What A Non Union Company Did To My Sister And Hundreds Of Others.

[Catatonic]

I spend my money at the mom & pop stores, restaurants, car dealerships, movie theaters, etc, etc!

No way in hell I would support some big faceless corporation that's ****s all over its help & beats down the prices it pays to it's vendors, just to line their own, already over flowing pockets.[/QUOTE]

Now I understand your name.

 

[rod]

I shop WalMart all the time.......It's my dollar and I want it to stretch further. I pick up Anchor Hocking stuff and it says.......made in USA.

I know people there......I visit. It's a contolled climate for a level walk with shopping carts to steady yourself. I don't do as well at Target, K-Mart, Big Lots .............only 99 Cent Store tops them in gift bags and greeting cards.

Is it just me or does every cart at Walmart have one bad wheel? About the only time i go there is when I am visiting my Grandkids. Even though I raised her better my daughter still insists on doing the bulk of her shopping at Wallyworld. When I go there I admit I use double the germ killing wipes on the carts as I normally do at any other store. There is something about grabbing onto a Walmart cart that grosses me out:

Wal-Martians.wmv.flv - YouTube

 

[moreluck]

No, you are not alone on the shopping cart issue.......Many a time I'm forced to the left when I want to go right.
I've switched multiple times, only to get worse ones.
As of last month, my store has brand new carts. No wobblies, no wigglies.
Big differenc now.

We also don't have the Super Walmarts here closeby.......all beyond 30 miles away.....Vista to the south and Santa Ana to the north. I guess Ralph's and the others block their entry.

Candy is the only 'food I will buy there.......exception is dog food....20 cents cheaper per can than grocery stores, so that's where I buy it.

 

[brownmonster]

My wife just got her raise for the year. A $1000 bonus. Apparently her company feels she has topped out her salary. They also took away her 5th week of vacation and are considering not offering spousal coverage on the company insurance plan. In return her loyalty has faded and has no problem spending her money at the stores of the competition.

 

[satellitedriver]

go to Cancun, and get mysteriously stopped by the low-paid policeman seeking bribes and you'll see what I mean...

Really?, as you say.
YES, I do support the groups you mentioned with my money, not my mouth.
Please, do not try to PUNK me.

I was in Cancun in 1979, when it was still mostly jungle and 3 hotels.
The Po Po, was not the problem.
Riding a motorcycle down a sand path in the jungle 5miles from Cancun and being stopped by Narco militia armed with AK's, was a problem. No joke my bride and I were surrounded by 30 armed men.
It worked out well after some talking.

BTW;
I earned the money to fly myself and my new bride to Cancun with money I earned from a non union job.
I was a newly wed.
Started out at the lowest paying position as a helper working 12hrs a day 6 days a week, and took a welding class at night at a community college and studied blue prints when I got home.
I had zero knowledge, or experience, in metal work.
3 months later, I was promoted to be head structural fitter of the small crane dept. over people that have been there for 5yrs.
Ass kissing?
No, it was because of proven ability, and performance, not seniority.
We were married in 1978.
As a gift to my wife, for putting up with me during our first year, we had our 2nd honeymoon in Cancun.
That was the first time she got to see a AK up close and personal.
All in all, it was great two weeks and non union money paid for it.

 

['Lord Brown's bidding']

All I wonder is, with all the horror stories on the plight of the blue-collar worker, WHY are unions dying? It should be too easy to organization these places, even Walmart, with their legendary rep for quelching union drives. I can see why Fedex is hard to organize-they have a law that makes it hard to organize, but Walmart? Just scare tactics.

I have often had thoughts about the Teamsters sending a sort of "infiltration" team into FedEx-people who would get employed solely to organization the place on the inside, knowing they probably get fired, but they'd so to get the ball rolling, and once they are gone, someone else gets hired to take their place. However, such an operation would have to be massive to organize FedEx, but Walmart, whixh can be organized on a store-by-store basis? And it can be done discreetly and incognito, inviting fellow workers "for lunch" or "to watch the game", away from the job and the prying eyes of management.

Are there any wealthy people out there sympathetic to the union cause willing to start a fund to support those who would so this, providing them with a living in-between "assignments", I.e. some outfit in retail itching to be organized.

Also, I am aware Walmart will close a store before letting it be organize. Will they leave an entire urban area? state? region? Send 3 "agents" per store to all the stores in a region, force Walmart to face organizing.

 

[satellitedriver]

All I wonder is, with all the horror stories on the plight of the blue-collar worker, WHY are unions dying? It should be too easy to organization these places, even Walmart, with their legendary rep for quelching union drives. I can see why Fedex is hard to organize-they have a law that makes it hard to organize, but Walmart? Just scare tactics.

