Posted on 03/18/2024 1:10:58 PM PDT by ChicagoConservative27
Workers at a Volkswagen manufacturing plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., filed a petition for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board, the UAW announced Tuesday.
The move could make the Tennessee plant the first to join the UAW since the union earned pay raises and benefit increases for its members in a strike against the “Big Three” automakers last year.
“I come from a UAW family, so I’ve seen how having our union enables us to make life better on the job and off,” plant employee Yolanda Peoples said in a statement. “We are a positive force in the plant. When we win our union, we’ll be able to bargain for a safer workplace, so people can stay on the job and the company can benefit from our experience. When my father retired as a UAW member, he had something to fall back on. VW workers deserve the same.”
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
> Under work rules, whatever your classification, you are paid the same wage as everyone else in that class with the same background.
Before unions the work “rules” were often whatever management said they were on that day. Unions were a natural response. Not saying everything they do is wonderful, but there are reasons workers banded together.
There is one thing that a union does. It protects the lazy worker who should be fired. I was in a union for 40 years. There were many times a person should have been fired but the union stepped in and covered for them
F the UAW and all teacher’s unions.
A Southern phrase. My Grandfather could have a failed crop, and he would say he had something to fall back on. Meaning he had some money in the bank.
Tennessee is a “Right-To-Work” state so that’s not going to fly without a lot of lobbying and money to overturn that. Which means corruption - something that seem to naturally adhere to unions. Which is why we have the “Right-To-Work” law.
Then he said that I would love it there because they tip-share and at the end of each shift you turn in your tips to management, they add them to the credit cards tips, and then distribute the tips back to the waiters on the paycheck based on hours worked so that every waiter made the same amount per hour.
I had waited tables at 3 other restaurants before this and was always one of the highest earners because I always busted my a&& and I treated EVERY customer the same regardless of how they looked or sounded.
I told the manager I would love to work there but I would not share my tips because I would be outworking everyone else and getting better tips than most. He said that wasn't possible -— everyone had to share their tips.
I walked out the door without another word. A couple days later I got a call from my first choice. Once again aced the interview and got hired -— with no tip share. Within 2 months I was making $750+ per week for 35 hours (in 1995 Louisiana). This restaurant also gave out ‘bonuses’ for the top 3 selling waiters each week and I was winning almost every week - except when I took a day or 2 off. The bonuses were 1st Place: Dinner anything on the menu; 2nd place: Lunch anything on the lunch menu; 3rd Place $10. I was eating Blackened Catfish with Crawfish Etouffe on top almost every week ...
> there are reasons workers banded together <
Right you are. My (legal) immigrant grandfather worked in a Frick coal mine, and was badly injured in a cave-in. He was fired the next day. Ten thousand stories like that are one reason why unions were formed.
But like with most things, the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction. We’ve gone from greedy and corrupt companies calling the shots to greedy and corrupt unions calling the shots.
Lot of the workers from the big three strikes are out of work now already. More to come.
GETTING MORE WAGES THAN THEY DESERVE AND CAN DO LESS AGAIN & AGAIN.
There is reason Tesla is NOT union.
MUSK would shutter the doors first.
The union is likely excited about exploiting the new generation of immigrant workers. It is getting harder and harder to keep getting raises for the highly paid current batch that is dwindling in numbers due to the union getting them raises.
Worker: Hey this specification sheet is all in Chinese.
Suit: Sorry. A mistake. That’s from next year’s model. We’re still keeping your plant open for at least until after the union vote.
Stand by for the plant-closing announcement...
I still think if you’re a “good” employee, they would have no desire to fire you. For 40 years I taught in universities and all had a tenure system and existed under the American Association of University Professors. With few exception, tenure reduced the quality of teaching. I think the strongest unions on the planet are the American Bar Association and the American Medical Association. Both control the curriculum of the subject, the licensing of the schools, and the administration of the license exam. Those exams control the supply of lawyers and doctors. Exams in “retirement states” (e.g., CA, FL) are much more difficult that in “hard-to-attract” states (e.g., ND, MS).
I understand that motivation, but work rules work both ways. Why did unions insist on having “coalers” working on trains with diesel engines? Unions were quite good with their own “feather bedding” rules.
They can file all they want but the workers have to vote whether or not they want a union. There are many examples of workers voting not to have a union in southern plants.
FWIW, Tennessee is both a "right to work" state and an "at will" state.
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