Walmart and Unions

[Spikes16]

good for you that you have a opinion,  but the red smilies and devils are not necessary they are disrespectful and rude.......

236836[/snapback]

 

Please go see a union eye doctor. You must be now using a non-union doctor.

[millbank]

Please go see a union eye doctor. You must be now using a non-union doctor.

236837[/snapback]

 

big of you that you removed them

by now.....

[Hammered a Lot]

I keep telling my uncle, a coal miner,  to move, come down to Virginia, and I'll hire him as a maintenance guy for our county government.  This would, in turn, move him outside to mainly cutting grass on athletic fields.  Get him top of the line government benefits for him and his family.  Start at about 35K a year.  That usually goes up in VA about 7% every year. 

236726[/snapback]

 

This sounds like the Giambra solution. Hire all of your relatives to overpaid government jobs. Pretty soon voters will smarten up and you and your uncle will be working at Wal-Mart for minimum wage and no benefits.

 

Former head of O.P. Democratic Committe (during the Gorski administration) was, according to the Buffalo News article a couple of years ago, hired at a wage of over $66,000 a year (more than her boss) to fill out ECC student tuition forms.

The county pension bill this year is around $50 million. The hire the insider crap has been going on forever and now Erie County is paying for it. Some time I'll post the story of how high end $$$$ furniture was bought for the kiddy detention center, and nowbody knows what happen to it. This was done before the Giambra term.

[Fezmid]

Yes , LAMA, I wanted to make a seperate post to discuss this issue again. You have a problem with that? Are you an administrator? I am close personally to this topic and I wanted to make my union views apparent. Sorry if that offended you.

236835[/snapback]

 

You wanted to make a separate post to discuss the exact same issue that was currently being discussed in another post. Wow, good for you. And to back it up with "are you an administrator?" Whew, can't compete with that, can I?

 

I'd search for the thread on posting rules (complete with video), but I doubt you'd care to even read it. Probably against union rules or somesuch.

 

CW

[gmac17]

Yes , LAMA, I wanted to make a seperate post to discuss this issue again. You have a problem with that? Are you an administrator? I am close personally to this topic and I wanted to make my union views apparent. Sorry if that offended you.

 

If someone made a post about bledsoe in one thread, and then cut and pasted the same exact comment to start a new thread about the SAME EXACT THING they would get called out for being an idiot just the same.

[kasper13]

If my job wasn't a union job, my family and I would not have what we have today, some family in Mexico would.

 

Technically, the NHLPA isn't a union. It's a player's association. They pay dues but once they retire they are no longer a member. The NHL pays player pensions not the NHLPA. The CBa is much different than a Union contract as well. Big differences.

[gmac17]

is this post a joke? i don't see how your post puts unions in a good light at all...this makes me despise unions even more

 

He's serious, just check out the new thread he started about it.....

[gmac17]

Kasper, what union?

[Tux of Borg]

Why would you need a union now days? Federal regulations, min wage, and OSHA are more than capable of providing a fair and safe work environment. Unions protect bad employees and drive up product cost. Don't like your pay? Go to college to get a better non union job.

[bbb]

I think somebody should file a grievance here. That seems to solve everything. Well, at least the union member gets what they want, which I haven't seen any other pro-union point here. I got mine. What about the greater good? What do unions do for it? I'm willing to listen. As somebody said, unions were necessary in their time. As far as I can tell tell, that ended 50-100 years ago.

 

I'm sure the Bethlehem union members loved their union because they got their unbelievable 13 week vacation every year. But, the party was over.

[Alaska Darin]

You're missing the point. 

 

The point is that Walmart is one of the largest private employers in this country, yet all of us are being forced to subsidize their employees' health care and other social costs because Walmart is unwilling to pay a living wage or provide affordable health care to their employees.

236652[/snapback]

So don't shop there.

[HopsGuy]

The only time a custodian in our building was ever fired was when one was caught in the act of stealing from a teacher's purse - and even THAT rose a stink with the union!

236765[/snapback]

 

For a brief time I worked as a supervisor for about 30 union employees. About 27 of them were good, competent, conscientious, hard-working employees. That makes for about 10% bad apples that were lazy, malcontents. Getting stuff done was difficult enough without the 3 that tried to mess with the program. They'd sign up for overtime jobs that they weren't really qualified to do, thereby screwing up the efficiencies when another person could have done the job. It's petty stuff like this that ends up costing everyone.

 

One fork-truck driver punched another one in the groin and was suspended without pay with the hope of termination. The union and company went to arbitration and the guy ended up getting his job back with back pay. My fork-truck driver (a fantastic kid that will do well because of his work ethic) was bumped back down to a lower paying job when this guy came back. Of course he was a train-wreck because the other guys hated him and like the guy that he punched. I moved into engineering shortly thereafter, so I was fortunate to avoid the all out brawl that occurred 3 weeks later.

