Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Current Events
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Closed Thread Start New Thread
 
Old 11-03-2017, 01:58 PM
 
2,362 posts, read 1,909,706 times
Reputation: 4719

Advertisements

Quote:
Originally Posted by 17thAndK View Post
Unions should be the default -- i.e., legally mandated in any business with more than some basic number of employees.
no

 
Old 11-03-2017, 02:06 PM
 
2,362 posts, read 1,909,706 times
Reputation: 4719
Quote:
Originally Posted by 17thAndK View Post
Simple surgery. Very effective. But it can take a long time for the nerves to grow back if you try to be macho-manly-dude and let things go too long.
lmao
I had carpel tunnel release surgery Friday
returned to work Monday with no issues
engineer on computer all day

insurance covered it all

didn't need a union for any of that
 
Old 11-03-2017, 02:10 PM
 
2,362 posts, read 1,909,706 times
Reputation: 4719
Quote:
Originally Posted by dijkstra View Post
I would like to hear your explanation of what led to the downfall of the auto industry in Detroit. lol

I have family that worked for GM and Chrysler. It was interesting to hear some of them talk about how bad the company treated them and they weren't paid enough....blah blah blah. They had the best benefits you could have and they were making more than the engineers. I can remember as a teenager thinking these people are going to lose their jobs one day when the companies finally get fed up and move the factories somewhere else. Guess what happened. lol
I am an engineer in the auto industry...live in Detroit burbs and you are spot on
someone sweeping the floor or emptying trash cans on the plant floor making more than engineers

I worked in robotics for a while and I delighted in replacing $25+ an hour bolt turners with robots who didn't smoke crack or strike
 
Old 11-03-2017, 02:28 PM
 
Location: Texas
3,251 posts, read 2,531,454 times
Reputation: 3122
Quote:
Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady View Post
I know someone personally who spent a huge chunk of his retirement to keep his business going far past when it should have been shut down just because he didn't want his employees (several of whom would have difficulty getting work and had high medical costs due to pre-existing conditions and depended on the insurance provided by the business) to lose their jobs. Finally had to close it down. But the employees, in spite of being told how bad things were, were never told that part. Funnily enough, no union was involved in making him do that. If there had been, chances are very good that the business would have had to be closed down and those people lost their jobs far before they did.
Why would business have been worse just because his employees would be union?

Our contractors enjoy the flexibility in being able to hire and lay off as much as suits their business. Since we're required to have training, and licensing our contractors don't have to put any resources into hiring and interviewing. Man up when work is booming, layoff when things slow down. No reason to take anything personal.

All the members retain their benefits, and our health insurance has an hours bank that can last up to 6 months of being laid off before switching to COBRA. We also don't have to renegotiate our minimum wage when we start working with another company. Not everybody gets a gold star, the good guys get raises, or a company truck, or promoted to foreman, or even into management.

You guys seemed to have a closed view about unions. We're all capitalists here, unions are just a great way for the working class to get a piece of the pie.

Think of it as the Chamber of Commerce but for employees instead of the business owners.
 
Old 11-03-2017, 02:56 PM
 
9,891 posts, read 11,686,029 times
Reputation: 22085
One reason he may have closed when the one facility voted to go union.

Company has been losing money every year. Some employees want more money to work there, and other costly to the owner benefits. It would just have accelerated the amount of money the owner was loosing.

It could have been the straw that broke the back as they say, and much less chance the company could ever be profitable.

So he just closed down, rather than lose even more money due to union demands.

As to doing away with past stories, to keep them available he would have to be keeping his web sites, and that costs money. Do away with those websites is the sensible thing to do, as he wanted to quit taking money out of his pocket to keep the companies, why should anyone expect him to keep up the website after he was no longer in business.
 
