# this is as good a place as any i guess.



## vasparky27 (Sep 3, 2010)

updated my facebook when I joined the union recently and got a lousy post in responce from a family member
*Tony Crawford
I think most union's are wothless they protect poeple who are usless and take your money to give to the ploit. group they want too. There is only one union group i know wich is needed that is that of the miners*

Im not sure what the deal is he knows the union put me back too work after i was laid off from a non union shop after 9 years. They are helping put food in my kids mouths and clothes on thier backs by letting me work at something I enjoy doing. Guess I just wanted too rant Sorry but damn people amaze me sometimes!


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## miller_elex (Jan 25, 2008)

He probably speaks from personal experience.

On big jobs with lots of men, that is true.

EDIT: Checked out the FB profile out of curiousity. When it comes to hard work, that dude would definitely benefit from a union membership.


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## McClary’s Electrical (Feb 21, 2009)

What a dork. Did you see his quotation?


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## DoCJohnny (Feb 16, 2011)

Well, as an IBEW member I can honestly say that there are unions that really hurt everyone, including the members. You can see that by all the big businesses closing up shops and moving after the unions won't make any concessions. For example, the Goodyear plant that just closed, 1,900 workers out of 10,000 that live in that town are now out of jobs because their union wouldn't let them take a bit less. This same story keeps happening over and over. Now instead of a dollar less an hour these 1,900 people get nothing, good luck finding a job.

Another thing are the unions that protect people who don't deserve it, push for seniority, push for job banks, or even the ones that push for a completely unskilled and inexperienced man in a low cost of living area to make $29/hr to push a button all day, which drives up the cost of the product to such a high point that no one buys it and the government has to hand them billions of dollars to keep them afloat.


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## erics37 (May 7, 2009)

DoCJohnny said:


> Another thing are the unions that protect people who don't deserve it, push for seniority, push for job banks, or even the ones that push for a completely unskilled and inexperienced man in a low cost of living area to make $29/hr to push a button all day, which drives up the cost of the product to such a high point that no one buys it and the government has to hand them billions of dollars to keep them afloat.


Hence the Code of Excellence.... we're held accountable for the quality of workers we put on a job and if someone's slacking we can boot 'em off.

My local adopted the COE as a "blanket" requirement... all jobs are COE jobs, and all members of the local are required to take the COE class. We've got a bit of a fire-breathing Business Manager who doesn't put up with any s**t and he's booted a few slacking travelers off of big jobs before.


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## cthermond (Feb 10, 2011)

This anti union sentiment is sad. I'm not gung-ho for everything that union does, but I think they've done much more good for the wage worker than harm. Watch and see how much non-union workers love prevailing wage jobs, which came from unions. Non -union workers have benefitted from many of the working rights that unions have worked hard and sacrificed for. Yes there are some slackers and bums in the unions, but there are many hard working wage earners in the unions also. 
Many of the manufacturing companies that have moved their facilities out of the country were not unionized. Don't get me wrong there are things that go on that I do not approved of, but I have been on both sides of the fence, and on the non-union side I've seen many abuses there. In the so-called merit shops I've seen many hard workers get passed over for a raise or promotion because they were not in with the right people. As unions go downhill it will not be good for the laborers everywhere especially in the large shops. We need to reach some kind o balance.


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## Englishsparky (Nov 6, 2010)

I don't know much about unions, I just hope they don't run English lessons if that's how you spell. Or maybe the unions would help him with his English? Quite a ponder really...


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## tkb (Jan 21, 2009)

If you were laid off for 9 years, you couldn't have even been trying to look for work.


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## miller_elex (Jan 25, 2008)

nine years at the same shop........ TKB.

A nine year break in the action would be a career change.


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## Charlie K (Aug 14, 2008)

tkb said:


> If you were laid off for 9 years, you couldn't have even been trying to look for work.


Read the OP again. The grammar is not the best but it said he was laid off after 9 years. Big difference.

Charlie


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## brian john (Mar 11, 2007)

Englishsparky said:


> I don't know much about unions, I just hope they don't run English lessons if that's how you spell. Or maybe the unions would help him with his English? Quite a ponder really...


 
AS my wife says, "we do not speak English in America, we speak American."

And in discussions with relatives this is obvious.