 

One more quick story about that place... there was one guy that worked in the presses (this was a metal stamping outfit). He knew everything about every machine in the place. The maintenance guys would ask him stuff when they couldn't find the problem. The owner, an 80-year old guy that finished only 3 minutes behind me in the Corporate Challenge 3.5 mile run, said to me once, "See that guy? We pay him $22/hour. He's been here 9 years, and including management, he's probably the 6th most valuable employee in a company of 125. If it weren't for the union, I'd pay him $50/hour. He'd be worth it."

[gmac17]

I'm sure the Bethlehem union members loved their union because they got their unbelievable 13 week vacation every year. But, the party was over.

 

are you joking about the 13 week vacation?

[CircleTheWagons]

This thread makes me absolutely ashamed to be a Bills fan.  From the callousness of those who have worked hard AND been fortunate to the general insults, this thread is a new low for the board.

 

Buffalo and WNY in general is and always will be a blue collar, union town.  Everyone knows someone who has been affected by a plant closing or a company moving out of town .  Get a new job and make yourself marketable works for someon in their 30's and 40's; what do you tell the 57 year old with a wife and kids ready to go to college that has given nearly 30 years to his company?  Sorry sir, maybe you should have seen this coming 30 years ago and studied harder.  Don't you think that person wakes up and thinks the same thing?  Anything you say in this regard is salt in the wounds.

 

I'm happy many of you have found success in WNY and outside of the area.  Try being a bit more charitable to those who haven't had the success you have.  For those of you who have left the area, I'd ask you to remember your commthe roots of your community and show a little class.

 

P.S.  I'm  white collar mgt, work in the life science industry and a liberal Republican.

236831[/snapback]

 

You sir, are the man. Excellent post.

[eSJayDee]

What about the greater good?  What do unions do for it?  I'm willing to listen. 

 

Geez, I'd never thought I'd be defending a union, but here goes.

Basically, as I mentioned in my post above, it's that unions expedite market efficiency.

 

Let's say through union negotiation the manager of a widget factory makes $50/hr.

Let's say I'm willing to get out of bed & do that job just as well as him (subtle barb ) for $28/hr, in a non-union environment, he'd get fired & be out of work.

 

Now, he's out of work (temporarily) and collecting unemployment benefits. Further, (although not as significantly although in my opinion more important philosophically) society as a whole is being inefficient. (Gee, hope I'm not sounding too Brave New Wrold.) W/ him being unemployed, other producers of goods have lost a potential buyer, so they need to reduce workforce &/or change their price structure (lower prices &/or lower wages).

Now eventually, he'll find a job, displacing someone else, et cetera et cetera and EVENTUALLY we'll find an equilibrium. (In general most people would be okay if they're making 1/2 the money they were but everything costs 1/2 as much. Likewise if everything cost double & they're making 2x as much. Although roughly stable prices are best for all.) But in the mean time, there has been a cost paid by inefficiency.

The theory behind unions is that by having workers, who otherwise don't have sufficient clout to negotiate a 'fair' wage/benefit/condition/etc banding together, the solution benefits all (including non-union people).

[Sound_n_Fury]

Buffalo and WNY in general is and always will be a blue collar, union town. 

236831[/snapback]

 

Uh, last time I checked, Buffalo also had the lowest rate of job creation of any major American metropolitan area. Think the two facts might be connected?

 

I don't think anyone's denegrating the late-50ish guy who, unfortunately, doesn't have a lot of options when it comes to retraining, relocating, etc.

 

However, for 20, 30 and 40 year-olds that do have the ability to adapt and change, but find it easier to whine and hope for "Big Daddy" to protect them, I don't have a lot of sympathy.

[CentralVaBills]

This sounds like the Giambra solution.  Hire all of your relatives to overpaid government jobs.  Pretty soon voters will smarten up and you and your uncle will be working at Wal-Mart for minimum wage and no benefits.

 

Other than union jobs, government jobs are the last places left that still provide fully paid medical and pension plans.  Most private company have switched from pension plans to 401k plans.  The next "crisis" coming along will be the underfunded government pension plans.  Enjoy it while it lasts!

236773[/snapback]

No jackass, actually, our governement isn't a bunch of total slobs like in the Buffalo area. And my uncle is a good worker, just caught up in all the big union BS up north. So, if he would be willing to move, YES, I would hire him in a minute. And, in case you couldn't read, at a 10K pay cut, less than what he makes at the mine.

