Alliances: Labor Unions

[Gramsci]

So because other people stick up for themselves that means that the other people that are spineless deserve a hot stone massage?

Fuck that, if those people you are bitching about have created a good position for themselves through collective action good for them. For the others that haven't... maybe they should stop being such chumps and organise themselves.

Organised labour has no obligation to feel sorry for or provide for people that expect to get something for free by trying to latch onto their gains without fighting for it.

[windofpain]

Organised labour has no obligation to feel sorry for or provide for people that expect to get something for free by trying to latch onto their gains without fighting for it.

Those "trying to latch onto their gains" were the ones covering 2 shifts in a row and working 65 hours a week while the people that "stick up for themselves" (keyword: THEMSELVES) ate donuts at the Marriott 4 nights a week, great job turning your union rep position into extended paid time off while you figure out ways to further concrete your spot at the top, while the people that actually make the company work around you bust their ass so you can come back with nothing gained for the people that ELECTED YOU TO REPRESENT them. Another key word here, "Representative" Not everyone can just walk away from work for 5 months to go sit in a hotel conference room. I would have loved to gone so I could see these clowns up close, but guess what? I had to cover their shifts while they fucked over everyone beneath and after them. The whole situation really told me a lot about some of the people I work with/for and left a pretty nasty taste in my mouth I still haven't washed out.

Oh and about "stop being such chumps and organize?" all the 2005 contract guys tried to get together and get some younger guys on the board, and guess who shut that down? You guessed it, the old wifes club. But hey, there just chumps who want to ride coattails right?

I thought a union meant a united workplace, not a bunch of people that managed to eek-past a living in a unskilled labor environment locking out anyone beneath them from doing the same, apparently not in your world. Trust me this isn't sour grapes, because I have very realistic viewpoints about where I stand at this job and it certainly isn't a career, but for a handful of guys I work with it is. And they have been locked out of the same shit that the guy before them had handed to them, not by the "evil corporation" we work for, nope. It was their "union brothers and sisters" who turned the fucking screws on that one.

[BusBus]

BusBus Jr.

[Marsupialized]

I got several deeply entrenched representatives that people here have been complaining about since I started in 07 thrown out and replaced by special election with about 2 weeks work in my spare time, all through faxes, emails and phone calls.
I got every single employee of this company in the US to sign a petition and presented it in person at a meeting. It was a loud scene, but nobody killed me and the people are now gone and nobody has bothered me about it since.
Sometimes instead of just complaining the best thing to do is something about the things that piss you off and anger you, especially when there are channels and procedures in place, ready to be taken advantage of to help you make these things happen. It's a union, there are elections and every single person can speak up and say what they like.
These people you are talking about who you hate? They are just people, not mythical beasts, they can be defeated and done away with, it's usually way easier than you think. Most people are absolutely spineless for a fight these days and crumble very quickly when there seems to be forces amassing against them.
You know how you are angry with them and see their misdeeds? Other people do too, dude. Anyone in a position of power has made enemies on the way up, that is an absolute, and they've created more since getting there, another absolute. Take advantage of this and get rid of them.

Or, you know, just piss and moan like a woman about it.

[Andrew.]

Obama blocks rail strike.

[Andrew.]

January 16, 2012
Obama’s new chief of staff Jack Lew a ‘union-buster’

President Barack Obama may have crossed labor unions yet again this week when he named former budget director Jack Lew to be his fourth chief of staff in just three years.

News broke last week that Obama had deployed the Coast Guard to protect grain ships from longshoremen union members and occupiers in Washington State, but now a more politically perilous anti-union revelation is surfacing: his new chief of staff has led at least one effort to bust a labor union. And Lew succeeded in destroying it.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/01/12/obama ... z1jeuyUYC2

[Andrew.]

A little roundup of labor news and images

Obama to unions: See you later

On Tuesday President Obama signed a bill that will make it harder for workers to form a union. This bill, the FAA Reauthorization Act, passed Congress last week despite an outcry from major unions. Dozens of House Democrats voted for it, as did most Democratic senators.

