I am a retired teacher after having taught 23 years in Florida public schools. I was very active in the teacher's union and even now, I belong to the union's retired division; i.e. The NEA, AFT, AFL-CIO, and the FTA (Florida Teacher's Association). Anyone belong to a union?
Joe

I'll go out on a limb here and say, Not Many.

I work in the public sector and am not a member of any union. In my limited dealing with Unions I have come to the conclusion they are more about protecting bad/lazy employees than actively trying to do good for their members.

Tolling again I see.

FLT said:

Tolling again I see.

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Drauka99 said:

I'll go out on a limb here and say, Not Many.

I work in the public sector and am not a member of any union. In my limited dealing with Unions I have come to the conclusion they are more about protecting bad/lazy employees than actively trying to do good for their members.

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Sorry that you have come to that conclusion after limited dealings. If you were actually in a union and could see things from the inside, I'm sure you would come to a more positive conclusion. I have extensive union dealings and all of my efforts (as well as my colleagues) were constantly fighting for the good of our members. I was raised around unions and have been involved in unions most of my life as my Dad was union representative over skilled trades in the UAW when we lived in Detroit.
Joe

I'm a current educator and member of the local NEA only because of the legal insurance provided. I pay dues of over $50.00 per month which is cheaper than taking on liability insurance myself. I am not a fan of unions in general because they tend to hold management hostage. It is real process to dismiss teachers and other staff even when there is positive evidence of misconduct due to the fear and the extremely detailed and tedious paperwork that is needed. I'm not talking about egregious misconduct such as physical or sexual abuse but other issues that in the private sector a manage would be able to fire someone over. I feel unions have their place but most have become a, "club" of sorts to allow substandard works to keep their jobs. That's my two cent and I'm sure there will be flames coming so fire away!

911Parrot, you describe pretty much mine and my co-workers experiences and problems with the union we sometimes work with.

Plumbers Pipefitters Steamfitters and Service Tech since 1974.
Honest days pay for honest days work.
I loved my work and customers.


Followed in Dads footsteps and never regretted a day.
He grew up hard and made it to the middle class. Had the belief that when Unions have been stamped out then the middle class would soon follow.
I’m a reluctant Republican because the Democratic party left me long ago. Republicans aren’t much better.
Seems these days its a perfect storm of the pius Dems wanting to tax us to submission and votes at the cost of the American way. Republicans recently have shown their true colors by not really being able to get it together to back up their mouth with House/Senate/Presidency in hand.
Feeding us candy and tell us lies.

Unions? Some good and needed in the trades I say.
Some bad or not needed.
Like government Unions

You asked!:noidea:

O P you must not have worked any where near hear,around this bunch of crooks and others that will lie to your face and want ya think the sun shines at night.

The Unions are corrupt from the top down and I feel for the working man in them that has to fund the crooks at the top. They had their place in history but not much now that is why the memberships are dwindling

unions are for the most part, parasites..

anyone who goes down in the ground, coal miners, gold, silver, etc, needs a union...all others are obsolete.

I agree with the above about the “underground” workers. As a business owner I don’t see how a group of employees could get together and tell me who I’m going to hire,what hours I’m going to be open, how much I’m going to pay them, and when they are going to get raises. Not gonna happen.

never understood the need for public service unions... are they protecting their members from those evil taxpayers?...

spent several years as a skilled tradesman (instrument tech) and member of OCAW (oil, chemical, atomic workers) at medium sized manufacturing plant in the 70s. We had electricians, millwrights, welders, machinists, tool and die, pipefitters, oilers, hydraulic shops..

the work rules were pretty bizarre at times... especially overtime.. each friday they would post the weekend work needed, and if you were asked and refused you were charged the time as if you worked it.. basically trying to ensure everyone had equal opportunity to the cheese...problems were the rules for contacting folks on off shifts... and how many times management needed to try and call before giving up ,,,

as others have noted it serves mainly to protect the folks that should have been fired from the get go...we had one electrician whose only job was replacing light bulbs... as that was the only job he could be trusted to do...

we had another electrician that no one wanted to get stuck working with ...every one of the screw drivers in his pouch was missing hunks of steel ...or was an inch or two short .. yea 480 will do that to ya if you are not careful..

spent a couple weeks on strike one year... started out kind of fun but got serious real quick...

also got educated one afternoon by a grizzled old pipefitter union steward about why welfare is a good thing.. not a rant i want to post here but ask me sometime...

rich

As far as Unions go, the good far outweighs the bad.
Joe

Ah unions...seems like a sore subject. I work on Hulbert Field as an aircraft structural mechanic for 14 yrs, since I retired from the Marines in 2004. Started off on a C-130 contract with a set of bad supervisors....place was run like a prison. A 10 minute break was 9 minutes and 59 seconds (mind you all work on the airplane is done...we have never delivered a plane late due to our fault since I've been there, cant speak for government shutdowns, acts of God, part coming on a slow boat from China, etc)...bosses hid in the parking lot to see if you walked out 2 minutes early, shit like that. For me the stupidity level changed after a few years when our painters over-sprayed paint in the paint hanger floor, that was covered up with tarps (about 20,000 sq ft area) and our boss wanted us to get on our hands and use handheld orbital sanders on the concrete to remove the over spray, I told him to pack sand. Yep I got called into the office and I told him to get HR on the phone. After years of putting up with our bosses rules of 'because I said so...", folks organized. L3 Communications (at the time, now Lockheed Martin) was having no part of it, they brought in their goons to disrupt the vote which only made the folks more insistent on a union. Fast forward to now, we got the IAM to represent us (International Association of Machinists). Our wages did go up (which before were tied to a government scale) and no more getting fucked on Friday when they need overtime for whatever whim of a reason. There's good and bad with any union, you only get out what you put in. One good thing of our union, they have to have a separate slush fund to pay off any political hags that you can or don't have to contribute. It has kept the stupidity level in check for the most part. Getting someone fired who deserves it, ie a POS mechanic, is like pulling hens teeth...