Old 11-03-2017, 03:12 PM
 
2,376 posts, read 2,901,562 times
Reputation: 2253
Quote:
Originally Posted by lucky2balive View Post
I am an engineer in the auto industry...live in Detroit burbs and you are spot on
someone sweeping the floor or emptying trash cans on the plant floor making more than engineers

I worked in robotics for a while and I delighted in replacing $25+ an hour bolt turners with robots who didn't smoke crack or strike
An engineer for the Big 3 will not make less than a janitor on the plant floor unless maybe they are just starting out of college or something. A janitor will not get yearly raises and/or promotions like an engineer can if they are good enough.

An engineer also has as much upside potential to earn as much money as their talent will allow. You could be an Engineering Supervisor, Manager or the CEO if you were good enough. A janitor isn't going anywhere near those levels most likely.

I am not pro-union but some of you have some crazy thoughts about all of that.
 
Old 11-03-2017, 03:13 PM
 
23,177 posts, read 12,069,618 times
Reputation: 29347
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cheesesteak Cravings View Post
Why would business have been worse just because his employees would be union?
I doubt they were unionizing because they wanted payroll and benefits to remain the same, much less be reduced. So the safe bet is that labor expenses would have increased, and expenses were already exceeding incomes.
 
Old 11-03-2017, 03:52 PM
 
9,891 posts, read 11,686,029 times
Reputation: 22085
Quote:
Originally Posted by 17thAndK View Post
Unions should be the default -- i.e., legally mandated in any business with more than some basic number of employees.
That type of thinking is so 50s, when unions were strong.

Today outside government, only 8% or less of private business are unionized jobs. And the numbers are shrinking fast. No one except a socialist wants unions today. I belonged to Retail Clerks Union back in the 50s, when selling furniture. Both times they owner signed us up for the union as they thought putting a Union Sign by the front door would help get business. One was a chain of stores, and the business paid our union dues. Second one was the major store for sales volume in the San Jose area, and the night pay in addition to our commission plus the meal allowance for Friday night open, paid for our dues so these extras the union got us, was spent for union dues. I have never been to a union meeting, and the union rep would come around annually at Christmas time to wish us a merry Christmas.

Only benefits the union got me, were when I got the second union job. I was working for a mid size store, and the owner had decided to retire, and sell remaining stock to a friend who owned another store in the area. I was told I would be paid for that month no matter what, and if I needed time off to go for an interview time away would not be deducted from my salary. I was wondering what to do that afternoon, and the union rep walked in and told me he had been trying to find me. He told me that for the first time in 12 years, a store who I knew was the best for sales and (commission) was hiring a replacement for someone that was retiring. I left for a couple of hours, met the owner and was walked around the store to see what they had for sale, and by the time this tour was over, I was to start the next day. It was about the only store in the area that I could earn $150,000 in today's dollars selling furniture. Went back to the store I had been working at, told him I had to leave and where I was starting. He was happy for me, and had the bookkeeper draw me a check for the entire month (this was the first day of the month) based on my average monthly income. I made real good money that month.
 
Old 11-03-2017, 04:10 PM
 
Location: Cape Cod
24,284 posts, read 16,955,928 times
Reputation: 35520
I have a relative that worked in a union warehouse and he lost his job when the place was bought out.
Over the years they had strikes over benefits, pay, the same old stuff and it was ridiculous what he was getting paid but one would think that the stores needed a somewhat local distribution center but this was not so.
In the next state over was another warehouse that was not union. The new owner shut down the union warehouse and moved everything to the non union distribution center.

That was his call but it sure hurt hundreds of employees that had to somehow find an equivalent high paying low skilled job.

I think the union just put too many demands on the new owner and he was in it to make money not to make friends.

It stinks but that is how it is.
 
Old 11-03-2017, 04:15 PM
 
16,998 posts, read 21,667,967 times
Reputation: 29074
Unions cost money.......if they want to try to bleed a business dry then sometimes you lose when the owner closes the business!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Closed Thread


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Current Events
Similar Threads

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top