Posted on 06/06/2002 5:39:12 AM PDT by Rodney King
A SICKING TALE OF THE UNION MENTALITY AT WORK
Matthew Barrick was eight years old when he died this past February. It was a brain aneurysm. Apparently Matthew was quite popular at the Roadoan Elementary School in Brooklyn. The funeral services were private, so an idea was hatched to plant a tree at the school in honor of Matthew.
The idea grew. Two local landscapers offered their help. Some local businesses like Home Depot got into the act. Soon about $3,000 in materials were obtained and the students gathered to plan the tree and do a little landscaping. They sang songs and wrote letters to Matthew.
Uh oh. It seems that some of the custodians at the school are upset. UNION custodians. You see, their duties include landscaping. They are not pleased that these students came over to the school to plant that tree in honor of a dead student. They want to be paid.
Yes --- you heard me right. The custodians want to be paid for the landscaping work. Never mind that they didnt lift a finger. Never mind that the work didnt cost them one single work hour at work. Goonion members Mark Hennings and Doug Scott want to be paid for the work. Whats more, they want to be paid at the time-and-a-half rate of $37 an hour because, after all, the volunteers did the work on a weekend!
The matter came up at a school board meeting in May. The union dopes insisted that the volunteer work violated their union contract. Other union members stood and applauded.
Now you see why I love unions so much?
My personal favorite When the GM plant was closing in Cincinnati, Sen. HowWeird Metzenbaum was making a last ditch effort to save the plant. He invited the press to show up at the plant one morning so he could do a little show-and-tell. Unfortunately, it had to be delayed for 45 minutes because not enough workers showed up on time to start the assembly line.
LOL! Priceless
Our janitor was fined $50 by his union because he changed a light bulb in the bathroom. That was electrician's work and he violated work rules.
One thing I neverunderstood---janitors were members of the Culinary Worker's Union--- Do you clean it then cook it????
Yeah. They have a RIGHT to be overpaid for overtime for a job that kids are willing to do for free.
Of course, they didn't complain while it happend. If so, they might have actually have had to get off their fat lazy asses and do the work themselves. By waiting until later to complain, they have the prospect of getting paid for doing nothing, and getting patted on the back from their fellow union goons for a job well done.
No, but some of them might be doing different work like landscaping and non-union residential construction, which is now done in my area by illegal aliens from Mexico and Equador. And, some would continue in their old jobs because the middle and upper middle class is always going to spend discretionary income on non-essential luxury items. I'm just tired of hearing semi-skilled union lackeys complaining about how they need more money because they don't make enough to raise a family of four when the real problem is that they have three cars, a boat, four TV sets, cell phone accounts for their 11 and 12 year old kids, and a weekend house in the Pocanos, which they use three weekends a month, the fourth weekend being reserved for gambling junkets to Atalntic City and Foxwoods.
Thanks! I wish I had been able to listen to Neal today.
I just find an entire thread that is complaining about supposed incompetence on the part of some segment of the workforce and the person who wrote the column couldnt even spell the title of his own column correctly.
Even when it was in bold print and posted in html on the internet where it could be easily fixed.
Sorry, but theres just a small bit of irony about it.
My solution, and in truth the only solution that won't drag everyone into poverty, is market determination of wages. The reason you have trouble understanding much of the debate here is that we are approaching the topic from different perspectives with different assumptions. On the one hand, I believe it is the responsibility of the individual to look out for himself. First of all, in youth, he should heed those with experience and prepare for his independence through education and training that will enable him to earn sufficient wages to lead the life he desires. If his wages don't support that life, I expect him to adjust either his ability to earn, or his desires. For example, I would not begin a family if my earnings were insufficient to provide for one.
You, on the other hand, believe that society as a whole is responsible rather than the individual. In this belief it is entierly understandable for one to assume the government has an obligation to provide a living wage. Of course, the government cannot provide such a wage and merely transfer the responsibility to an employer who is then expected to repeal the laws of economics and make a go of an enterprise in which he pays too much for an imput. Ultimately he will fail
Last night O'Reilly talked about the stupidity of having an agent represent you to get only a 2% raise--that's what the union leaders are able to do for their members. The union guys can be stupid sheeple if they want to. The sad part is that everybody else suffers because of the "fair play" these bullies insist upon.
And we made airport security personnel government union members???????
You might want to check your own spellcheck...maybe it is on strike??
OK...hear this: if the job that someone is working at is not paying a "living" wage, you leave that job and find one that does; if thats not immediately possible, enhance your owns skills/education until you can attain one.
All those things depend of course on whether or not the person is motivated to better himself, willing to work for himself to attain prosperity, and to believe that he deserves nothing less than what he's willing to work for.
Life, Liberty, Happiness (the real American dream)
Victimization, Entitlement, Discontentment (the liberal American dream)
They'd also learn how much effort is involved, and perhaps, not be so agreeable when the federal government wants to fob off responsibility for some looney liberal's "good idea" onto states, local governments, business, or individuals.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.