"And so it begins," Inhofe said.

[mowerman]

i dont know about all this sniveling and crying about the union...i was a union man from 73-81,,,i always thought they were the cats ass,,,but i got laid off cause of the deregulation deal,,,i suppose thier not like they used to be,,,but after workin for scab outfits for 30 years i sure wish i could go back to the union days,,,,couldnt beat it,,,,atleast 30 years ago.bob

[bullhusk]

The Japanese auto industry is heavily unionized.In fact article 28 of the Japanese constitution recognizes union organizing as a given right. The German auto industry is heavily unionized. The Taiwanese auto industry at like 40% unionized.Management of the business and production are what sets our auto industry back not so much the workers. Toyota and it's a production system (TPS) have been around for decades. It's what everyone calls LEAN MANUFACTURING nowdays here in the US. It, in part, enpowers the worker and helps them make decisions for quality and efficency. What is killing our manufacturing is politicians, of both parties, signing unfair trade aggreements and giving tax-breaks for off-shoring. The unions may be a small piece of the puzzle but are made out to be the scapegoat.

The story of hostess is a story of mismanagement but was blamed on the bakers union.Hostess was in brankruptcy for 5 straight years during which conessions were made and its workforce went from 32,00 people to 22,000 people. Heres a quick list of other issues

1.First Bankruptcy With $648.5 Million In Debt, And Came Out With More Than $800 Million

2.Spent More Than $170 Million On Professional Fees In Its First Bankruptcy

3.Hostess Had Stopped Contributing To Pensions And Wanted To Cut Worker Pay Further

4.Hostess Raised Executive Salary By 35% To 80%

5.Sales Declined And Attempts To Roll-Out New Products More In Line With Changing Consumer Tastes Flopped.

6. Promised investments to plants and equipment as negiotated in concessions with the Baker's Union DID NOT happen.

So when the unions said we're not signing. It was more than just wages,benefits, and concessions. Managaement did them in, not the unions. Fox news won't report that. They say blah blah blah BANKRUPTCY BECAUSE OF THE UNIONS blah blah. Thats what they want you to hear. Don't listen to what they want you to hear.

When you started your trucking company that was on the tails of DEREGULATION right? Deregulation ruined the trucking industry for the drivers, plain and simple. The driver rates for general freight hauling advertised today are the same rates advertised 10-12 years ago. Sure it created a ton of competition, but it created a race to the bottom. It undercut every company hauling freight and goods. An entire industry of companies that had been around since horse and buggy died from it. Then came the period of the wildwest,where Joe Shit the Rag man, is gonna start hauling freight for peanuts with junk equipment. He undercuts everyone else then he wrecks and kills people. This leads to the CSA compliance period of safety regulation. It was a race to the bottom. The same race like Right-to-work, Scott Walker, Koch brothers, and fox news wants to create.

Didn't the canceling of a huge order of Brockways going to the middle east in the 1970's cause some of their woes as well?I know the concrete company my dad worked at got new two 1977 Brockway mixers that were all mismashed with parts. They both had this goofy air cleaner setups on them. He had to convert them to donaldson and farr setups. The salesman told the story of a huge number of trucks that were go to the Saudis and the deal was cancelled after the a good number of trucks were built.

220, I stand by my post. Now as far as Brockway goes, Brockway did not lose the bid as a mater of fact the last 14 trucks were 761's with V12-71 Detroit's built for Iran's oil field's (heavy spec's) The trucks were not finished in Cortland NY but were finished in Miami Fl. by Brockway workers who went there to finish there job as good soldiers do!

BULLHUSK

[220cummins]

My pay should be based upon my worth to the company, not what the "average" employee manages to accomplish each day. I should also be promoted based upon my skills, knowledge of the job, versatility within the company, and my job performance...not based solely upon how long I've been there. The problem I see with most unions is that they don't give a shit about the company. They fail to realize the simple fact that if the company isn't making profits based upon the work the employees are doing, the company will shut down and there will be no jobs. The union doesn't own the company, and the workers don't own the jobs. An employee is, in the simplest of terms, an investment. The employer wants to see a return on that investment, and the better the ROI, the more they will be willing to pay that employee in order to keep him around. When a union gets involved, employers are forced into paying higher wages....unsustainable wages....because if they do not, the union throws a hissy fit and quits working. The employer can try to hire replacement workers, but those replacement workers tend to get harassed by the out-of-work unionized workers who seem to think THEY own the jobs at the company.

