The Fall f the United States, The End

[Jeff Niceswanger]

[QUOTE=Alan Roehrich;682221]The only time I had a union "securing my wages and benefits", the slackers kept me from getting a full time job.




Glad you spoke up Alan. Gary isn't a bit shy either and hopefully folk are getting some education on "Modern" labor. They all know of the horror stories of the past. Unions are not the Unions of the 70's and 80's. We have learned, and members are gun-shy of scenario's exactly as you described. I know of several class racers that work for the Ford plants down in the Louisville area. They want no part of being without the UAW.
Has anybody on here actually been a part of a strike like I did? I doubt it. Even though they have never been involved their the first ones that claim to know all about it. Let me tell ya, you don't. Those guys have had to vote to walk out. And its scary. They have discussed it with their wives, their kids, their friends. Its serious stuff. You might never get that job back. Even if you do, the job will be HORRIBLE until things calm down and that will take months, most likely years. That's all discussed in the meetings as the members make up their own minds on what to do about the company's final contract offer.
We had a guy, Will Wise. One of the smartest men I ever met. He was an Electronics specialist. When he hired in he refused to join the union. So his dues money was sent to I believe his church and he was NOT a member. So during that timeframe we went out on strike. Curiosity was high as we figured he would refuse to strike and if he did would shortly cross the picket line. Week after week went by. But he never crossed. I finally had to ask him "What are you doing out here"?. His answer was " Their screwing me just like they are you". After the strike, he joined the local and ran for office. Chief Steward. That's the # 2 guy in the union. Amazingly the guys voted him in and he was my right hand man for years. Sadly he died of brain cancer.
You never hear of the good outcomes because of unions,, Like UPS pension of 2500 a month @ 57 years old and 3000 dollars @ 30 years. They have had this since the strike of the 90's.Ive already spoke of my personal outcomes. Make me an rich guy? Of course not. All been a perfect world in my 45 years of labor? No, not at all. I spearheaded a decertification vote and successfully threw a do nothing union right out the door. We were spending 250,000.00 dollars a year for nothing. But I did more than run my chops. I got involved, helped throw them out and later became the leader of the pack.
90 % of quality and production issues in a manufacturing facility is management. The workers just do what their told. And if they don't, there is ample language in any "modern" contract to get rid of them. Management Rights, Discipline and Discharge and Major Offenses makes it a road map to peel off the slacker's. (I'll post ours but most contracts are very similar). For some reason, many times they CHOOSE not to. They just refuse to follow through on discipline. You gotta do it right, and they don't. Its that way on purpose, so the bosses nephew is not given favor over the next guy, even if he's a nobody. You'd be surprised how many times we had the company hell bent of firing someone but we had to explain to them that joe blow who happens to go hunting with the boss all the time has done the exact same thing multiple times and it was never problem, why is it now? For the reasons why companies cant be consistent you would have to ask Gary, that's his area...

[Jeff Niceswanger]

ARTICLE VIII
MANAGEMENT RIGHTS

Section 1. The Company reserves and retains, solely and exclusively, all of its normal, inherent and common law rights to manage the business, whether exercised or not.

Section 2. The sole and exclusive rights of management shall include but are not limited to hiring of new employees from any source it may desire; to direct the work force and assign work to employees in accordance with the requirements determined by management and the provisions of this Agreement; to evaluate the work performance of employees; to promote, lay off, demote, transfer, discipline, suspend or discharge employees for just cause in accordance with Article IX; to lay off employees because of lack of work and eliminate jobs; to determine and redetermine the work to be performed and the methods, processes and quality of such work; to discontinue processes or operations of the Company; to determine and to select the equipment to be used in the Company’s operations and, from time to time, to change or discontinue the use of any equipment and to select new equipment for its operations, including equipment for new operations; to determine the size and type of the working force; to determine the number of hours per day or week that operations shall be carried on; except as provided in this Agreement or as otherwise agreed by the Company and the Union in letter(s) of understanding, to establish shifts and schedules and from time to time change the shifts and schedules; and to establish or continue policies, practices and procedures for the conduct of the business and, from time to time, to change such policies, practices or procedures, except as provided in this Agreement.

Section 3. The Company shall have the exclusive right to require an employee to undergo a physical examination by a physician of its choosing in accordance with federal and state law to determine an employee’s fitness for duty. The Company shall pay the costs of any physical examination under this Section.

