So typical of a union worker. Blame the non-union management!!!
I've worked the line at a union tear 1 supplier. I also moved into non-union management at the same company. Now I am in sales in a completely different industry and looking back, there is a number of reasons the auto industry is in the toilet. Union wages being part of it. Better yet maybe it wouldn't have anything to do with the wages if some of the union workers would realize what they HAD and didn't take advantage of the system. Give an honest days work for your $85,000/ year instead of going and sitting on the roof playing cards and getting high!!!
I am a union electrician and couldn't agree more. While it's not the union's fault for the situation they do play into it. My wife's aunt and her husband both worked for Ford in Virgina Beach. Her aunt was a milwright and her husband was a janitor. They both would go into work for overtime on Saturday and Sunday and come back home one or two hours later and spend the rest of the day with us while being paid. Her aunt had a radio so if worked called she could respond, but she and the other workers had a system where if called for a maintenace issue one of the other workers would cover for her. She used the radio to respond and act like she was in the plant but unable to man the call. This happened every time we visited her. I asked how she could get away with it and she said they do it all the time. They do this every day to go shopping, to the bank, or whatever things they need to do.
Her husband the janitor, would go into work on the weekends and come home too. I asked him how he could get to come home yet get paid. He said he and the union president, also a janitor, were scheduled to clean part of a building that had been torn down over THREE YEARS AGO!!!!!!!! It's still on their work schedule, and he said it's management's responsibility to schedule work load and man hours.
They had a combo tv/dvd television at work in the locker so they could watch tv together while at work on the clock!
He has since retired, after being off work for almost a year due to carpal tunel surgeries that of course Ford paid for. And paid his wages while off.
She has since retired too. After being off work on disability for almost two year due to accidents falling off her horses she has. All six of her horses. These same six horses she cared for while being on disability. Ford finally gave in and let her take a disability retirement. None of which was work related.
They both still compain that Ford wanted to pull the F150 line from there and move it to Mexico. The union stepped in and was able to save the line through contract negoiations. Which is a big boost to the economy in Virginia Beach and the local Walmart her aunt and uncle loves to shop at!
