The Conservative Cave
Current Events => The DUmpster => Topic started by: Texacon on February 02, 2021, 06:42:46 PM
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https://www.democraticunderground.com/100215043668
Atticus
I'm sure there are others here more qualified to post this, but I do have some personal knowledge
of the subject: Dad was a union man.
My Dad was a member of the old "Laborers and Hodcarriers" union. Back in the 50's, when I was still a pup, the minimum wage was $1.25 an hour and the hourly rate for union laborers was just above that.
I recall that, until union laborers walked picket lines and sometimes fought scabs and paid goons to change things, employers provided on-site open water buckets with one shared tin cup for the crew of laborers. Unsurprisingly, hepatitis was much more common in those days as the highly contagious disease spread from one sick thirsty worker to several co-workers. Contractors had to be forced to provide disposable paper cups and provide clean water on-site.
At that time, laborers could be sent down into unbraced trenches12 or 15 feet deep. It was rare not to know someone you'd worked with who was killed or seriously injured when a trench collapsed and buried them under tons of dirt. Union men forced contractors to shore up any trench over 5 feet deep.
Workmen's compensation, the 40 hour work week, overtime pay, holiday pay, "prevailing wage" laws for government work---WEEKENDS, for cryin' out loud. None of these "just happened"; none of these were "given". They were TAKEN by organized labor---unions---from business interests who fought them every step of the way. Please consider that if these benefits to working people had to be pulled from the clutching fingers of wealthy capitalists--- they could be taken back. Given the popularity in some states of the evil "right to work" laws, some would say the take-back has already begun.
As I end this, I can recall that, as a child, I thought that the reason they called them "picket lines" was because they tacked their strike posters to pick handles. Some years later, I heard why the pick handles were necessary.
Unions created the middle class. If we want to keep it, we need to support the right of workers to organize and bargain for the wages and working conditions so many today take for granted.
How was that, Dad?
My dad is a retired Teamster. His retirement runs out, OUT, in 4 years because the union mismanaged the funds. The drivers working today are working for my dads retirement, not their own. What the **** are the drivers of today going to retire on??
I get so tired of their union loving. There was a time the unions were needed, I believe that because it’s how I was raised, but I’ll tell you right quick my dad has no love for his union anymore. He’s seen the corruption and knows why there’s no retirement money.
I don’t know if any DUmmies have posted about the broke retirement plans yet, but they hadn’t earlier today when I first saw this thread.
KC
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https://www.democraticunderground.com/100215043668
My dad is a retired Teamster. His retirement runs out, OUT, in 4 years because the union mismanaged the funds. The drivers working today are working for my dads retirement, not their own. What the **** are the drivers of today going to retire on??
I get so tired of their union loving. There was a time the unions were needed, I believe that because it’s how I was raised, but I’ll tell you right quick my dad has no love for his union anymore. He’s seen the corruption and knows why there’s no retirement money.
I don’t know if any DUmmies have posted about the broke retirement plans yet, but they hadn’t earlier today when I first saw this thread.
KC
I'm still in a union and most of the guys I work with do not think the union represents us. They haven't had a monthly meeting since last February, but they still sent out the letters telling us to vote for Biden, because Democrats are for the working man.
Unions are nothing more than a money laundering scheme for the national leaders and democrat candidates.
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With rare exceptions, my industry, electronics, has never been unionized. It probably would be more accurate to say that its compensation packages, through many decades, were designed to keep workers too satisfied to want to unionize (because union work rules are designed to be inefficient and inflexible). And yet I'm middle class, union-free. How'd that happen?
My Dad was a land-owning farmer, as was his Dad. Again, both middle class, with no union in their lives. How'd that happen?
My maternal grandfather was a teamster, a delivery route driver delivering fuel and lubricants to farmers. Just short of qualifying for his pension he had a heart attack, and his employer canned him, basically to save the pension $$. His union didn't lift a finger for him and my Mom had to support him and her mother (mental problems) in his declining years (which happened to be during the Great Depression).
There are reasons I'm the antithesis of a union-worshiper and these are just from my family history.
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If a person has to be guided by a union of "laborers" in some sort, then a person usually lacks the intelligence to make their own decisions.
Unions served their purpose 120 years ago, when workers conditions were far more cruel. The labor unions have long out lived their usefulness, except to line the pockets of the the head honchos.
If one aspires to make "minimum wage", that's all you'll ever get.
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... The labor unions have long out lived their usefulness, except to line the pockets of the the head honchos.
...
Unarguably, unions have been significant contributors to their companies' destruction. Name a healthy US auto company. Name a major truly US household appliance company.
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My dad told me when they built a new Teamster office and meeting hall they didn’t use union contractors because they couldn’t afford it.
I know I had to hire union operators in Pennsylvania once upon a time. The HYDRAULIC crane came with an oiler (only needed on old style clutch and brake rigs, otherwise known as lattice booms) who did nothing but was the crane to keep it shiny and the union operator didn’t know basic hand signals.
The other operators were used to turn out welding machines on in the morning and off in the afternoon, they adjusted our amperage if needed but that wasn’t often.
KC
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Liberals love unions. The union members who were building and would have operated the Keystone Pipeline, the union members who are part of the oil industry, and members of the police unions all have received a special type of attention with Cap’n Dementia and the left “looking out for their best interests”.
