Monday, August 16, 2010

How stands the union?

So there's this Government Motors stamping plant out on the west side of town that's a goner. ZiL was all ready to shut the place down, but apparently some Illinois-based company figured they could buy the place and keep it running profitably if the Wobblies that run the joint would agree to pay cuts.

Faced with a choice of certain unemployment or a 47% pay cut, what do you think the glorious workers of People's Auto Collective #23 decided to do?

That's right.

"Close it!" shouted one picketer into the TV camera, a tough woman who looked like she strangled tractors with her bare hands for sport, "They kin jes' close it! People'll jes' have to go on th' welfare!"

Well, clearly that's preferable to the indignity of a pay cut.

To quote TJIC:
You don’t want propose to exchange fair work at a fair price – you want a government-orchestrated scam, and you want the rest of us to be taxed to pay for it.

20 comments:

  1. "We changed this country!
    An' the guvmint's job is to see to it that I got good job at livin' wage, at least $60,000. An' if'n they ain't not gon DO they job. I be plumb angry an prolly have ta burn sumthin!"


    Word Verification rinoho - a Republican in name only who is a prostitute?

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  2. Every employer, like every prospective husband, is competing with the welfare system.

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  3. Anon 8:13,

    I'm sorry, but these were crackers.

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  4. Nothing like a firm sense of entitlement.

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  5. There's something about union membership that rots the brain. I remember being a union member for a couple of years. When I felt the neurons dying faster than they were being replaced, I got the hell out of that job as fast as I could and went back to school.

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  6. You're missing one thing. Unless the UAW contracts have changed significantly in the last few years (which is possible) those people get paid for something like 12-24 months even if they close the plant. Which means they could take a 50% pay cut now or a 100% pay cut in a year or two when their severance pay runs out. Not exactly as cut and dried as you'd think.

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  7. Tam: I think crackers have the technology of fire, too.

    ----

    Gah. It would just tickle me pink if the gov't agency in charge of unemployment payments (what was that line about "getting more of what you subsidise"?) told all the assclowns this closing will generate: "Sorry, unemployment isn't for people who quit jobs." Not that I'm optimistic on that front.

    ----

    I don't suppose simply firing everyone and hiring new employees at the new rate is an option?

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  8. perlhaqr,

    "Tam: I think crackers have the technology of fire, too."

    I was going by the written dialect. :)

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  9. "I don't suppose simply firing everyone and hiring new employees at the new rate is an option?"

    I bet it would violate GM's union contract to buy parts from a non-union shop. The unions have to protect their monopoly, after all.

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  10. It is in the best interest of the union to do so.

    If wages are cut, then the employees will blame the union. If the factory fails, the union can blame the corporation.

    The wages of socialism are sloth, hopelessness and poverty.

    Shootin' Buddy

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  11. "It is in the best interest of the union to do so."

    Even the UAW was asking the Local to take the deal. This was some kind of extra-special stupid.

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  12. Capitalism, as my former-polish neighbor says, is the unequal allocation of wealth, but socialism is the equal allocation of poverty. Hope they get their fair share.

    "I was going by the written dialect. :)"

    You need to come to Hessville, Indiana or Black oak, Indiana. When I read the dialect, I heard hessville cracker.

    On second thought, avoid those places like the plague

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  13. Yeah, but with the Union severance package, followed by 99 weeks of Federales Unemployment checks, plus some of those fools taking early retirement and sucking on the Pension Teat, what do the crackers have to lose? As for the Union Bosses saying take the contract and the %50 pay cut, would there be a %50 reduction in Union dues to pay their useless salary, or do they get a flat rate that wouldn't decline?

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  14. There is no stupid like union stupid.

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  15. Unions are whacked. Its what killed Western Electric manufacturing. I worked in an "open shop" meaning union membership was optional. First day on the line here comes the shop steward wanting me to, you know, give them some of my money. I said no. The response to that was, "You are a level 36 troubleshooter. It is because of the union's efforts you get paid as well as you do." I told him thanks for the effort, but employment is between me and the employer.

    Oh and another thing. Maintenance had a work order to put three new desks in the three shift shared supervisor cubicle. They did not have one to remove the old ones. Guess what happened? My supervisor could not get into her office. Another troubleshooter and I at least moved stuff around so she could get into her desk. Someone filed a grievance against us for "working out of our job classification." Sheesh!

    I did not stay there long, went to work for an evil tobacco company when I left there, but that's another story!

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  16. Trash is trash, doesn't matter what color they are.

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  17. John Stephens:

    Speaking of unions...Let me know if you are the Johnny that would know about I.A.M?

    AT

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  18. Word Verification rinoho - a Republican in name only who is a prostitute?

    Department of Redundancy Department! ;-)

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  19. When the picket lines start, keep an eye open for stuff like this. http://online.wsj.com/article/NA_WSJ_PUB:SB10001424052748704288204575362763101099660.html

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  20. Another factor is these workers , due to earlier layoffs, are high seniority. They will just go to another GM plant and bump some other slob from his job. It is my sincere hope they all loose everything. I will never again but GM.

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