# Union acceptance



## Awg-Dawg (Jan 23, 2007)

In your local, do you treat the organized guys the same as the guys who went thru apprenticeship school?


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## HackWork (Oct 2, 2009)

Awg-Dawg said:


> In your local, do you treat the organized guys the same as the guys who went thru apprenticeship school?


First imagine a local filled with people from NJ and NY, people who aren't afraid to tell you how it really is, or how they think it is. People who will break balls all day.

Knowing that, organized guys were usually treated the same as far as I saw. A good electrician was seen as a good electrician. An ass kisser was seen as an ass kisser. A doosh was seen as a doosh.

The few people who were so petty as to care about things like what you asked about usually found themselves back at the hall within a few weeks, while the guy they were targeting stuck with the company and had a lucrative career. It's usually the hall trash who had the most to say about other men, but what they said was usually disregarded anyway.

Now if someone who organized in was being a loudmouth or causing issues, then maybe his lack of apprenticeship might be used against him. But rightly so. But the idea that someone who organized in will always be seen as a second class citizen is not something that I ever witnessed. 

I will say, a large portion of the people who organized in were brought in as apprentices. Even those who claimed 10 or 15 years of experience. Since there is no journeyman license in NJ, there was no way to show that they were in fact journeymen. And a 4th year apprentice in my local makes more than 99% of non-union electrician, plus 3 times better benefits. So they didn't complain much.


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## tjb (Feb 12, 2014)

Um, short answer: yes.


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## Awg-Dawg (Jan 23, 2007)

HackWork said:


> Knowing that, what you asked about is not something I ever noticed happening often. A good electrician was seen as a good electrician. An ass kisser was seen as an ass kisser. A doosh was seen as a doosh.


I worked at a local hospital for years alongside union workers and never had an issue.

I also have a couple union friends who feel organized guys are below laborers.

I guess the union friends are in the minority.


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## HackWork (Oct 2, 2009)

Awg-Dawg said:


> I worked at a local hospital for years alongside union workers and never had an issue.
> 
> I also have a couple union friends who feel organized guys are below laborers.
> 
> I guess the union friends are in the minority.


I changed the wording in that paragraph because it wasn't very clear and I think made it seem like I was saying the opposite of what I meant.

Yes, I think you're union friends need to find better things to occupy their minds. 

But it depends on their reasoning. Maybe they did actually work next to guys who were organized in and didn't know how to do basic things. Or, more likely, they just didn't like those guys or how they were working (too fast lol) so they looked for a way to insult them.


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## bostonPedro (Nov 14, 2017)

I tend to give organized guys more leeway because I understand that organizing is not an easy thing and because its a fact that they didn't have membership handed to them like so many others but had to fight to become union members. 
I respect that.

Now does everyone feel that way. NO, but who cares. A good worker is a good worker regardless and a big mouth is big mouth no matter where they started.

Follow the rules as best you can, don't be a loudmouth, don't be a 24/7 complainer, a convenient contract abuser aka guys who only the follow the rules when it benefits them, give an honest effort at work etc etc etc. and it doesn't matter where you started. All workers have strengths and weaknesses and its up to a foreman to use workers in that manner.

Work is just an end to means and nothing more but not everyone holds that viewpoint and they are the ones who tend to get caught up in being a pain in the a$$ and rabble rouser. I have seen organized guys forget this and I have seen non organized guys forget this.


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## Fist of lightning (Aug 15, 2019)

No one really cares in the union who was organized in or who tested in or who did their entire apprenticeship through the union.

once you’re in the union we’re all brothers and we all look out for each other at least that’s how it is in the union I am in


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## Fist of lightning (Aug 15, 2019)

The union is much more than a club or association it’s a brotherhood once you’re in the union you join a family and we don’t look down on each other or put each other down depending on if you are organized in or not


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## HertzHound (Jan 22, 2019)

Since I’m a Re-Tread from way back, I reserve the right to bash everyone, from the silver spoons to the JIT bags.


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## stiffneck (Nov 8, 2015)

Fist of lightning said:


> The union is much more than a club or association it’s a brotherhood once you’re in the union you join a family and we don’t look down on each other or put each other down depending on if you are organized in or not


Maybe where your at, not here with Local-1 :vs_laugh:


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## Fist of lightning (Aug 15, 2019)

stiffneck said:


> Fist of lightning said:
> 
> 
> > The union is much more than a club or association itâ€™️s a brotherhood once youâ€™️re in the union you join a family and we donâ€™️t look down on each other or put each other down depending on if you are organized in or not
> ...


 I’m sorry you had a bad experience with local one.

Local one has plenty of work and is doing well right now 

Henry’s boys are staying busy and moral is high


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## stiffneck (Nov 8, 2015)

Fist of lightning said:


> I’m sorry you had a bad experience with local one.
> 
> Local one has plenty of work and is doing well right now
> 
> Henry’s boys are staying busy and moral is high


 Clearly you're not familiar with "Henry's" boy. Has nothing to do with "staying busy and moral is high". Just make it up as you go along. 

Henry's boy is your typical shizt head, turd whose father(a previous, previous supervisor) made "arrangements" not once, not twice, but three times to get Henry Jr. into local-1 apprenticeship. Henry's boy then drop out all three times :laughing: This was back between 2011-2014, a time when regular guys where lined up and subsequently turned away. Now a days, none of us are going down there, or going back. Local-1 is desperate for good people, not the only game in town anymore. Look up Reinhold Electric AEC Local-57 St. Louis, MO. In my shop, this past June, the outgoing shop steward made this claim; We could go and work out of the hall, if we wanted to and local-1 is willing to represent us for free. Myself and another co-worker who have had the "local-1 experience" just laughed. The number of guys has since dropped even further. Makes you wonder who calls the BA (management does) for Employee meetings, certainly doesn't represent us. Would you like some *I*n *B*red *E*lectrical *W*orker representation examples? Fortunately I'm close to the rule of 85 and get the heck out of there. Will need to do something else, lots of choices and planning to be done. Already three informal unsolicited job offers. FPN; the work is never the issue, it's the people. Some of the best places to work(my airport), have some of the shiztyist people and some of the roughest places to work(lead smelter I worked on overhead cranes) had some of the best.


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