ARTICLE IX
DISCIPLINE AND DISCHARGE

Section 1. The Company shall have the right to discipline employees for just cause. The progressive disciplinary steps are: verbal counseling, written counseling, final written counseling and termination. The steps of progressive discipline shall be followed in all cases of minor infractions of work rules or company policies. In cases of major infractions of work rules, steps of the progressive discipline process may be bypassed; in cases of food safety violations, the verbal step of the progressive discipline process may be bypassed. Violations of the Attendance Policy shall be separate from violations of work rules for all purposes of discipline.

Section 2. When an employee is to be disciplined, the nature of the offense will be put in writing and given to the employee within seven (7) calendar days of the Company’s knowledge of the offense. If the employee is not working on the seventh calendar day, the notice will be given to the employee on the first day the employee returns to work. Any suspension will commence within seven (7) calendar days of the notice unless the Company and the Union agree otherwise. Employees facing disciplinary action shall have the right to request union representation at the time the employee receives the discipline. An employee shall also have the right to challenge the disciplinary action through the grievance procedure. The timeframes set forth in this section may be extended by mutual agreement; consent to such extension shall not be unreasonably withheld.

Section 3. Discipline will not be counted for progressive discipline purposes after one (1) year from the date of issue, provided the employee has not received any disciplinary action for at least one year.

Major offenses
The following is a list of major offenses (to be included in the work rules and not the collective
bargaining agreement):
1. Assault
2. Possession of firearms or other weapons on Company property
3. Use or possession of drugs or alcohol on Company property
4. Being under the influence of alcohol or drugs while on Company property
5. Theft
6. Intentional destruction of Company property
7. Willful contamination of product; willful failure to report contamination of product
8. Falsification of time records or employment application; willful falsification of other
Company records
9. Gross insubordination
10. Fighting
11. Sleeping on the job
12. Willful violation of safety procedures
13. Job abandonment
14. Repeated sexually or racially harassing or discriminatory

[Greg Reimer 7376]

I worked for the City of Los Angeles for almost 30 years before I retired, and the procedures described in the previous posts are almost verbatim the procedures employed by the city in regards to employee conduct. The demands indicated here and under what I worked under are certainly not unreasonable. The stuff on the list of disciplinable conduct has no excuse for happening anyplace. We never had a strike during the entire time I worked there,although there were a couple of bad supervisors that got put on the spot in front of upper management and department heads much to their detriment. There was no doubt as to what was expected of us, and most of us were very glad to have that job and the benefits. The problem i had with unions was that they seemed to have varying standards of enforcement of things based along politically correct lines. Some persons were allowed a lot of leeway to be bad employees and the rest of us took a dim view of it. It was hard to fire a bad employee, it took months of careful documentation and much extra work to stay on top of it all. Some of these persons would have been super star employees if they put the amount of time and effort into doing their jobs as they did doing everything else. One thing some slackers did was to get involved in union activities, being a rep, a steward, and all that stuff. Some of them would charge several hours at a time for "union business", they were gone a lot and nobody seemed to care. They made slackerhood an art form. I feel our department heads sometimes were a bit too nice in order to keep the peace, some of that is certainly necessary, but the rest of us knew they were taking the place for a ride.
It was nice to have the benefits and perks and incentives that the place provided, since a properly treated workforce was the best bet, but a couple of slackers and troublemakers sure can aggravate the rest of us who appreciated being paid well to do a good job.The main problem with the union there was that the union leadership was always going off on political junkets to Sacramento to hobnob with the liberal elites at the state capital instead of being here in LA doing their jobs.

[Jeff Niceswanger]

Originally Posted by Greg Reimer 7376

I worked for the City of Los Angeles for almost 30 years before I retired, and the procedures described in the previous posts are almost verbatim the procedures employed by the city in regards to employee conduct. The demands indicated here and under what I worked under are certainly not unreasonable. The stuff on the list of disciplinable conduct has no excuse for happening anyplace. We never had a strike during the entire time I worked there,although there were a couple of bad supervisors that got put on the spot in front of upper management and department heads much to their detriment. There was no doubt as to what was expected of us, and most of us were very glad to have that job and the benefits. The problem i had with unions was that they seemed to have varying standards of enforcement of things based along politically correct lines. Some persons were allowed a lot of leeway to be bad employees and the rest of us took a dim view of it. It was hard to fire a bad employee, it took months of careful documentation and much extra work to stay on top of it all. Some of these persons would have been super star employees if they put the amount of time and effort into doing their jobs as they did doing everything else. One thing some slackers did was to get involved in union activities, being a rep, a steward, and all that stuff. Some of them would charge several hours at a time for "union business", they were gone a lot and nobody seemed to care. They made slackerhood an art form. I feel our department heads sometimes were a bit too nice in order to keep the peace, some of that is certainly necessary, but the rest of us knew they were taking the place for a ride.
It was nice to have the benefits and perks and incentives that the place provided, since a properly treated workforce was the best bet, but a couple of slackers and troublemakers sure can aggravate the rest of us who appreciated being paid well to do a good job.The main problem with the union there was that the union leadership was always going off on political junkets to Sacramento to hobnob with the liberal elites at the state capital instead of being here in LA doing their jobs.

