I suppose you are going to tell me the picketers with out fail move out ofthe way and let the workers crossing picket lines go by peacefully? I personally have not witnessed such a picket line. Maybe you are just luckier than I am.
CR
I have been in such a picket line myself. You are not allowed to threaten or physically detain anyone. I don't know where you got that, maybe from movies. Most delivery companies and waste haulers honored our picket line. Most people did not want to cross it. We even had one member of management that still held a card and the union allowed him in to do administrative work.
The unions and management agree on their contract. That means both parties give their word to abide by that contract. When they start violating the agreement you have the right (obligation) to stand up for yourself. Try that in a non-union company and see where you end up. I've been there as well.
45-70. You would actually want to shoot people for protesting unfair treatment? All pickets are on public property, sidewalks, streets in front of the businesses. When have you ever been held by force from going into a business? That is illegal and not allowed.
All of the rumors about unions are spread by people that are uninformed, not in them or people that have had a bad experience and feel the union let them down. A lot of people that talk junk about them would jump at the chance to join one. How could you not want decent wages, great insurance (family coverage paid by the employer, not you) and a pension (not great but better than nothing).
If companies would pay decent wages with good insurance there would be no need for unions, but you know as well as I do companies that actually care about their workers are few and far between. All they care about is their bottom line whether it puts you and your family out on the streets or not.
I have been a custom cabinetmaker for 25 years. High end custom work. I've been in the union for 15 of those. What kind of pay do you think that kind of experience deserves? $60,000, $70,000, Hardly. If I do
ungodly amounts of overtime I might make that kind of money but my base pay is way below that and they actually pay me $3.00 over scale because of my experience. I started doing this when I was 19 for minimum wage, worked hard and was dependable to get where I am.
Just like in the non-union shops.
They say union workers are lazy. Have you never worked with a lazy person before? It's not just in the unions. You work the way you want to work and when things get slow the lazy ones are the first to go.
Just like in the non-union shops. I've worked 32 hour shifts, 12 hours a day 7 days a week for months on end, weeklong strings of 16-18 hour days. One shop I worked 10-12 hours a day 6 and sometimes 7 days a week for a year and a half.
I'm sorry for the rant but all the union bashing I read on this site gets my blood boiling. It always amazes me that it's the union workers' fault and not the people that actually run the company, management, with their multi million dollar contracts and golden balloon retirement packages. They get more money for leaving a company than when they work. I'd be more than happy to run a company into the ground for 5 million dollars.
Heck, I'll do it for 1Million.
