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Back in the 1980s I was living in South Jersey. A good buddy of mine,who was a painter was trying to get into the local Painters Union,(in Vineland,NJ) to work at the Salem,NJ Nuclear Plant,painting,sandblasting,etc. He would hang at the Union Hall everyday. After about two weeks they called him in the back office and said they would hire him on,but,it would cost him 500 bucks. He knew this,had the money and paid the bribe. A few days later he starts working at the plant. The Union boss on the job shows him a paper coffee cup and says to him: "see this cup you fill this cup up with paint and that's all you paint in a day!" He did like they said and he worked the job for good money. I asked him how he liked his new job. He told he never worked with a bunch of cut throat scum bags like these guys!

I think there was a time, when a union worker’s work effort and quality was worth more than his wage. I know my son, a union plumber, and his young friends give $10 dollars of work for every $1 of pay. They work for a major construction company in Peoria, not out of the union hall.

In fact, my son was first trained in a non union shop for two years, and learned some good work habits, then switched his apprenticeship to a union shop. A couple year’s ago, he entered the National Plumber’s Apprenticeship Contest representing Peoria County. 9 Illinois Apprentice plumbers representing all the regions of the state went to the State Championship in Cook County where there are over 2000 apprentice plumbers.

The guy representing Cook county was the best of this lot. My son was the only guy to enter from Peoria.

Cook County had never lost the title going back to the Al Caponoe era. NEVER.

Well guess what, my son won Illinois State Plumber’s Apprentice Championship, then won the regional and went to the Nationals in Michigan losing to some guy from the D. C district with ties to Obama. My son is pretty humble, but told me the guy was probably the worst plumber of the bunch. I think there were 6 at the Nationals.

STill out of 50,000 apprentice plumbers, my son ended up no. 2 in the country.

In most cases Union=Mediocrity