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## tkb (Jan 21, 2009)

Charlie K said:


> Read the OP again. The grammar is not the best but it said he was laid off after 9 years. Big difference.
> 
> Charlie


You are right, I misread. Sorry.


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## vasparky27 (Sep 3, 2010)

hey does this thing check grammar and spelling? lol


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## slickvic277 (Feb 5, 2009)

erics37 said:


> Hence the Code of Excellence.... we're held accountable for the quality of workers we put on a job and if someone's slacking we can boot 'em off.
> 
> My local adopted the COE as a "blanket" requirement... all jobs are COE jobs, and all members of the local are required to take the COE class. We've got a bit of a fire-breathing Business Manager who doesn't put up with any s**t and he's booted a few slacking travelers off of big jobs before.


The Code of Excellence is gay. What are we a bunch of 5th graders.

Throwing some hobo travelers off the job is always a good political move BUT having real guts means throwing some of the LOCAL stiffs off the job.

I'll be impressed when I see that.


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## Southeast Power (Jan 18, 2009)

Englishsparky said:


> I don't know much about unions, I just hope they don't run English lessons if that's how you spell. Or maybe the unions would help him with his English? Quite a ponder really...


It has to be really bad when someone from Texas notices.:laughing: Look at the nice piece he wrote ya back ..


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## Englishsparky (Nov 6, 2010)

jrannis said:


> It has to be really bad when someone from Texas notices.:laughing: Look at the nice piece he wrote ya back ..


:laughing: brain always makes quips like that, if his wife is anything like me I'm always correcting the wife.:laughing: I'm spent 30 years in York, England so I'm quite new to Houston really...:thumbsup:


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## vasparky27 (Sep 3, 2010)

well hell i'm an okie from muscogee. i've been in Virginia a while now.


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## Loose Neutral (Jun 3, 2009)

Anybody read that story about that phillips plant on the cover of electrical worker? Conceded many times in the last couple of contracts, was given many awards for being in the top ten productive plants. Labor costs was only 4% of plant costs and they stilled closed the plant to move to Mexico.


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## Sparky3 (Nov 21, 2010)

Loose Neutral said:


> Anybody read that story about that phillips plant on the cover of electrical worker? Conceded many times in the last couple of contracts, was given many awards for being in the top ten productive plants. Labor costs was only 4% of plant costs and they stilled closed the plant to move to Mexico.


Read the article it really makes your blood boil. Here we have an American factory with a union labor force doing an excellent job winning awards for productivity. Workers are making money, the owners are making and the shareholders are making money. Then GREED sets in some piece of **** stands up in the shareholder meeting and says I'm not making enough money I WANT MORE let's lay off the entire factory move it to Mexico we can pay tacoheads 1 peso a day. Probably someone with a HEART speaks up at the meeting and says why do you need more your wealthy you just got huge taxbreak we should be creating jobs here if we close the factory thousands will be out of work there neighborhoods and the towns economy will be destroyed. Then the piece of ****s say who cares blame on the Union I want more. 
Gotta luv the freetrade assholes.


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## cthermond (Feb 10, 2011)

Sparky3 said:


> Read the article it really makes your blood boil. Here we have an American factory with a union labor force doing an excellent job winning awards for productivity. Workers are making money, the owners are making and the shareholders are making money. Then GREED sets in some piece of **** stands up in the shareholder meeting and says I'm not making enough money I WANT MORE let's lay off the entire factory move it to Mexico we can pay tacoheads 1 peso a day. Probably someone with a HEART speaks up at the meeting and says why do you need more your wealthy you just got huge taxbreak we should be creating jobs here if we close the factory thousands will be out of work there neighborhoods and the towns economy will be destroyed. Then the piece of ****s say who cares blame on the Union I want more.
> Gotta luv the freetrade assholes.


Yes I read that article on the Phillips plant. It's a dog eat dog world. If this trend keeps going on I think that there might some kind civil unrest. Sadly many of the working class are anti-union, not realizing that many of their workers rights were hard fought for by the unions. If workers continue to have their rights violated and their jobs sent oversees,then the middle class will continue to deteriorate. Look at what's happening in Lybia, Egypt,Bahrain, France, and right here in the USA in Wisconsin. This is just tip of the iceberg. It's better for a society when everbody has a fair chance to make a decent living. We know were not going to get rich as a labor class, but most of us want to make a decent living. When greed sets in it becomes you can have yours after I get mine first, then you can have whats left over.


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