I have often had thoughts about the Teamsters sending a sort of "infiltration" team into FedEx-people who would get employed solely to organization the place on the inside, knowing they probably get fired, but they'd so to get the ball rolling, and once they are gone, someone else gets hired to take their place. However, such an operation would have to be massive to organize FedEx, but Walmart, whixh can be organized on a store-by-store basis? And it can be done discreetly and incognito, inviting fellow workers "for lunch" or "to watch the game", away from the job and the prying eyes of management.

Are there any wealthy people out there sympathetic to the union cause willing to start a fund to support those who would so this, providing them with a living in-between "assignments", I.e. some outfit in retail itching to be organized.

Also, I am aware Walmart will close a store before letting it be organize. Will they leave an entire urban area? state? region? Send 3 "agents" per store to all the stores in a region, force Walmart to face organizing.

Stealth unionism?
Unions are failing for the same reason socialism has always failed as a model for capitalistic growth.
You posed a question;
Are there any wealthy people out there sympathetic to the union cause willing to start a fund to support those who would.
Classic flaw of logic.
Margret Thatcher said it best,
"The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money."
I believe in self initiative, not being a drone bee serving the hive.

 

[purplesky]

Stealth unionism?
Unions are failing for the same reason socialism has always failed as a model for capitalistic growth.
You posed a question;
Are there any wealthy people out there sympathetic to the union cause willing to start a fund to support those who would.
Classic flaw of logic.
Margret Thatcher said it best,
"The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money."
I believe in self initiative, not being a drone bee serving the hive.

Its called CORPORATE CAPITOLISM NOT SOCIALISM. The American economy has failed because of outsourcing and globalization. CORPORATE GREED IN MOST CASES.

So now CHINA IS BECOMING TOO EXPENSIVE FOR CORPORATE AMERICA.

 

[PiedmontSteward]

Stealth unionism?
Unions are failing for the same reason socialism has always failed as a model for capitalistic growth.
You posed a question;
Are there any wealthy people out there sympathetic to the union cause willing to start a fund to support those who would.
Classic flaw of logic.
Margret Thatcher said it best,
"The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money."
I believe in self initiative, not being a drone bee serving the hive.

Congratulations on being yet another casualty of the Horatio Alger myth in the American experience.

If you believe in self-initiative so much, why don't you negotiate your own wages/benefits/pension and see how far you get? Why are you working at a unionized company?

Tricking the American worker into thinking he can be just like the bosses if he just works hard enough was the greatest scam ever pulled.

 

[Dracula]

Stealth unionism?
Unions are failing for the same reason socialism has always failed as a model for capitalistic growth.
You posed a question;
Are there any wealthy people out there sympathetic to the union cause willing to start a fund to support those who would.
Classic flaw of logic.
Margret Thatcher said it best,
"The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money."
I believe in self initiative, not being a drone bee serving the hive.

There is only queen bee, Jack, and she lives on Wall Street, not Main Street. See how well your self initiative plays on an island, bub. When you've got no honey and no nectar to find, your self initiative is smashed under the sole of a $750 Gucci loafer, worn by a banker financed by tax dollars. Like anything, socialism is 360 degrees wide. But people like you, and your benefactors on Wall Street paint only the 45 degree billboard while they feed off the backside.

What did that dumb assed Albert Einstein say about the bees? Oh yeah...

“If the bee disappeared off the face of the earth, man would only have four years left to live.”

Happy trails on that island. Maybe Will Robinson can save you.

 

['Lord Brown's bidding']

Satellite, in the case of retail workers at Walmart, that money is not going to run out. Fred S's stash at FedEx is fine, too. No company that makes the level of profits these companies make should have any employees requiring public assistance. This has nothing to do with "self-initiative". People do what they need to do to get a source of income; why are the companies that ultimately employ them then turning around and taking away? Not giving more due to extravagant demands, just taking away what was already there? They don't do that to the high levels of management. And it's funny, the very wealthy often complain about being taxed more; if they would just freeze, maybe cut back on THEIR salaries (and really, would it hurt them?) not only could they avoid taking away from those who have less, they could probably employ more so as to ease the burden on those being stretched thin, leading to a more productive workforce and-get this-more profits, but with more employed and paying taxes and not taking since they aren't on the public assistance rolls, the cry for the wealthy to pay more probably wouldn't be so loud!

I am an unabashed shopper at Walmart. I have one on my route and i get food items and other small necessaties of life almost every day. I am becoming annoyed with popular items missing from the shelf for days or even weeks. I don't like for a place to have gazillion checkout lines but only have 4 open. I don't like dealing with people who have no business doing retail but for the fact that a better person cannot be had for the pittance offered as compensation. This has nothing to do with socialism. Pay people better; compensate them properly for what they do. Treat them as you, the CEO, would want to be treated, in relation to your skills and talents, of course. No one working a job for a Fortune 1000 company should need public assistance.

