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Damn unions

6K views 49 replies 16 participants last post by  Stud Muffin 
#1 · (Edited)
My dealer did confirm today through Kawasaki Corporate that delivery of the 650 LTs is being held up by the labor dispute at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Dammit

Last time I checked there were 33 cargo ships sitting off the coast waiting to be offloaded.

Edit: Looks like the ports reopened this morning.
 
#3 ·
I'll bet if those working people were compensated like the executives, they probably wouldn't strike either. Sucks when you don't get to have your golf buddies sitting on your board to appropriate your share of the pie. From the sound of your edit, their collective bargaining must have worked out. Stinking working class peasants, who do they think they are anyway? Life would be much better if we could just store them in pens and whip them when they get outta line dontcha think?
 
#20 · (Edited)
I have a good friend who's son is a Longshoreman in the Los Angeles area.. He is very well off financially...He makes more than my granddaughter's pediatrician and has a million dollar Lake house here in Alabama with a garage full of motorcycles and water craft. That is a good thing. The strike was the Union fighting for the future jobs that the shippers wanted to outsource.
 
#5 ·
Texas is not Union Friendly...One of the main reasons the economy is so good there..:stickpoke::stickpoke:
 
#8 ·
Lessee, dock workers deliberately working slower getting overpaid. Yeah, I despise unions. Unions are obsolete and only cost the consumer more for overpaid workers. Guess this thread will get moved soon.

Oh, and I want my bike.
 
#23 · (Edited)
I work in a hard-hat culture in refineries, power plants, chemical plants and the like. I like working a job under "union rules" My craft does not have a union and we work both union and non union jobs frequently. Believe me when I say, there is PLENTY of blame to go around..the Unions, the management, the workers, contractors, and contractor's clients as well the government made exploits...They are all guilty of GROSS malfeasance in many cases. I've learned not to throw rocks. I simply do my assigned task in safe manner. Most of the time when I have finished a task..or a whole building full of the same tasks, I am asked to go back and uninstall and modify and re-install the very same instruments in another fashion or a slightly altered location. Its all part of the scam. Everybody is in on the scam on some level.
 
#24 ·
I'm taking a Labor Law class right now. We are learning about all the acts and governing agencies that control the Collective Bargaining disputes. This conversation is very relevant.
 
#29 ·
A couple years back the place I work was really slow (32 hour weeks) and just holding on.
At contract time the BA showed up driving a Lincoln.
Unions have a place still but too many are feeding from the corrupt trough feeding our other "leaders"

Another arena where we like to jump on a soap box screaming black or white
Life isn't that simple
 
#35 ·
In a perfect world a union is not needed, this is not a perfect world.

As a 35+ year IBEW member and wage data representative I can honestly tell you that the company I retired from would had have us making minimum wage if left up to the management folks.
Our company prez makes $4 million a year along with the carpet baggers under him making absolutely sickening money. Come negotiation time we had to fight to maintain a decent salary.

The global company my youngest son works for is a fantastic place to be employed, he has had a good paying job with excellent benefits for the last 10 years........with no union.

Problem is there's likely a 50 to 1 ratio of bad employers to good employers.

Wish we could all get along.....

Dan
 
#36 ·
Aww poor babies, couldn't get all your "made in china" goodies to stock your Walmart shelves.
Personally, I would not want to drive on a bridge or work in a high rise that was "NOT" built by union tradesman.
As for management sucking up all the profits. Too bad, they don't owe you a living. Drives me nuts when people agree to work for a certain wage and then get all bent out of shape when the big boss gets to drive a big boss car. Don't like being a pee-on then start your own business.
 
#37 ·
As for management sucking up all the profits. Too bad, they don't owe you a living.
Nor do you owe them slave labor. If you want to lay down and take it, it's your right. But don't complain because others choose to stand up for worker's rights and wages.

Drives me nuts when people agree to work for a certain wage and then get all bent out of shape when the big boss gets to drive a big boss car. Don't like being a pee-on then start your own business.
The salient point you miss is that most managers in corporate America are just employees. They are not owners and are not risking a dime of their own money. Big difference between managing a public company and owning your own.
 
#38 ·
Most of these jobs will disappear in the next few years, even the ones in China. Robots and machine learning algorithms will take them. People have no idea what is coming in the not too distant future...the entire world economy will be turned on its head.

Normally technical advancement will result in new, but different jobs. That won't happen this time.
 
#40 ·
Most of these jobs will disappear in the next few years, even the ones in China. Robots and machine learning algorithms will take them. People have no idea what is coming in the not too distant future...the entire world economy will be turned on its head.
We'll see. A year or so ago it was 3D printing that was going to make everyone their own manufacturer. If you got in on the story early you made a killing. If you got in just before the bottom fell out when it never materialized, you lost a fortune.
 
#39 ·
Most managers? Really? Have you ever been a manager? I am a manager and swear to you I do not have horns and a tail...

Saddleman - You sound like Black 47's song James Connolly.
Snipet:
"Up steps our citizen leader and he roars out to the sky
My name is James Connolly, I didn't come here to die

But to fight for the rights of the working man, the small farmer too
Protect the proletariat from the bosses and their screws
So hold on to your rifles, boys, don't give up your dreams
Of a Republic for the workin' class, economic liberty."
 
#41 ·
No need to take up rifles. Simply sticking together for a group's common interests works. All the people working for wages so low they have to be subsidized by the gov't just to survive should take note of the standard of living of those dock workers. I have nothing against management, I just don't think they've been distributing their companies share of the pie very equitably in recent years. And I'm not talking about ground level managers here.
 
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