re: Unions are outdated. It is 2023 not 1923

quote:

---

I have problems with unions but to deny their usefulness is being willfully obtuse. They are a powerful employee voice at times to upper management. There is a lot wrong with unions too.

---

Go tell that to any railroad yard employee! Even better, go talk to a coal miner! Their union endorsed Obama AFTER he said he was going to put them out of a job! For fricks sake, I had Boilermakers defending Biden over shutting down Keystone and putting all those boilermaker union workers out of a job, because "those jobs were just temporary, anyway".

Union reps and union leadership are just shills for the Democrat Party. They line their pockets with the union dues, and lie about how they "represent" the union working man.

quote:

---

Same with railroads, the caboose (the do it folks) have been eliminated. electronics don't have health or injury issues. Bean counters got rid of them quite some time ago. We don't have long distance "rail & mail" so gone are all the folks that cooked your food, served your drinks, and kept your rooms in order went the way of the dodo bird.

---

I have a good friend that is putting in 70+ hours a week MANDATORY, and is getting calls to come in on his days off. What is the union doing about it? Nothing! I've seen my dad off for a strike day because a fellow union member was fired for sleeping on the job. I'm not talking about nodding off, I'm talking finding a place to lay down and take a fricking nap! Sad thing is, all his coworkers knew he was a lazy piece of shite but followed the damn strike anyway. Bottom line is exactly what the OP stated. They protect the weakest, shittiest link at the detriment to the hard work, all the while paying them both the same damn thing!

Serious question


Railroad folks prior to 1980?
Today?

Coal miners prior to 1980?
Today?

Not saying you are right or wrong, just saying I rarely see any today.

quote:

---

I have a good friend that is putting in 70+ hours a week MANDATORY, and is getting calls to come in on his days off.

---

What exactly is his position with this railroad?

quote:

---

I've seen my dad off for a strike day because a fellow union member was fired for sleeping on the job.

---

This is not true. Railroad strikes don't work like that.

So, is the UAW gonna strike tonight or not?

quote:

---

This is not true. Railroad strikes don't work like that.

---

Very true. My dad was a coal miner, 3rd generation. Don't tell me I don't know what I'm talking about in regards to the UMWA.

Railroad workers are not allowed to strike.... They just pay union dues. I've asked my friend to tell me exactly what does his union do for the dues he pays. He's very cognizant of that they don't do very much, but still has that money cut out of his paycheck.

Other than the Democrat Party, name a more corrupt organization than the Teamster's Union. Damn! They are synonymous with organized crime!

quote:

---

When was Obama elected?

---

Well before Obama most of those hill jobs were already long gone. The industry went to machines and the human jobs vanished, never to return. You are focused on a tree (politicians both R and D) and I am asking you about the industry (forest). This part of the problem. Politicians promise out their butt and folks in general still think this is the number of jobs as a generation ago. Both side know how few the jobs really are and know they don't have to do anything and most of the country has no clue of the reality.


I can tell you firsthand the original unions stopped

Child labor (no more 6 year olds working deep mines)
Company towns (miners were basically indentured servants with no escape)
Long work weeks (no more 12 hour days busting coal 6 days a week)
Health issues (you worked till black lung took you, noting for the family)
Safety regulations (lots of dead back in the day)
Water issues (drinking black water and ponds breaks were real)
Law for hire (Imagine Bill Gates paying his local police)


Modern media (Far left and Far right) have created a mead frenzy for clicbaiting but it is not requiring action and accountability.

Unions have a place

Union leaders are corrupt

Union dues are essentially Democrat campaign contributions

All three can be true

The amount of people here that are simping for corporations always astounds me. They’re the same people that will whine about big tech and “woke” Disney but then turn around and be like frick you for trying to fight your employer

quote:

---

Unions suck, lazy workers, corrupt greedy bosses, I've seen them. God bless the Grateful Dead! The Grateful Dead nailed it: Gotta get down to the Cumberland mine, That's where I mainly spend my time, Make good money Fi dollars a day, Made anymore and I'd move away, Lot a poor man got the Cumberland blues, He can't win for loosing, Lotta poor man got to walk the line, Just to pay his union dues , I don't know now, I just don't know, if I'm going back again

---

That’s not at all what Robert was saying with those lyrics.