Or you have some just awful problems with the machinery, and vandalism, and breakage, and workers turning up sick or hurt...and...and...well, maybe you should reconsider talking to those gentlemen about taking out some "insurance". 
Posted on 03/16/2005 1:18:08 PM PST by rightalien
It’s always been part of a protection racket and don’t think otherwise.
You own a construction company, great. I can pull a few strings and make sure you get a particular contract for the reasonable sum of $50,000. Once you have it, you just cough up $10,000 each week or you’re going to have labor problems.
I’ll either arrange for them to strike, or I’ll arrange for some other union to set up a strike line they’ll be intimidated into not crossing. Pay up – it’s the cost of doing business.
It’d also be great if those proud, highly trained members have plenty of pocket change and be exceptionally well paid. People with plenty of extra money jingling in their jeans are much more likely to feed other parts of the business – prostitution, drugs, and gambling, primarily. So at contract time you better stand and deliver or your business will be damaged or destroyed because “we’ll” shut ‘er down.
Also nice to have members working at a variety of places. It comes in handy when you need a trailer full of cigarettes or booze. It helps to have someone on the inside that knows what is loaded in which trailer and where it’s headed and when. They can also provide things like keys, uniforms, and company ID.
There’s been millions of cases over the decades where someone will approach a driver, slip a $100 bill in his shirt pocket, and tell him that tomorrow morning on your first run, you’ll pull over and get coffee just like normal.
Then the next day he does. When he comes out the truck is gone.
An uncle of mine worked in loss prevention for Anheuser-Busch. In their region, depending on the time of year, their “leakage rate” approached 10%. That figure certainly isn’t “normal,” but it’d spike up to that percentage occasionally.
Now ask yourself – what the F do you do with a trailer (or two or three) full of beer? You aren’t going to drink it any time soon. Unless you have one hell of a big garage you aren’t going to store it there.
So what do you do? Exactly – you have to have someone with something like a beer distribution company. Someplace with a warehouse and loading docks and forklifts. Someplace where they can mix it in with the legitimately purchased beer and pass it off.
Then you realize that the local union president has a nephew that happens to own a couple distribution companies and one distributes beer. Hmmm… on and on. Beer, cigarettes, office supplies, building materials, auto parts, produce, plants from nurseries – it never ends.
There’s plenty of money in it. With that money you can feed the politicians (and with the members you can apply pressure) to make life a little easier on yourself. That’s how it has worked forever.
Oh, but now U.S. companies aren’t chained to their surly, combative, overpaid labor force. In a lot of cases the U.S. market is saturated and in decline. As their labor costs become increasingly silly and prohibitive, local and regional players come in to undercut them. It becomes increasingly attractive to concentrate your efforts where you can get the best return – Latin America and Asia.
And though those areas have a reputation for having a lot of corruption, it can be much cheaper to deal with the corruption there rather than the corruption here – at least for the time being.
Whatever… slow day here…
Try this one:
Public union members are like broken guns; they don't work and you can't fire them.
My daddy told me unions only guarantee two things; dues and strikes. Now I guess they also guarantee pouring money down a rat-hole.
Labor unions once served a valid purpose in addressing unsafe working conditions. However, thanks to plaintiff's lawyers, unions are obsolete because the workplace is now safe (or closed).
True, Indiana is not a right to work state. But, recognition of public employee unions was not subject to state statute but executive order of the governor. When Mitch Daniels became gov this year, in his first week he rescinded all prior executive orders recognizing unions and "de-certified" and voided all collective bargaining agreements with state unions.
And no strikes or work stopages, either. Well, it's debatable whether they were actually doing any work to begin with.
Yes, but I suspect senior Union leadership would agree with Louis XV of France who said, "Things as they are will last out my time."
Or you have some just awful problems with the machinery, and vandalism, and breakage, and workers turning up sick or hurt...and...and...well, maybe you should reconsider talking to those gentlemen about taking out some "insurance".
I'm all for it too. I do live and work in a "right to work state" but, I work for a contractor on a military base, aka, a "federal enclave". That means the federal rules apply. We're stuck having to join or declare as "Beck Objectors" which means that we still have to pay an inflated Agency Fee to the union as a condition of work. I have chosen the later.
Every time I demand my right under the law, to a full accounting to how my fees are being spent, I'm blown off. I can't remember how many times they've attempted to have me fired for withholding my fees until they meet their accounting requirements. It seems the Department of Labor usually insists on enforcement in the unions behalf.
I've about got it down to a science as to how to give the union the most heartburn possible before I pay them what I have to. I usually wait until everyone is pulling their hair out at the deadline and then hand them a check at the last minute.
The final twist is the memo I put on the check: "Extortion payment for period....." They have returned the checks several times as a result but, have been forced to take it or leave it by the mediator. Tee-hee The greedy basids always take the money in the end. Just proves they ain't got no pride. I figger the more they spend to putz around with me, means less of my money they'll have to give to the Dems.
It’s true – they have a lot in common with loan sharks and bookies. But the bottom line is that they want the money. Hurting someone exposes you to that act to some degree – plus if they get too rough they get nothing. Well, they can “send a message” to others, which has value, I suppose.
They’d rather “encourage” you to pay up and get on with life. It’s easier all around. That’s not to say they’re not murdering dogs. They’ve demonstrated that to my satisfaction.
Right On!!! ALPA lost its compass years ago. Now not even a GPS can place them near reality.
Good for you! They have no right to hold us hostage like they are.
You know, they used to hold Congressional hearings on stuff like that. How times have changed.
bump for later read
Yes. Congress (even democrats, believe it or not) used to be “different.”
Now they all (even republicans, believe it or not) understand the program.
Times have changed… yep.
Interesting that the UAW didn't have any trouble with liberals in foreign cars sporting Kerry/Edwards stickers.
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