I'm curious on a couple things Greg. What International Union was it. How did these slackers get voted in to union activity jobs? And why didn't they get voted out when their performance failed. (We had yearly elections). Did you happen to go to the Unions meetings and discuss these topics? Thirty years is a long time to witness all that crap. In those 30 years did you ever get involved and try to make it better? Maybe you did? Sounds like you would have been really good at it. Your ethics are certainly in the right place. One thing is front and center. Leadership in one's Local is of utter importance. They can lead you up the hill, or right down into the drain pipe. Sounds like you had the drain pipe and nobody like yourself would step up to the plate.
That being said, I can only speak for myself in saying my standard of living was the reason I stayed with unions all my life. And if you notice, all the bitches comes from the language sections. Even thou we did a good job with ours and had few complaints, its evident some locals did not. Just look at the complaints on here including yourself. Its all Language. Not a word in the Wages and Benefits sections.. My Wages, Pension, Benefits, Vacations, Healthcare and tons of other ones are King. At least to me. Frankly that's how this whole discussion started... "I vote with my wallet."

[Chevy55]

I'm 81 a Vietnam Vet still work full time some days 10 to 12 hrs and I'm 100% with Biden, NATO and Ukraine and I'll give them everything I have left!
God bless those people of Ukraine they are all heroes in my book!

[Mike Gray]

Originally Posted by Jeff Niceswanger

I'm curious on a couple things Greg. What International Union was it. How did these slackers get voted in to union activity jobs? And why didn't they get voted out when their performance failed."

International Union? It was government employee’s union. There is a lot of difference between government unions and private company unions.

[Greg Reimer 7376]

Thanks for your reply. My 30 years with the city was very uneventful and I pretty well stayed out of trouble. The union there was more interested in flying to Sacramento to hobnob with the liberal elites rather than deal with issues here. If you had an issue, and it wasn't revolving around something of political significance it wouldn't get noticed. The management team was pretty good about doing its job and avoiding the usual union problems a lot of workplaces had. The only issue I had was that the union seemed to feel the need to tell everybody how to vote and what to think and tried to achieve compliance with pressure tactics. About 35-40 percent of us didn't appreciate that and some said so. I enjoyed my benefits, salary, perks, the overall work environment was excellent, a few issues arose, but they got handled pretty well without it being a big deal. The workplace culture seemed to be that nobody wanted unnecessary problems and we didn't want any problems to start. In short, come to work on time, do your job, help others as necessary, and don't create a mess for others on the job site. It was a real good work environment, we were aware of that, and we didn't like troublemakers. I would have no right to complain about anything. I feel that I was very fortunate.

[SStockDart]

The Supreme Court rejects Biden’s plan to wipe away $400 billion in student loan debt

The Supreme Court rules for a designer who doesn’t want to make wedding websites for gay couples


What to know: A breakdown of the Supreme Court's affirmative action decision
John Fritze
Jessica Guynn
USA TODAY

WASHINGTON − The Supreme Court struck down affirmative action policies at two major American colleges on Thursday, scrambling a decades-old effort to diversify campuses as the nation continues to grapple with. Affirmative action is dead.

I believe this is awesome.....but I vote with my heart and love for my country....and not with my wallet.

[MR DERBY CITY]

Just totally blows me away that ANYONE would apply for a loan and believe that they don’t have to pay it off …..GEEZ, I must be naive …

[MR DERBY CITY]

Originally Posted by Chevy55

I'm 81 a Vietnam Vet still work full time some days 10 to 12 hrs and I'm 100% with Biden, NATO and Ukraine and I'll give them everything I have left!
God bless those people of Ukraine they are all heroes in my book!

Thank You for your service. With Biden in charge you will need to up the ante and work about 14 -16 hours a day so that all the ILL LEGALS can enjoy the perks that WE , the workers … have worked all our lives to attain. Again, Thank You for your service ….