.
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Liberals love unions. The union members who were building and would have operated the Keystone Pipeline, the union members who are part of the oil industry, and members of the police unions all have received a special type of attention with Cap’n Dementia and the left “looking out for their best interests”.
:clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:
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Liberals love unions. The union members who were building and would have operated the Keystone Pipeline, the union members who are part of the oil industry, and members of the police unions all have received a special type of attention with Cap’n Dementia and the left “looking out for their best interests”.
.
^5!
KC
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https://www.democraticunderground.com/100215043668
My dad is a retired Teamster. His retirement runs out, OUT, in 4 years because the union mismanaged the funds. The drivers working today are working for my dads retirement, not their own. What the **** are the drivers of today going to retire on??
I get so tired of their union loving. There was a time the unions were needed, I believe that because it’s how I was raised, but I’ll tell you right quick my dad has no love for his union anymore. He’s seen the corruption and knows why there’s no retirement money.
I don’t know if any DUmmies have posted about the broke retirement plans yet, but they hadn’t earlier today when I first saw this thread.
KC
I had no idea that union pensions stopped being paid at some point. I assumed they were for the life of the member and his surviving spouse
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I wonder how the DUmbasses dad would feel about Quid Pro Joe stabbing the union members that supported him in the back with eliminating thousands of good union jobs by stopping both the Keystone pipeline and all construction on the border wall.
Not too well I'd think.
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I wonder how the DUmbasses dad would feel about Quid Pro Joe stabbing the union members that supported him in the back with eliminating thousands of good union jobs by stopping both the Keystone pipeline and all construction on the border wall.
Not too well I'd think.
Or opening the border to flood the labor market with foreign scabs.
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I had no idea that union pensions stopped being paid at some point. I assumed they were for the life of the member and his surviving spouse
It wasn't supposed to. That's the thing. He is supposed to have that pension until death and if he dies before my mom, she's supposed to get a percentage of his pension until her death.
The Teamsters messed up. BAD. They had a huge meeting many years ago and asked the retired guys if they could cut their pension in half so it would last longer and they could get more people on it until the money was gone and the membership said no. The government was going to get involved at one point or the Teamsters asked them to or something, but it's a really bad deal. In 4 years none of them will be drawing a pension because there will be no money to draw from.
https://www.rollcall.com/2020/02/28/retirees-worst-nightmare-federal-backing-of-pension-funds-at-risk/
That's just one story of many you can find on the issue.
Here is a DUmmie who saw what the union does first hand and actually posted about it.
usaf-vet (3,287 posts)
44. My dad was a Printer and a lifetime member of the Typographical Union. My understanding was......
..... that he enter the union before WW II. Served in WW II. Went back to his trade and the union after his discharge.
He worked across all printing jobs. He worked for a job shop printing everyday business paper needs. Business cards, letterheads, envelopes, advertising, handbooks, and other business needs.
He then worked in the composting rooms of newspapers in the region. He worked different shifts depending on the needs of the employer or seniority.
Sometime in the mid-1960, the union became insolvent. And my dad said that, in all likelihood, his pension would be worthless. I don't know the specifics as I was in the military mid-1960s to the late-1960s.
He still had years to work before retirement, so he opened his own job shop and ran that for years until he was recruited by a regional state prison system to teach printing in their job training programs. He retired at 65 and collected Social Security and a nice state employee pension.
I don't believe he ever received one penny from all of the money he paid in from his 17th birthday until the early 1960s. When the UNION LEFT HIM.
He loved his trade and raised a family on that one single income.
There was another post that I can't find that talked about how the posters dad was union, had a cardiac emergency (I think) and the union let him go to save the pension $$ and the mom had to work to support the family. I don't know if it was on another thread, or this one. Atticus started 2 different threads about unions.
KC
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It wasn't supposed to. That's the thing. He is supposed to have that pension until death and if he dies before my mom, she's supposed to get a percentage of his pension until her death.
The Teamsters messed up. BAD. They had a huge meeting many years ago and asked the retired guys if they could cut their pension in half so it would last longer and they could get more people on it until the money was gone and the membership said no. The government was going to get involved at one point or the Teamsters asked them to or something, but it's a really bad deal. In 4 years none of them will be drawing a pension because there will be no money to draw from.
https://www.rollcall.com/2020/02/28/retirees-worst-nightmare-federal-backing-of-pension-funds-at-risk/
That's just one story of many you can find on the issue.
Here is a DUmmie who saw what the union does first hand and actually posted about it.
There was another post that I can't find that talked about how the posters dad was union, had a cardiac emergency (I think) and the union let him go to save the pension $$ and the mom had to work to support the family. I don't know if it was on another thread, or this one. Atticus started 2 different threads about unions.
KC
Atticus or Omaha Steve, the infamous union parrot about their talking points? By the way is Steve Dawes still alive?
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I'm sure there are others here more qualified to post this.......
Yes, but the goldfish needs someone to hold down the shift key.
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Atticus or Omaha Steve, the infamous union parrot about their talking points? By the way is Steve Dawes still alive?
Dyeing but still alive for just another 24 business hours I hear.
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Dyeing but still alive for just another 24 business hours I hear.
Doctors have claimed that the key to his longevity during his illness is a steady diet of mini tacos.