 

['Lord Brown's bidding']

GE threatens to move 1,050 jobs from Erie to Fort Worth - TRAINS Magazine

GE isn't going out of business. They are pulling record profits. Why do they feel the need to take from the workers? What does THIS have to do with Socialism? I'll tell you what: these people are going to end up needing public assistance once their incomes are slashed in half.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

GE threatens to move 1,050 jobs from Erie to Fort Worth - TRAINS Magazine

GE isn't going out of business. They are pulling record profits. Why do they feel the need to take from the workers? What does THIS have to do with Socialism? I'll tell you what: these people are going to end up needing public assistance once their incomes are slashed in half.

Gov. Rick Perry of Texas has made a concerted effort to lure businesses to Texas. Looks like that effort may be working.

 

[grinandbearit]

just ranting here and totally helpless to do anything about it.


My sister worked for Farmers Insurance for over 30 years and was let go along with hundreds of other high seniority employees 9 months before her 55th birthday and her full pension is gone..

so now she just gets a small fraction of her pension ( company run ) and has to start all over again in life. this , i found out, is a fairly common business practise at Farmers and probably other huge non union companies.

just pisses me off 100 fold and i can't do anything about it.

That happens at UPS. I know of a sup that was walked out after 25 years and he was under 55. Which means he doesnt get his reduced pention untill 65. All because they say he didnt work hard enough

 

[Bagels]

Stealth unionism?
Unions are failing for the same reason socialism has always failed as a model for capitalistic growth.
You posed a question;
Are there any wealthy people out there sympathetic to the union cause willing to start a fund to support those who would.
Classic flaw of logic.
Margret Thatcher said it best,
"The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money."
I believe in self initiative, not being a drone bee serving the hive.

The bulk of union decline is directly related to the Republican revolution in this country; union-busting legislation & Republican-appointed, non-labor friendly judges have engineered the erosion. Amazingly, despite the fact that most blue collar (and many middle class white collar) workers' compensation package has shrunk alongside soaring corporate profits/worker productivity, corporate America has convinced today's workers that unions aren't in their best interest. I've seen the Walmart propaganda video that all employees watch - it's completely untrue ('unions promise that they'll increase your compensation, but all they'll do is steal your dues money ... if Walmart could afford to pay its employees more, it would, be we operate on such thin margins that unions' outrageous demands would force us to close our doors') but people buy into it.

As far as socialism... most of the building blocks of your life -- your public education, your health insurance, the roads you travel on, the union you belong to, etc. -- are products of socialism. The problem with a pure capitalist society is that people are able to utilize their wealth & power to dominate society. We see that to some extent here... most of our politicians, Republicans & Democrats alike, are 'bought' by corporations and primarily represent those interests. Ultimately, Wall Street is running America.

 

[satellitedriver]

I restate.
I believe in self initiative.
In my case, the proof is in the pudding.
When I started with UPS in 1986, I was living in a 52' mobile home with $5,000. to my name.
For the last 27yrs I have made the exact same money as all other UPS drivers.
Now, I am totally debt free and have a net worth of $800k+ and growing.
I know it sounds like I am bragging, but I am not. It took a lot of hard work with my wife and I working full time and running a business on the side.
If all any of you want out of life is to have a union job, then godspeed to you.

 

[trickpony1]

I restate.
I believe in self initiative.
In my case, the proof is in the pudding.
When I started with UPS in 1986, I was living in a 52' mobile home with $5,000. to my name.
For the last 27yrs I have made the exact same money as all other UPS drivers.
Now, I am totally debt free and have a net worth of $800k+ and growing.
I know it sounds like I am bragging, but I am not. It took a lot of hard work with my wife and I working full time and running a business on the side.
If all any of you want out of life is to have a union job, then godspeed to you.

Good for you!
Pat yourself on the back!
Not all of us have the luxury of running a side business........

 

[Bagels]

I restate.
I believe in self initiative.
In my case, the proof is in the pudding.
When I started with UPS in 1986, I was living in a 52' mobile home with $5,000. to my name.
For the last 27yrs I have made the exact same money as all other UPS drivers.
Now, I am totally debt free and have a net worth of $800k+ and growing.
I know it sounds like I am bragging, but I am not. It took a lot of hard work with my wife and I working full time and running a business on the side.
If all any of you want out of life is to have a union job, then godspeed to you.