 

And you see, when goverment works down here.....people DO wise up, and give us even more resources to work with. I produce new parks that the kids play in. Top of the line athletic fields. New gymnasiums, a soccer complex, and new practice football fields.

 

Instead of typical jackass statements like the one you just made.....how it really works is like this........The local government does a pretty decent job. The quality of life goes up. People actually WANT to move here. They get good schools, employment, and quality recreation. Thus, the area is PROGRESSIVE in it's thinking, unlike BUFFALO.

 

Then, an ordinary maintenance worker.....instead of begging a union leach for more money would simply do a good job in his current position, and then move up to a supervisory role when another NEW park opens up in the same thriving county. And this may be a shock, but yes, new parks are opening as we speak.

 

I'm not in government work to make sure you make money. Do that for your friggin self. I'm in gov't to make the area I work for more liveable, and to see it survive and grow. If Buffalo's gov't chooses to ride the sinking ship of what is does now, you have no one to blame but yourselves.

 

As a gov't employee, driving through Buffalo makes me sick. There are all kinds of resources up there that are untapped, and un-used.

 

THINK IN THE 21st century. Develop the fuggin waterfront. Develop Niagara Falls. Develop the friggin gorgeous waterways you guys have. THEN PEOPLE WILL WANT TO COME THERE. Until then, keep voting Democratic. It's amazing that poor areas have done nothing but voted Democratic and stayed pro-union, despite their communities being driven into the ground.

 

There is one northern state up there that seems to do OK. The state of Indiana is a Republican state surrounded by all that BLUE and Union BS up there. From the bottom 2/3 of the state that is mainly anti-union and strong Republican ideals, the state thrives. Drive North and East, and what do you have? Drive south and what do you have? Self Explanatory!

 

Don't promote yourself as a unionized, whoa is me kinda town. No one feels sorry anymore for those kinds of people. THINK Progressive, change leaders, and let's see Buffalo move in to the 21st century!

[CentralVaBills]

This sounds like the Giambra solution.  Hire all of your relatives to overpaid government jobs.  Pretty soon voters will smarten up and you and your uncle will be working at Wal-Mart for minimum wage and no benefits.

 

Former head of O.P. Democratic Committe (during the Gorski administration) was, according to the Buffalo News article a couple of years ago, hired at a wage of over $66,000 a year (more than her boss) to fill out ECC student tuition forms.

The county pension bill this year is around $50 million. The hire the insider crap has been going on forever and now Erie County is paying for it.  Some time I'll post the story of how high end $$$$ furniture was bought for the kiddy detention center, and nowbody knows what happen to it. This was done before the Giambra term.

236845[/snapback]

 

Not sure how the hell that could happen? Let's see. Here in Virginia.....there has to be a panel of 5 people in the interview. One has to be from an adjacent, independant city. One has to be from another department. And 3 can be from within.

 

So, in short, a real favor would be for me to hire my uncle as a Rec Specialist II job that would pay him about 45K with full benefits. However, no matter who I am, he wouldn't even get past the HR screening process, let alone me be able to hire him. He wouldn't have the credentials.

 

Totally uninformed comments like this are hilarious. Could I probably persuade someone to hire a guy I actually wanted for a job that only requires a GED however? Yeah probably, but not assured.

 

And it's totally laughable that I guess your assuming that private companies or factories don't get buddies or relatives in to certain jobs. Wake up, you aren't talking to all idiots on this board.

 

Gov't jobs are all posted publicly. For most of them that pay well, you need certain degrees, maybe a masters, and other experience. I highly doubt that someone was hired at a high paying job without at least having the credentials to cover the city's ass. If they don't have the credentials, and you guys still vote for the fools and elect the same types of gov't, well then, it's your own fault.

 

I have a good job. I love it. My board of supervisors this year are all going to Hawaii for a national conference meeting. Am I pissed about that? You bet I am. I'd rather have that given to the employees in a raise. Do I have their education, credentials and knowledge to take their job or run for it in the future? Not yet, so I can't B word about it. I do, however, have something to shoot for. I don't want a damn union to get it for me. I'll do it myself!

[bbb]

are you joking about the 13 week vacation?

236874[/snapback]

 

 

No - no joke, and somebody could correct if I'm wrong here, but every 5 years, they got a 13 week paid vacation. Not sure if that was in addition to their regular vacation that year, but it was definitely in addition to whatever weeks they got their other years................. I have no idea why that plant closed?

[bbb]

esJay - thanks for the thoughts. It would be nice if a union member came up with that, other than pointing how much they benefit from the union............ And, that is sort of a mind bender. Not sure if I'm there with you on it, yet.