[nikos1121]

My son is a plumber in the Peoria, IL plumber’s or maybe it’s pipefitter’s union. A tremendous chunk of his pay comes out of his checks, plus also for medical benefits. He sees other union guys at the hall who are lazy, and when you would work jobs with them, they’d get on you if you worked too fast.

My son, and the other young guys, loved their work, and would work fast and hard, then go to the next job. For that reason they were picked up quickly by the best contractors full time, but of course they were still union.

He wants to start his own business, but knows there is no way, NO WAY he can without being part of the union.

I suspect Michigan is ten times worse. There is no way those things in life, strong private unions, are broken until someone or something breaks them and for good reason.

Peoria at one time had probably 40,000 UAW union members and thousands more in Joliet, Aurora and other places. I worked there as a doctor. EVery four years or so they’d strike us. These guys were unskilled laborers making more than anyone else in Peoria with full medical and dental coverage, back then NO DEDUCTABLE. And they’d strike for more.

One year, management decided that they were going to run the plants themselves, as most if not all of the supervisors came up the ranks as UAW members. It was a real fiasco at first as the UAW tried to stop them. Finally a court allowed them to come to work and work the lines.

The strike lasted forever, I think almost a year, can’t recall. But it was the first time they stood up to the union.

The next time there was a strike, they did it again, and then in the years there after Caterpillar started moving their UAW jobs to other states that were right to work.

Today there are very few UAW workers for Caterpillar in Illinois, maybe a few thousand if that. In short, they screwed themselves.

I have no problem with private unions, not what so ever, but I do with public ones. They are nothing more than the strong arm of the democratic party, and the republicans allowed it to happen.

We can live with private unions, but the public unions work for us, and they should not have that right.

[snooter55]

Amen !!

[raybbr]

Public unions are not just an arm of the dem party. They are the new “mob”. I mean that. They operate just like you would see in any mob movie. I can’t describe the disgust I feel toward them - and that includes cops and firepersons.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Your son needs to move to Texas and start his business.

[4yearlurker]

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!

[Beagle8U]

“We can live with private unions, but the public unions work for us, and they should not have that right.”

I would settle for outlawing the teachers union!