I agree. If they pull crap like that they don't deserve the job. I would love a gravy union county job and all the benny's that go along with it. One guy here worked 2 day weeks for the last 3 years before retiring. Had so much sick/vaca time. What a joke....
goofy600
Well-known member
Apply for one if your qualified maybe you can get one.
Glad it is over. With that being said, I can't think of one incident that I agreed with a public union strike. This was not about safety or better work conditions, it was about screwing the local tax payers for more carried over time. I will say, with rare exception, what they were asking for does not exist in the private work force. Yet, these clowns want to positions themselves against their neighboring taxpayer. The truck drivers should ask, with their total compensation package, how do they compare to others in their field. I bet they fair well!
20 years ago ya I should have. Everything the county here runs is brand new or a couple years old. Must be nice. Now we are going to build them a new shop for 10 million bucks. I need a new shop. Wanna give me 10 million to do it?
I have always thought.... who would be the best boss to have....a former union member that has started his own business, he would understand what it meant to pay your employees very well, have the best benefits package you can possibly have how nice it was to have the sick pay and vacation no one else had and a pension plan that is almost nonexistent these days. Yes a former union member turned business owner turned boss, guaranteed they would give you what he or she had, after all they knew how important it was to have it.... before it was actually their dime paying for it.....yeah right.
goofy600
Well-known member
So if someone works for the public (municipality) they should all work for free to help everyone in that area save money on taxes? Should everyone that works for a car manufacturer or a snowmobile manufacturer work for free so we can get free or cheep trucks and sleds? How about school teachers they have to educate, raise, and discipline everyone’s children and are expected to do it for free and then get blamed when the kids do something stupid, all so the private sector can work 80 hours a week to buy there second homes and all the toys to go with them. If the public jobs are so great go get one.
Sounds like there's a huge difference on why they went on strike than you refering them working for "free".
goofy600
Well-known member
I didn’t say they were working for free but people all think that public sector employees should all work for free. That every time public employees contracts are in the news they get bashed.
Dude they went on strike because they wanted to CARRY OVER 1500 HOURS OF SICK LEAVE VS ONLY 1150 HOURS. Tell me how that is anywhere near anyone asking them to work for free???? When the pay and bennys is 2 or 3 times or more over what a private sector job would pay there is a problem. You not thinking that tells me you are a union guy. I just signed paychecks yesterday for my guys. Then I sign the $5500 a month check to pay for their health insurance. Along with all the other things. NOBODY that I know feels sorry for those overpaid govt workers. Nobody. They deserve all the crap that they get. Putting all those people at risk for something as selfish as that??? Ya its understandable the PR disaster that they should feel!!!!! Years ago (like almost 20) I was a union employee at Crenlo in Rochester MN. I would have fired me 3 different times but the union got me off with only a slap on the wrist. I got laid off and a year later the workforce went from 700 to 250. Production actually went up. You know what the difference was??? They kicked the union out of the plant. Sorry for the rant but I have seen both sides. Union workers were sleeping in the pallet racking. Private sector workers get to work.
goofy600
Well-known member
That is the great thing about America if you don’t like it you have the right to change. When companies put in pay freezes because things get tight but the the decision makers still get there pay raises and bonuses that is ok because it is private sector. Yes I have worked union and non union and seen quality work from both. I have also seen the public sector get screwed over because the government changed the rules because they know the majority won’t complain. Slim cake it is great that you can pay all the employees you have and pay for insurance and I will also assume you are still making enough money on the backs of your employees that you can pay them but also have all the things you have and the play time you get. And if I remember they were asking for the sick pay to go into a health care account to probably off set the huge costs of insurance now and in the future.
SCAB! SCAB!
He said scab..just kidding.
I grew up in Green Bay, WI and have seen the demise of unions first hand.
When I was a senior in high school (1984) "Da Boys" all bragged how the old man was juicing them into one of the 6 paper mills on the Fox River and be making big bucks.
Great, fall of 1984 I was in Tech school and Da Boys all had new Chev trucks and all was super.
Two years later, the first paper mill had their team go out on strike and after about 90 days brought in the replacement workers. Time stood still and after many rounds of negotiations the Mill decided to end the contract and retain the replacement workers. NO MORE UNION.
This was the first of 4 mills that either ended union contracts or outright closed. Today foreign companies bought out these mills and who the heck knows what is going on.
Only two mills still have unions, for how long..I don't know.
Sad thing is a few of those Boys that went to the Mills in 1984 work in my organization in front-line positions today and lost it all because they would not cross the picket line.
Bear
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Oh by the way, I do have respect for Unions too, my Father did 20 years at the Post Office after he did 22 years in the Marines.
I should have took his advice and got juiced into the Post Office in 1984 like my Sister did after college in 1999. She transferred from the USPS to the CBP as a Pilot and makes 50k more a year than I do plus has mandatory retirement in 3 years at 50 years old.
Don't get me started on the Union retirement; IT MAKES ME ILL and jealous at the same time.
Bear
I had to take a minute to stop laughing.... Its always about what the owner has, how nice of a house he has, or how many toys he has and how nice of a car he drives. My answer to that... being a business owner as well... Everyone has the same opportunity as I or every other business owner has... Go start your own business, yes I agree the employees are an important part of the success of my business but my employees don't have to take the worry home with them, my employees start and end at a fixed time every day, my employees get a paycheck every week regardless of how the business is doing, I personally haven't taken one for 11 weeks, my employees don't have the financial stress or financial skin in the game that I have, my employees have a job to lose if I fail, I have everything to lose if I fail. I know full well about the checks slimcake is talking about because I write them too. But to bring up all the things a business owner has.... HA HA!!! start your own business, id love to work for you because im sure you would share all of the fruits of your hard work and risk with me no questions asked.
ooooookay then,,,,
You just included the word "free" three times in your four sentence post.
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Amen
You just included the word "free" three times in your four sentence post.
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Amen
scoot
Member
I owned a Chicago (union city) business for 30 years. Sure I had some sleepless nights. But I knew I couldn't have done it without my hard working employees. So I paid them above and beyond the going rate for their efforts. Sure I had some sleepless nights. But I was still able to retire at 50. So you'll have to excuse me if I don't weep for the sad life story of the poor business owner. 
goofy600
Well-known member
Timo reread my post with the work free in it, I never said they work for free but did say that everyone (ie. tax payers) feel like they should work for free. So maybe I over dramatized it by using free but no matter what wage a public employee makes the general public think it is to much and should never ask for anything and just be happy to have a job. As euphoric said his employees have a fixed schedule what about these plow drivers? How many birthdays, Christmas’s basketball games hunting seasons have they given up to have there cushy government jobs?
Read my quote, and don't twist what I say. The truck drivers should be paid at near parity of what other truck drivers in their field. Free, who said free? And if they don't like that wage, jump ship. Right now the market is hot for almost all work sectors. If you are unhappy for any reason, leave. And when that person leaves, the management, in this case the city, needs to attract the next drivers. With those bennies, I bet the line to apply is very, very long, indicating the compensation package is out of whack.