http://biggovernment.com/libertychick/2010/02/11/union-bosses-target-86-yr-old-volunteer-crossing-guard/#more-73510

Long story short, a guy volunteers his time to be a crossing guard at the street across from his house. The local gov't employees' union gets pissed off and demands that he be replaced with a union guy for 12.65/hr.

LONG LIVE THOSE GREAT UNIONS!!!

2/11/2010 4:27:13 PM

I see your union craziness and raise you a municipal union angry because a boy scout added a nature trail to the park for his eagle scout project.
http://articles.mcall.com/2009-11-15/news/4476519_1_eagle-scout-nick-balzano-seiu-members

2/11/2010 4:33:18 PM

I'll see your boy scout nature trail and raise you Madison WI's highest paid city employee being a $159k bus driver.

http://www.twincities.com/ci_14358113?source=most_viewed&nclick_check=1

2/11/2010 4:38:47 PM

that's not his base pay, though, so that is ok. he worked a shit ton of overtime for that.

2/11/2010 4:41:14 PM

hey hey hey guys, don't be so hard on unions. As part of the GM bailout, UAW had to give up their paid Easter holiday and the right to overtime at <40 hours a week. It is rough out there for those guys.

2/11/2010 4:42:02 PM

I take you guys don't believe people have the right to organize and assemble?





or am I jumping to conclusions . . . . . . . . .

2/11/2010 4:59:48 PM

oh, they have a right to do so. And we have a right to call them douchebags when they act like douchebags

2/11/2010 5:01:01 PM

^Troof

2/11/2010 5:03:09 PM

Nonsense. Union leaders are fine, upstanding, incorruptible individuals.

2/11/2010 5:27:11 PM

what a joke. I work at a union factory and thus sent this article to my other engineering buddies who would enjoy this story. fuck unions.

2/11/2010 5:55:32 PM

should i tell my family's story for why unions matter?

of course not, besides, last time we discussed this we determined that it doesn't matter because coal miners are stupid inbred hicks who should be weeded out of the gene pool.

for every overzealous UAW boss there's at least more than a few janitors or miners or whatever who need a collective voice loud enough to be heard. but i wouldn't expect a bunch of white guys with csc degrees to care. why can't everyone be as cool as you guys?

2/11/2010 6:44:10 PM

Quote :

"of course not, besides, last time we discussed this we determined that it doesn't matter because coal miners are stupid inbred hicks who should be weeded out of the gene pool."

pretty much...

btw i am guessing you have NEVER worked in a union factory before and instead serve on Obama's campaign program.

2/11/2010 6:59:41 PM

The problem with a lot of unions is that their size is not regulated. Ideally we would have as many unions as companies and let them compete against one another, instead in a lot of these shifted a monopsony on labor into a monopoly.

[Edited on February 11, 2010 at 7:03 PM. Reason : ]

2/11/2010 7:02:34 PM

Quote :

"btw i am guessing you have NEVER worked in a union factory before and instead serve on Obama's campaign program."

Hyuck hyuck hyuck look at me i'm HUR i have a wooden spoon and an engineerin' degree and i'm a dumbass on the internets.

the problem with unions is that they are too dominated by bosses that aren't actually a part of the rank-and-file workforce. that, and a litany of things, but it doesn't change the necessity of some balance in the worker-manager relationship, it should just be less bureaucratic in that the union should be the workers only, not some outsider. as a freelancer and union member, i can say i prefer having this model of collectively working together as freelancers to gain training, find jobs, standardize credentials than the model found in most places.

2/11/2010 7:11:57 PM

the irony of unions is that I "know" of a company that has two manufacturing operations for the exact same product. One plant is unionized and the other is not. As it turns out ZOMG the workers at the NON-unionized plant get paid MORE than the workers at the union plant. The non-unionized plant is freed from the shackles and inefficiencies that unions cause and in return are capable of paying their workers more.

"This" company is not unique and I have heard from a friend at GE who with his job has spent two 1-year stints at two factories. One being union and the other non-union. He told the exact same thing about how the non-union factory actually is able to pay higher wages.

Granted workers actually do more fucking work at the "non-union" factories but i suppose it depends on your priorities. If you want to get paid less to sit on your ass and have some union pride i do not feel sorry for you when the factory shuts down and moves its operation overseas.

2/11/2010 7:19:23 PM

MACHO MACHO MAN

2/11/2010 7:34:29 PM

hey man no hard feelings. I am sure it must be nice to get paid to sit on your ass for 30 minutes per hour, screw a couple bolts on, then declare its time for break. Plus once you put in some years you can get take naps in the break room and the management has to go through such lengths to fire you that they'll simply say fuck it.

You get no sympathy though when your company has layoffs and you get canned for being one of the highest clock numbers. With the union it does not matter that you worked harder, are smarter, or have more potential than some of your more senior union brothers. They will keep their job even though they do jack shit simply since they have been there longer.

2/11/2010 7:40:59 PM

i'm a freelancer, i really don't give a shit what your anecdotal evidence from the crackerjack factory or whatever you work in is.

i think we should threaten every workers with their job daily. hang big signs that say "stop working as hard as HUR and you're a dead man" everywhere. fear is a great motivator.

2/11/2010 7:49:19 PM

lol i do not think i have ever worked anywhere that operated like that.

2/11/2010 7:54:20 PM

Quote :

"oh, they have a right to do so. And we have a right to call them douchebags when they act like douchebags"

True true. Unions can do great things. They can also do incredibly douchey things.

2/11/2010 9:14:42 PM

Well, I suppose we could just outlaw unions and just let all of the wealth derived from labor go to a few undeserving CEO's and upper-level managers.

2/11/2010 9:27:28 PM

Quote :

"Well, I suppose we could just outlaw unions and just let all of the wealth derived from labor go to a few undeserving CEO's and upper-level managers."

the mafia agrees

2/11/2010 9:56:07 PM

You can't blame the union for trying to to replace the 86 year old volunteer.

But the city should have enough sense to tell the union no. This guy is saving the taxpayers money.

2/11/2010 10:56:31 PM

the hell I can't blame the union for being absolute douchebags

2/15/2010 12:35:16 PM

Couldn't have put this in your other union hate thread?
http://www.thewolfweb.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=573213

9/2/2010 12:26:18 AM

Yes, because the government giving unfair advantages to union workers is "union hate."

9/2/2010 11:04:56 AM

Quote :

"Well, I suppose we could just outlaw unions and just let all of the wealth derived from labor go to a few undeserving CEO's and upper-level managers."

I see a Marxist ITT

9/2/2010 11:31:38 PM

Quote :

"I see a Marxist ITT "

Or someone aware of the history of American enterprise before the 1930s.

[Edited on September 3, 2010 at 12:03 AM. Reason : ]

9/3/2010 12:03:03 AM

You mean how American real wages improved so dramatically over the decades leading up to the 1930s, then struggled as unions helped wreck the economy, directly causing the 1937 downturn?

A flood of uneducated immigrants depressed the wages of American uneducated immigrants after the dawn of the century, and you draw your conclusions about American enterprise from that singular event. Unions would not have helped pre-1930s America. All unions would have done was increase death rates from unemployment. Would you really prefer a dead immigrant to an underpaid one?

9/3/2010 1:19:32 AM