Quote Originally Posted by ukkid View Post
If you don't like and don't want to work in unionized labor,thats your choice. We union members happen to like good pay and benefits.....
But again are they "fair" pay and benefits? I agree that assembly line work is mind numbing and worthy of a fair wage. However, it takes no real qualifications to get the job initially. Yes it requires a lot of training from the company, but anyone who breaths and has a GED can get a job screwing a car together on an assembly line at Ford and make $50k/yr plus benefits. Yet, a guy who has a 4 year college degree, $50k in dept to training, and has the lives of numerous people in his hands every time he takes off makes less than unemplyment pays? Both of these pay scales are the result of unions. The UAW forces american car companies to pay out more than their labor is actually worth in health care, pensions, and legal fees every time teh UAW feels they need to arbitrate. ALPA on the otherhand sits on their hands, allows the airline companies to abuse low time pilots, while the upper end guys line their pockets with payoffs from the airlines.

Dont get me wrong there are good unions. My dad worked 35 years for the IUE as a maintenace electrician at the GE plant in Louisville. They did things to protect the union members and their pensions without destroying the company's ability to make a profit. For instance, the big concern with the UAW during the recent bailouts and stuff was paying pensions. The companies were bankrupt leaving them with no way to pay pensions of their employees. The IUE and GE have an agreement that a small percentage of every sale of GE merchandise goes into a seperate account for paying pensions that cannot be touched for any other purpose but pensions. To this date there are billions of untouchable dollars to pay those pensions whether the company goes under or not.

So again I am not saying ALL unions are bad, but the ones that ARE bad like the UAW are bad enough to destroy teh country all on their own.

And lastly, I am presently a Union member with the PHPA local 109, and let me tell you... the corruption at the top of our union is appauling, and it feels as though there is nothing we can do about it.