Open your eyes up. The problem is that your success is not a product of self initiative -- your success is a derivative of a strong union, which is a product of socialism. Without the Teamsters, you'd be earning similar pay to others in the delivery profession ... e.g. a flat $650-$850/week gross income with no benefits. Like most other old timers, what you don't realize is that in 2013, the job market for persons without a college education is poor. Full time jobs with benefits are rare, and the ones that exist pay low & expect employees' to pay 20%-60% of their premiums (and the low pay often makes them unaffordable, thus they're declined). The Right has attacked employee rights so much that despite (after adjusting for inflation) record corporate profits, record worker productivity and record wages, the overwhelming majority of blue collar & most white collar workers are receiving LESS compensation than they did in years past. Instead, the rich are getting richer.

Even most of the persons hiring into UPS today do not have the same opportunity you did. Most will spend the early reigns of their career on-call, working 3.5-hour shifts for $8.50, then after ten years get an opportunity to drive. But by then the union will likely strike an agreement with UPS in which the wage progression is hiked from three years to ten (or more) years, thus making these people close to retirement before they ever earn top-rate. Given UPS's high labor costs, its absolutely inevitable.

Recent articles floating around demonstrate that Walmart has slashed the number of employees in each store by up to 20%, and is demanding remaining staff pick-up the slack, writing up, suspending & terminating employees who don't meet certain performance figures. And 10-year Walmart employees barely earn $20,000/year on average -- a wage less than the raise you've received over that time period, yet most people on here insist is "not keeping up with inflation." And no matter what level of arrogance you maintain -- that you're the hardest working group of people on the planet, and Walmart employees scratch their butt all day -- we need people to work at our grocery stores, gas stations, retail outlets, etc. And if we continue to pay them $15K-$20K with no benefits for full-time work, ultimately the middle class will continue to be responsible for taking care of them.

If you don't like status quo, stop voting for the extreme Right-wing politicians who created it. Welfare ranks swelled in this country the past decade while the Right wing controlled a record number of state legislatures & governorship as well as the White House & Congress. Maybe the falling compensation - alongside record corporate earnings - has something to do with it?

 

[realbrown1]

The bulk of union decline is directly related to the Republican revolution in this country; union-busting legislation & Republican-appointed, non-labor friendly judges have engineered the erosion. Amazingly, despite the fact that most blue collar (and many middle class white collar) workers' compensation package has shrunk alongside soaring corporate profits/worker productivity, corporate America has convinced today's workers that unions aren't in their best interest. I've seen the Walmart propaganda video that all employees watch - it's completely untrue ('unions promise that they'll increase your compensation, but all they'll do is steal your dues money ... if Walmart could afford to pay its employees more, it would, be we operate on such thin margins that unions' outrageous demands would force us to close our doors') but people buy into it.

As far as socialism... most of the building blocks of your life -- your public education, your health insurance, the roads you travel on, the union you belong to, etc. -- are products of socialism. The problem with a pure capitalist society is that people are able to utilize their wealth & power to dominate society. We see that to some extent here... most of our politicians, Republicans & Democrats alike, are 'bought' by corporations and primarily represent those interests. Ultimately, Wall Street is running America.

Sorry, I disagree. In the last 20 plus years, the democrats have had the white house 12+ years and at least 1 or both houses of congress for most of those years. Play the blame game if you want but I think if we need to know the reason we (the unions) are in decline, just look in the mirror. What have we done to further the working man and women of this country? Who do we elect to lead our unions? Did we elect the best or the most popular (by name) to lead us? What do you think Hoffa did today? My guess would be after a few meetings, the back 9 at the nearest country club. We get what we deserve in my humble opinion.

 

[Bagels]

Sorry, I disagree. In the last 20 plus years, the democrats have had the white house 12+ years and at least 1 or both houses of congress for most of those years. Play the blame game if you want but I think if we need to know the reason we (the unions) are in decline, just look in the mirror. What have we done to further the working man and women of this country? Who do we elect to lead our unions? Did we elect the best or the most popular (by name) to lead us? What do you think Hoffa did today? My guess would be after a few meetings, the back 9 at the nearest country club. We get what we deserve in my humble opinion.

It's interesting that people can make comments like this, when Republicans are attacking Obama's NLRB nominees as "gifts to unions." Republicans controlled all of Congress from 1995-2007, the House from 2010-present, most state legislatures/governorships & the White House from 2001-2009. Additionally, most of the federal judges appointed under Reagan & Bush I intentionally retired under Bush II to be replaced with Republican appointees. Even if the Democrats won the next two presidential elections, Obama and his successor wouldn't come close to replacing the number of federal judges that Bush II did.

Republicans due share the lion's share of the blame for diminishing unions. Consider the number of legislation that's taken place in recent years, including places like Wisconsin, that have explicitly targeted CBA rights. Those dang greedy teachers and policeman! How dare they make $50K a year with cozy benefits!