To appreciate what that means, try to imagine a Republican president and Republican Senate majority leader signing off on a bill with pro-union language despite thundering objections from most big businesses. Your imagination may not be good enough to picture that, which tells you everything you need to know about the asymmetry between Democrats and Republicans when it comes to labor.

[...]

There are many factors that explain the willingness of prominent Democrats to back a deal that makes union organizing harder: the broken Senate; the influence of big money; questionable tactics from all sides. But the most fundamental one is the half-century decline in unionization, and with it, in labor’s role in American life. Episodes like this one offer a stark challenge to those still hoping that transformed political fortunes will be the cause – rather than the consequence – of the labor movement’s revival.

http://www.salon.com/2012/02/15/obama_t ... next_year/

See also: http://labornotes.org/2012/02/obama-dem ... ne-workers

Mass protests bring down Romanian government

[...]The unions have betrayed every labour dispute in recent years, organising sporadic toothless protests aimed at letting off steam.[...]

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb20 ... -f07.shtml

Manufacturer of colonial war machines for the apartheid state of Israel closes union factory in Ontario, moves jobs to non-union plant in Indiana:

Caterpillar Cracks the Whipsaw, Closing Ontario Plant

Caterpillar announced Friday it would close its London, Ontario, locomotive plant after 465 workers there refused to grant concessions that would cut their wages in half.

http://labornotes.org/2012/02/caterpill ... ario-plant

Against the Tide, Michigan Graduate Employees Fight for a Union

http://labornotes.org/2012/02/against-t ... ight-union

[Andrew.]

The Strike and Its Enemies

[Andrew.]

Obama Awards Billions in Government Contracts to Labor Law Violators

A 2010 report from the Government Accountability Office found that the federal government had awarded over $6 billion in contracts in fiscal 2009 to contractors that had been cited for violating federal labor laws, from wage and hour rules to organizing rights. Earlier in 2010, the New York Times reported that the White House was planning to implement a “high road” contracting policy that would direct more government contracts to companies with better labor and environmental records. But by 2011, Obama OMB nominee Heather Higginbottom told senators in a confirmation hearing that there were no such plans afoot.

http://www.salon.com/2012/04/25/taxes_f ... singleton/

[Marsupialized]

I got several deeply entrenched representatives that people here have been complaining about since I started in 07 thrown out and replaced by special election with about 2 weeks work in my spare time, all through faxes, emails and phone calls.
I got every single employee of this company in the US to sign a petition and presented it in person at a meeting. It was a loud scene, but nobody killed me and the people are now gone and nobody has bothered me about it since.

We are about to enter into negotiations for the new contract and two of the people I was speaking out here have suddenly reappeared. Initial sit down tonight.
Tonight, it begins. I am ready.
I had a feeling this might happen, it was all too easy. They threw us under the bus last time for their own gain and that is exactly what they think they'll be doing again.
At the very least, I will not make it easy for them and every single person I encounter or can speak to in the next 3 months will know exactly what they are all about and have done and will do if allowed to represent us.
I am going to start my speech by reading the definition of 'Rat' out of the dictionary, then I will wing it, but I am going to go at least 30 minutes and I plan on having no voice by the end of it.

[Antero]

I got several deeply entrenched representatives that people here have been complaining about since I started in 07 thrown out and replaced by special election with about 2 weeks work in my spare time, all through faxes, emails and phone calls.
I got every single employee of this company in the US to sign a petition and presented it in person at a meeting. It was a loud scene, but nobody killed me and the people are now gone and nobody has bothered me about it since.

We are about to enter into negotiations for the new contract and two of the people I was speaking out here have suddenly reappeared. Initial sit down tonight.
Tonight, it begins. I am ready.
I had a feeling this might happen, it was all too easy. They threw us under the bus last time for their own gain and that is exactly what they think they'll be doing again.
At the very least, I will not make it easy for them and every single person I encounter or can speak to in the next 3 months will know exactly what they are all about and have done and will do if allowed to represent us.
I am going to start my speech by reading the definition of 'Rat' out of the dictionary, then I will wing it, but I am going to go at least 30 minutes and I plan on having no voice by the end of it.

