Well, at least here in Europe, drivers would be poorer, more stressed and toatlly down on health, if there weren't the unions!
Great discussion on a topic I have never fully understood.
My only experience with unions was in college when I worked part time bagging groceries at Safeway. Back then (1981) I received minimum wage, less taxes and less union dues. I don't remember what it finally came down to after deductions, but after all of that I still had to have my part time job at McDonalds (weekend meals) and at the university cafeteria (lunch during the week) in order to get by. I didn't have any benefits from paying the dues and I was told that it was mandatory to join.
From what others are saying here, I may have gotten a bad impression. At the time it was certainly a rip off.
Nope, that's the right impression: join the union or you can't work here.
Jarlaxle wrote:Nope, that's the right impression: join the union or you can't work here.
That is the epitome of right wing bullshit. All of the benefits that workers have got in Australia are the result of unions. And these benefits eventually flow on to all workers. Meaning that the four weeks holidays we get each year (won by unions) everybody gets. 38 hour week (won by unions) everybody gets. Paid sick leave (won by unions) everybody gets. Employer sponsored superannuation (won by unions) everybody gets. Everybody includes those people who have never been in a union, enjoy the benefits they've fought for, and come on forums like these and complain about them.
My father was an early member of the SMPFE, Society of Motion Picture Film Editors. He was at a founding meeting (not of the union, I think, but of a whole branch) at Roach Studio in west los angeles the night of my birth. I was taught this early in life as my mother had a hard time and I think I was a blue baby. She was proud of him when she complained about his not being there until the wee hours though. I will always understand the need for unions, and be sorry about abuses carried out by unions.
Bureau of National Affairs
Daily Labor Report
Friday October 10, 1997
Crime Commission Reports Organized Crime Continues to Influence Some Labor Unions
CHICAGO--Despite internal reform efforts by several unions and external pressure from federal law enforcement agencies, organized crime bosses still exert substantial influence over some unions, a new report released by the Chicago Crime Commission contends.
In a report entitled ''The New Faces of Organized Crime,'' the commission describes what it says is mob influence within locals of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the Laborers' International Union of North America, the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union, and the Service Employees International Union. While much of the report deals with mob activities within Chicago-based locals of these international unions, the report broadly discusses organized crime's continued interest in and interaction with labor unions.
''Labor unions have traditionally been a tremendous source of power for organized crime and they still are,'' the report states. ''Although the degree of organized crime influence or control over a union or its leaders varies widely from union to union, the opportunities for criminal misconduct are abundant.''
The Chicago Crime Commission is an 88-year-old nongovernment organization that researches criminal trends and educates policymakers, the public and the law enforcement community about criminal activity. The commission released its report Oct. 2.
Wayne Johnson, chief investigator for the Crime Commission and one of the authors of the report, said a number of important reforms have sought to remove the mob's influence from various unions. He noted, however, that such campaigns have not always been successful based on the long history of linkages between unions and criminal elements. In many cases, factions within organized crime and various union locals are run like family businesses, with leadership passed from one generation to the next, he said.
Unions Attractive Targets
Johnson also contended that unions continue to be attractive targets for the mob, based on their ability to control and influence large numbers of people, huge corporations and funds totalling billions of dollars. Corrupt practices typically witnessed in mob-influenced unions, according to the report, include:
corrupt union officials making ''loans'' to themselves or organized crime figures from union pension, strike and health and welfare funds, which are never repaid;
mob-controlled unions funneling lucrative contracts to mob-owned businesses;
corrupt union leaders accepting money from employers to resolve disputes, call off strikes, or avoid signing collective bargaining agreements;
corrupt union officials extorting money from employers through threats of work stoppages or slowdowns;
corrupt union officials steering positions to family or mob members and creating so-called ''ghost payroll'' jobs, which give individuals salaries even though they perform no duties;
mob-controlled unions using worksites to promote illegal activities such as gambling and loan sharking; and
mob-controlled unions using their human and financial resources to influence elections and gain control over politicians.
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And the politicians for sale to the mobs are Democrats. The Chicago mob/unions put Kennedy in office and the Dalys.
They hurt employees more than they help them.
Wilso, glad, you came back!
The labour union movement is very similar in its relationship to society to the communist party; it is a philosophically good collection of ideas to create equality in the workplace, but it is inherently unsuited to human nature.
In spite of the gains, and agreements fought for, and won in the early days, greed, and the lust for 'power', have begun to destroy the unions from the top down, to the point where a previously respected force for equality and fairness is now largely perceived as a outdated club of bullies enhancing their own status, at the expense of the disenfranchised masses.
Sofia, that's all a pack of worthless right wing raving, consistent with most of what the right wing spews out.
But, as imperfect some unions might be, they are the best avenue available for many, many workers to gain reasonable gains in pay & conditions.
Of course there are some corrupt unions. Just as there a many corrupt employers, who care for little but profit & power.
msolga wrote:But, as imperfect some unions might be, they are the best avenue available for many, many workers to gain reasonable gains in pay & conditions.
Of course there are some corrupt unions. Just as there a many corrupt employers, who care for little but profit & power.
I'd say corrupt employers outnumber corrupt unions by thousands to one. But you'll never hear the right wing raving about them. Not so long as they're making money by any means at their disposal.
I'd agree with at, Wilso.
Bookmark, I will be back !
Wilso, it appears that the unions are very different in the Outback. Here, there is a lot of reported arm twisting and abuse. If you don't go along... They take you out back.
Unions have been corrupted in many instances. That doesn't mean they can't be cleaned up or have a useful function. The working person needs such organizations to help level the playing field.
Yeah, I want to join a gang that blackmails me to get money, they donates it to a politician I can't stand. No thanks.
But I'll bet you're only too willing to enjoy benefits that others have fought for. It's a right wing tradition.
That would have a great deal moere impact if it were accurate. No right wing anything here.
So, it's okay for the bosses to bully the workers, but not okay to organize for protection?
