must just have bad timing is all.

The AFLCIO treated us so badly that when it came time to vote if we the remaining members wanted the union back (after losing our jobs to privatization), 29 out of the 30 that actually showed up at the meeting voted it down.They were lieing to us at that meeting, a few of us stayed around to discuss some things (me being one) and the union prez finally had to admit he was wrong on a few pionts.

Its not about representing the people as much as it is taking the money and telling people who and what to vote for.

I never did like being told "YOU HAVE TO JOIN THE UNION" but I see problems in a mixed work place if there are any.

Time will tell if it was the right thing for michigan or not.
 
#4
I am not pro union I also have had problems with unions , but I am not against what they first stood for just what they have become today .
 

GSbiker

Active Member
#7
I have been on both sides. Worked for the railroad during college. That lasted about three months before I got bumped. Somebody else wanted my job and he had more seniority. So that experience started to form my opinion of unions. It's not what you know but how long you have been on the job. Bad logic in my opinion. I pity any business owner that has to live with it.

Then in the early 2000's I worked for a telephone company. In that position I had responsibility for 400+ union folks on the wireline side and 200+ on the wireless side. The union guys were a bunch of crybabies with the "it's not in my job description" attitude. The wireless guys didn't have that restriction and just got the job done. They made more money and were a happier bunch.

Currently I own a small business employing about 20 people. Everybody is on salary and work the hours they need to get the job done. As the owner I enjoy the ability to hire whoever I want to best get the job done. Plus, employee compensation is negotiated between me and the employee. If we can't come to terms they can go somewhere else. It is my business after all.
 
#10
I work in a right to work state. I've had no problems with it. It just comes down to the Company you work for. I work for one that looks after their people. I've not worked for a union and have no desire to either. My Brother has and still has a union card, he has never had a good thing to say about them. He pays his dues and recieves nothing. I think those that do a good job will be fine, the ones that don't and cause trouble will be sent packing. Personally I think that's the way it should be!
 
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buckeye

Well-Known Member
#11
Well it is his business.

Oh, not complaining about the small business owner. Agree, but, fireing someone who has a stellar job record so you can pay someone less, doesn't seem right. Again, owners discretion and they have the right to do as they please.:thumbsup:
 
#12
I am not pro union I also have had problems with unions , but I am not against what they first stood for just what they have become today .
I agree 110% with this statement. I worked for a small but great company in NY for many years. One day they were sucked up by another company and I was forced into the CWA. Total nightmare.. As far as I'm concerned all they did was take my money and tell me when to strike. I loved the field and area I worked tried to tough it out for as long as possible. One year we were told to strike which lasted for 25 days then just a few years later it was 17 WEEKS! After that I found another job and said never again.

The company I worked for pre-buy out promoted and gave bonuses purely on performance. If you worked hard and did a good job the sky was the limit. The promotions and bonuses really did drive people to do their best. After the buy-out and conversion to CWA none of that stuff mattered. It was all seniority and the buddy system. Many people were untouchable even when you tried to go through the appropriate channels. Needless to say performance was no longer rewarded and the company aquired "dead weight" at a alarming rate.

Lots of good people were disgusted and left. Several former employees started their own consulting business which aquired many former customers that were out of contract. After that various elements in the union did everything they could to cause problems. Stuff like threatening mutual suppliers with the loss of large purchase contracts if they continued to supplied the new company, berating and chastising the customers who moved as being anti-union therefore anti-american and some even sent death threats to the employees who started the new company. Real sick stuff like taking pictures of their kids on the way to school and mailing them with threats. So much for the free market...

Anyways this was just my experience. Everything occured in the mid 80's to early 00's.
 
#13
Any legislators trying to pass a law taking away the rights of corporate CEO's to negotiate their over-stuffed salary and stock option packages?

Nope
 

TomH

New Member
#14
You just got screwed. It has been right to work for years around here. American airlines still managed to go broke while wiping out working peoples pensions and wages, while the ceo got a 3.8 million bonus. company I worked for had paid sick day pay, a day a month. stressful job, you could take it or save it up for when you quit or retired. without union's ability to strike, they started writing you up if you took off, so you couldn't even take off like a non union job without getting a penalty. Then they took away the accumulated days so people with good attendance lost all of their time, some had over a year of sick pay due them. What most people who don't have a union don't know is that your non union company is competing with unions to pay a decent wage to get and keep good employees. You will see the bottom drop out of good wages and you can forget decent benefits. It won't happen all at once, but give it five years, you will be looking around wondering what happened and why you are making less than you were five years ago. I hope you have better luck without the unions influences than what has happened in Oklahoma.
 

rmm727

Active Member
#15
There are both good and bad sides to having a union. Job safety and yearly wages are a plus. Are there some that still get raises or have been protected from being fired even though they are useless? Sure are. No system is perfect. If an employee could be certain they would be treated fairly and receive benefits and raises, there wouldn't be a need. We have "fair share" which means if you are in the union or not, you still pay most of the dues. The union negotiated your pay using their resources/lawyers. Its a tax write off anyways.
 
#16
Oh, not complaining about the small business owner. Agree, but, fireing someone who has a stellar job record so you can pay someone less, doesn't seem right. Again, owners discretion and they have the right to do as they please.:thumbsup:
Buckeye...You got that right,seen it happen to some people ready to retire.
 
#17
When I was young the local carpenters union picketed one of our jobs, apparently they had nothing else to do. They sat at a card table all day playing poker while their signs were leaning up against a tree. The tires on our forklift and truck were slashed, materials were stolen, and to top it off a few of them kept leaving to go do "side" jobs (which I can only assume were not reported to the hall or had dues paid on that income). That was my first experience with unions, unfortunately it never got any better.
 
#18
Oh, not complaining about the small business owner. Agree, but, fireing someone who has a stellar job record so you can pay someone less, doesn't seem right. Again, owners discretion and they have the right to do as they please.:thumbsup:
I own a small business and can tell you, I would never replace a productive employee for a lower paid new one. That's just bad business. :scared:
 
#19
My Dad worked at GM Fisher 1 in 1936 as a foreman when the union took root, he could see both side as GM treated their employees like crap and safety was non-existant, he saw many arms and other parts ripped off over unsafe machinery but up to almost the 70's he saw the union take on a thug mentality. he retired in 67 from GM Fisher in Grand Rapids and back than the plant ran 24 hours a day 7 days a week - last year the GM plant in Grand Rapids was torn down after 75 years of production, gee I would have taken a pay cut to save my job any day. In Indianapolis same thing they wouldn't take a pay cut so GM shut it down. Hostess bakery shutting down because of union wage demands. I don't know the answer because I also look at the top where the big shots get million $$$ bonuses, but also look at the colleges same thing the top people getting million $$$ to deferred comp plans than cash to pay the taxes. I guess with the unions I don't like the chicago thug mentality where if you disagree with them they beat you up. And what gives with busing union people in from other states what do they have to do with Michigan's economy. Oh and what the hell does obama have stirring up trouble by going to Detroit and acting like a union thug !
 
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