February 26, 2009
What do Union Members say to Union Bashers?
So I see that the all-knowing “Bill O” has been spewing the anti-UAW rhetoric again by stating that UAW members are making upwards of $70 + an hour. This kind of misinformation only breeds contempt for unions & must be d-bunked ASAP!!!
This hit home this week, as a co-worker & I are in a training class with union and non-union workers. The anti-union talk starts , and we quickly dispensed of it. Facts and a well prepared “offense” will shut up most bashers quickly!
But it made me think, do we only defend our own interest? Or does solidarity mean all “UNIONS”?
I know several people directly affected by the GM closing………I wonder how the middle class plans on sticking around when the standard setters are being run out. Anti-Union talk is prevalent everywhere, even in our own circles.
What do you say to it?
Comments on What do Union Members say to Union Bashers? »
Ultimately solidarity means standing up for all unions everywhere. First things first tho, we have to start right here in our little corner of the world.
Something else to think about… the solution to the immigration problem… union organizing in Mexico.
Food for thought?
Here’s a book I highly recommend- ‘State of the Unions’ by Phillip Dine.
I know it’s available on Amazon, not sure where else.
I wouldn’t be as quick to defend the UAW as I would our union. I had the pleasure to work around a few hundred of them in the end-days.
After the plant closed I have worked around some of the “ex-GM employees” and found out that a lot of them including their spouse walked away with health care until the day they die.
Our building trades don’t come close to the pay or benefits the UAW does. Our guys get up @ 4:am and drive to Ft. Sill or Stillwater to work and if they are lucky they get some drive pay but still wear a car out or else they live in a fleabag motel maybe a travel trailer. No vacation, holidays, sick days, just an hourly wage thats spent freezing your fingers off or working in 100+ degree summers. Our guys also have to bend the “Safety Rules” a bit also. Contractors don’t always think things through so you wait until the safety man is out of site before you attempt something. We also compete with non-union shops while the UAW doesn’t.
Well I wasn’t actually “defending” the UAW as much as making a point. Why does the membership of the UAW catch hell for being on the receiving end of a contract that is LOADED? Lets be honest, if our contract was agreed on with lifetime health care would you turn it down? Heck no, you would be glad to get it.
Maybe I should make a better analogy…..whats the difference in UAW workers walking away with the perks they negotiated, and bye the way, management agreed on, and CEO’s who run billion dollar companies into bankruptcy while they still get paid their bonus and salary and then walk away with a golden parachute?
As far as Mexico and unions, I dont see it happening with the huge amount of corruption in their government. And lets not forget about the dozens of US companies that have gone to Mexico for cheap labor there. Immigration is a great topic though, so many variables, more on that later.
“CEO’s who run billion dollar companies into bankruptcy while they still get paid their bonus and salary and then walk away with a golden parachute?”
The CEO’s of those companies are making too damn much money. Their salaries alone are enough to break any company I know of. It seems like a crime when you compare this type of income to people who really put there back into the job and cant afford health insurance. Its been going on forever though.
taken from http://www.geocities.com/nai_cilh/servitude.html
“One half to two thirds of all immigrants to Colonial America arrived as indentured servants. At times, as many as 75% of the population of some colonies were under terms of indenture.” You can research how that turned out and it wasn’t very good for many of the people that came to America.
I recently finished reading a biography of Benjamin Franklin. He served an apprenticeship, as a printer.
He served his apprenticeship, got a job as a printer and eventually was able to set up his own print shop. He originally begin gaining notoriety with the articles he would write, his fame grew with a couple of his experiments that became famous.
He parlayed that fame into government printing contracts and eventually into a position as one of two postmasters for the colonies.
From his postmaster job he became involved in government, and then becoming a Statesman and American Ambassador to Europe.
It seems I’ve gone off on a tangent here, but I started this to bring up what a huge supporter of and believer in the middle class that Franklin was. Here are some quotes:
“America is creating a society where a mere man of Quality who does not want to work will be despised and disregarded, while anyone that has a useful skill will be honored.”
“Instead of rich proprietors and struggling tenants, most people cultivate their own land or follow some craft or trade.”
“In America, people do not inquire of a stranger, What is he? but, What can he do?”
“A true American would think himself more obliged to a genealogist who could prove for him that his ancestors and relations for ten generations had been ploughmen, smiths, carpenters, turners, weavers, tanners or even shoemakers.”
Franklin’s beliefs included: faith in the virtues of hard work and frugality, the benevolent belief in voluntary associations to help others, conservative opposition to handouts that led to laziness and dependency and an ambivalent resentment of unnecessary luxury, hereditary privilege and an idle landowning leisure class
I just got back from the gun show at the fair grounds. I was stopped by a man at the NRA booth who wanted to sign me up as a member. I enlightened him that I had been a member of the NRA for ten years but had to drop my membership because of the political propaganda the NRA spewed for the GOP. First he denied it and said the NRA also endorsed democrats, then we talked about Brad Henry and I wanted to know why the NRA always endorses his opponent even though Brad Henry has an A+ rating with the NRA. My point was that I was for organized labor so that a person would be able to afford a nice gun but that is of no importance to the NRA. I stopped at another vendors table and the “N” word was used quite loosely for Obama and that guns were going to skyrocket in price (because of Obama) creating an urgency to buy all the guns you can…while you can. This “fear tactic” that the NRA is using is the same tactic that we lived by for the last eight years under the republican party.
I feel like any entity that is against the democratic party is a Union Basher.
“It seems like a crime when you compare this type of income to people who really put there back into the job and cant afford health insurance.”
Well I think you misunderstood what I was trying to say…..”Union Bashers” jump on the fact that some unions have done quite well in negotiating benefits for their members, they make it out as a bad & horrible thing that “working people” are getting benefits for life, if that should be the case. But they never go after the CEO’s who are basically doing the same thing, all the while they are in charge.
As far as the gun show comment, it always amazes me that grown men can have such a deep seeded fear over loosing something as important as gun ownership all the while remaining silent when they have actually lost some rights that are just as important if not more. Hint: read the Patriot Act.
“But they never go after the CEO’s who are basically doing the same thing, all the while they are in charge.”
I hear you loud and clear. It seems like it really doesn’t bother anyone either. You have to have an affair like Bill Clinton before you can get the people shook up!
I saw on the news Sunday morning that Mary Fallin will be running for governor. There is no doubt she will be endorsed by the NRA.