Live un-noticed... work union

[HEyHEY]

In my area unions are silently disappearng. I know some buddies who work what used to be union jobs for...decent pay but not what the union is making.And they talk about it like it's okay because they are still makin a decent wage..I see the point but what they can't seem to understand is that when the unions are gone...they'll be getting screwed completely cause there is nowhere to go. It's so bad now that my friend, who's family owns a company that has always been union (which they are okay with) has to do away with one aspect of the company's union and bring in private guys, because they can't compete anymore...they have been in red for two year... But the competition has dropped their prices so much cause they don't pay well. And this is the only choice. It seems that the population in general doesn't care or understand the consequences. It is very...disturbing to me. How are the unions in your neck o the woods doing?

[Clete]

1. I think our unions are deteriorating.

What with deregulation, job out sourcing to foreign countries and open shops have diluted the power of the unions in the last fifty years. There are still some strong unions that one has to belong to in order to work, but they are becoming fewer and fewer all the time.

[Clete]

2. If you are Canadian,

we have lost a lot of our unionized movie jobs in Southern California to Canada and New Zealand because production costs including labor are less in your countries.

[HEyHEY]

3. Canada too

I would have figured that even though the dollar is less the typically high wages would have made up the difference

[jiacinto]

4. Right to work movement has hurt unions

Almost half of the states in the US are "right to work" states.



And they weakened the Unions.

[Clete]

6. Why are they the same states that need a money

infusion most? I am tired of California's FIT taxes going to fund these losers at our expense.

[ewagner]

7. Crap!

Doesn't that map look a lot like the "blue vs red" states on election night?

Aren't most of those states also primarily Repub states?

[jiacinto]

9. yes

nt

[donco6]

5. Unions always suffer at the beginning of a depression.

With all the workers available - so what if you strike?

Oddly, though, later in the depression, unions often gain strength. I'm not sure the reason - maybe it takes seeing a few strikes put down that makes the rest of the unions wake up.

Dunno.

[Systematic Chaos]

8. Vegas screwed the pooch BIG TIME in early 2001

There was a union that came to Vegas attempting to unionize the table games dealers in 2000. I forget exactly which one, but it's a big one that has something to do with airlines and also possibly transportation.

These union people understood the plight facing dealers here in Vegas. We're a dime a dozen here. If someone wants you out there are twenty people waiting in line for your job. Dealers are LUCKY to get paid anything at all above Federal minimum wage, which is $5.15 an hour. Tips make up the balance of our earnings, and depending on which casino you work in you can make from $20,000 to $80,000+ per year (with almost 8 years of experience I'm stuck at about $30k per year with very little hope for improvement). It's not what you know but who you know that determines whether or not you get one of the good jobs. My casino is part of the MGM Grand conglomerate, but if one of us wants to take a stab at a job in the Mirage or Bellagio which pay MUCH more we have to walk into the respective employment offices like any other schmuck off the street! NO TRANSFERS! My casino offers NO sick time, NO paid holidays, NO holiday pay if you do work (which is almost a given), sub-7-11-quality food out of VENDING MACHINES for the employees to eat on the job where many places have full-service buffets just for the workers... you get the idea by now.

Anyway, there was a vote taken at a number of casinos as to whether or not the union would be allowed in. We weren't one of them and that was a crying shame. The bosses in the better casinos all buffaloed the dealers into voting against the union, threatening jobs and schedules if it got voted in. Since many of the dealers in the better houses are Asian immigrants who don't know good English and are easy to control it was easy to use scare tactics to dissuade them. When all was said and done, only THREE out of about twenty casinos voted yes to the union. So, of course it had absolutely no negotiating strength and couldn't really do anything at all to help the employees. The employees, in turn, felt that their dues were just wasted money that would be better in their pockets so in only one year all three casinos' dealers voted the union right back out.

The kicker here is that when 9/11 hit, the casinos layed off a combined total of OVER 25,000 workers, many of whom were dealers. There was no rhyme or reason to who got laid off. Some people with 5, 10 or even 20 years in one place got the axe. About half of all these people were never reinstated by the same place they were laid off from. The tourism slump was largely over only a month after the attack. How much would it have cost to keep those people on, maybe just working reduced hours for a while until things got back to normal? Oh, maybe TWO MILLION DOLLARS, the same amount the casinos donated to the NYC relief fund in a highly-publicized humanitarian gesture designed to lure people back here.

Since that whole disaster, my hatred of this city and its gaming industry has really grown. I would give anything to just drive out of here and never look back BUT I am trapped by the need for insurance and the financial obligations I have to meet. Getting into this industry was the biggest mistake of my, and many other peoples' lives.

As for other unions here, there isn't much going on. The transient nature of this area keeps the sense of community and solidarity pretty much swept under the carpet. It's damned sad.

[HEyHEY]

10. Wow

That's quite the story...what are your chances of gettin' on with a union co. I don't understand the non-union businessman sometimes. I mean it's not like just because it's union you gotta pay out your ass. My buddies dad loved hiring the union...He said it made things simple, everyone got paid the same wage..etc. To this day, their company is known as being the best in the province at the job. Why..UNION!