Now my dad was a union bricklayer until he screwed up his back and had to find a new line of work. He never went on strike because he had a family at home to support. If the union voted to strike, he'd show up early and be working before the picket line formed...and he'd take his lunch into the job with him and would keep working until they left....he never crossed a picket line. The very nature of the job...where you might work for one contractor for 3 weeks....another contractor for 2 months....another for another couple weeks....wherever the jobs were...you rarely worked for a single contractor long enough to have any benefits....insurance, etc...so he got those through the union. The union was also a place where contractors would go to find workers, and workers would go to find what contractors had jobs going. It served a useful purpose.

My grandfather was a union carpenter, and retired early when he had his heart attack. Much like my dad, the union was there for insurance, pension, and all of the other benefits he wouldn't have otherwise been able to receive because of the nature of the job....working for whichever contractors had jobs going. He enjoyed the camaraderie he found with his fellow carpenters, but absolutely hated the way they tried telling him who to vote for...because who the union was telling him to vote for was NEVER the guy who my grandfather agreed with on the issues.

My other grandfather was a teamster, driving dump trucks....retired when they came up with the CDL because he had 27 years in and couldn't see paying $60 for a drivers license. He was blind, much like you, and towed the party line. He did what the union told him to do, voted how the union told him to vote, and had a hatred for anyone who actually thought for themselves if that led them to disagree with what his union bosses were telling him.

Personally, I don't need any union. I am perfectly capable of negotiating my own wages and benefits, and I refuse to pay somebody else to negotiate on my behalf for benefits I don't want or need. I have my own health insurance...which is MINE, and not tied to any job. If I change jobs, or even careers, as long as I keep paying the premiums, my insurance won't change. If I ever decide to go back to working for somebody else again, I'd like to be able to negotiate a higher wage for myself to compensate for the health insurance they won't be providing for me...not be forced to accept their provided insurance. I don't even care much for paid vacations...I'd rather earn a few cents more per hour when I'm working and be free to take my time off unpaid. In other words, I want to get paid when I work, and if I don't work, I'm fine with not getting paid. I don't WANT the "benefits"....I just want the CASH! What a lot of people don't understand is that THE WORK YOU DO IS PAYING FOR EVERY "BENEFIT" YOUR EMPLOYER PROVIDES!

Remember what I said...an employee is an investment, and your employer wants to see a return on that investment. My preference is that as much of that investment as possible should pass through my hands. I don't need other people choosing how to spend the money I earn on my behalf...I'm perfectly capable of making those decisions for myself.

Unless you the only game in town or you're in contract negotations chances are you'll work for what ever is given to you with that mentality. Times have changed and so have unions. What happened in you grandfathers time with the corruption of unions is indeed in its seedy past. Again I emphasize seedy and PAST. In my union we have the choice to take .02 cents an hour out of our pay and contribute to a PAC of our choice, a vacation fund, or back to training. The later of which is quite a big fund. It's a fund that gets reinvested into state of the art equipment and training for the members. This training is sought out for example, by one of the largest healthcare systems on the east coast, to come up with a curriculum for infection control in hospital facilities. The union not only contributes to the members but also to the community's greater good. Like I said what's in the past should not be forgot but uninformed people need to given an update. Senator Pat Toomey toured our facilities last summer and was showed what we do and what were for. What impressed and hit home with conservative republican senator was the fact that all this training translate to a highly skilled work force at a cost of ZERO to the tax payer.

Call it what you want but if you work on the job that is under strike you are a SCAB strikebreaker. Many men and women with families to support walk strike lines because the definition of union is sticking together.

[mowerman]

220, I stand by my post. Now as far as Brockway goes, Brockway did not lose the bid as a mater of fact the last 14 trucks were 761's with V12-71 Detroit's built for Iran's oil field's (heavy spec's) The trucks were not finished in Cortland NY but were finished in Miami Fl. by Brockway workers who went there to finish there job as good soldiers do!

BULLHUSK

think i read that story in the wheels of time,,,very interesting..bob

[vision386]

Skivvies,drinking a brew on the deck? NO PICTURES PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!..................................................Mark

[41chevy]

After close to 40 years in a the union, I've got to say that some are good and some are just as or more corrupt than ever. Depends on who's running the show and where and what the union is. As for me and my company, I never had any union help because "I was too small a company" but I was always reminded when it was time for "contributions" how much they "helped me and my company"

This is one of the rare times when unions has 100% backing from the White House and can do as they want. The NLRB is pro union now also. We truly live in a golden age of union power....Jimmy would be proud.....I'm not proud of the corruption on all sides.