Go get 'em!

[mmmribsmmm]

Good luck. I was a teamster for 10 years and was continually amazed at how the senior employees (20+ years) would always end up with another week of vacation, while moving the 4th week of vacation from 10 years to 12 to qualify. A union isn't a union unless the members participate. Otherwise these self-serving bastards will screw everyone down the ladder. Stick it to them.

[Marsupialized]

Good luck. I was a teamster for 10 years and was continually amazed at how the senior employees (20+ years) would always end up with another week of vacation, while moving the 4th week of vacation from 10 years to 12 to qualify. A union isn't a union unless the members participate. Otherwise these self-serving bastards will screw everyone down the ladder. Stick it to them.

Yep. Fuck these people. This union is as crooked as can possibly be from within, but like I said, the union is the people in it and no matter what, it's possible to change it. Wildly, quickly. They rely on people's apathy to continue on as they do, and I will do every single thing I can to shake these people from theirs.

[mmmribsmmm]

In my old one, there were just a handful of senior staff. 80% percent of the crew had less than 6 or 7 years in, yet all the benefits at contract time went to the other 20%. I'm glad I moved on from that place.

[Marsupialized]

1. Corrupt people in high positions get complacent and lazy, that's whole reason people wanna get up there in the first place, so they can lay around and relax and not worry about anything 2. Corrupt people in high places have a long list of enemies they've made on the way up, and have likely built nothing but resentment towards themselves, even among their closest 'allies'.
As long as you are not concerned with being attacked, which I am not in the least, they can be easy pickings. People cannot wait to get involved in knocking them down, they just don't want to do it themselves. I am of such an insignificant position and have zero desire to advance within the union, they have nowhere to go against me but personal attacks and threats, neither of which I give a fuck about. They can have me killed for all I care. I love this shit.

[Justin Foley]

1. Corrupt people in high positions get complacent and lazy, that's whole reason people wanna get up there in the first place, so they can lay around and relax and not worry about anything 2. Corrupt people in high places have a long list of enemies they've made on the way up, and have likely built nothing but resentment towards themselves, even among their closest 'allies'.
As long as you are not concerned with being attacked, which I am not in the least, they can be easy pickings. People cannot wait to get involved in knocking them down, they just don't want to do it themselves. I am of such an insignificant position and have zero desire to advance within the union, they have nowhere to go against me but personal attacks and threats, neither of which I give a fuck about. They can have me killed for all I care. I love this shit.

Are they staff or are they members with greater seniority?

= Justin

[Marsupialized]

Not staff members here, no, union members embedded in the system. These people have nothing to do with us, have never come into contact with them or even seen them till our contract is up, then all of a sudden 'this is who will negotiate on your behalf'
The last contract they negotiated for us, your head would spin at how they fucked us. We have been working under a pay freeze since 2006. Unbelievable. A company that just gave their CEO 26 million dollars as bonus. They use us as a bargaining chip to get stuff for other, more 'important' unions, throw us in the toilet in order to get themselves and their friends what they want. Every single 'perk' we had has been bargained away, everything.
Man fuuuuuuuuuuuck that shit.

[mmmribsmmm]

I just want to add a union steward should never be a senior employee that is close to retirement. They could give a fuck what happens to a place after they retire. As long as they get theirs. A steward should be in the middle, been there long enough to know the deal but not long enough that their priorities are incongruent w/ the rest of the union.

[numberthirty]

I just want to add a union steward should never be a senior employee that is close to retirement. They could give a fuck what happens to a place after they retire. As long as they get theirs. A steward should be in the middle, been there long enough to know the deal but not long enough that their priorities are incongruent w/ the rest of the union.

You've never met my old man.

[Marsupialized]

The dude I took over for has worked here for 40 years and does not give a flying fuck about anything but HIS pension. A real piece of shit. Republican union member, that type of stupid fuck.