This Labor Day, thank a Union Member

[n2doc]

[kentuck]

1. Send this to your friends...

and those that don't always agree with you.

[Kolesar]

2. Union bargaining-agreements drive up the wages in the remaining workforce

Is that what you meant?

[kentuck]

3. Not only that...

But your 40-hour week, your vacation time, your health care that you presently have, your break times, your overtime pay, your holidays off, etc...

[luckyleftyme2]

4. the republican motto

break the union; break the workers back! the truth; the union workforce is made up of much better skilled workers! if you want it done and done right hire a union contractor!!!

[ThomWV]

13. Union bargaining-agreements also vastly improve working conditions and safety

[Kolesar]

32. And protections against unfair terminations

[yost69]

5. I will be sure to thank them that I have to go to work today to

pay for all this overpriced crap. They can't take being paid a normal wage, they must make the big bucks to work in a factory putting cars together.

[NecklyTyler]

6. Did you forget the sarcasm thingy?

[yost69]

30. No. But I guess I knew the outcome of my comment to late. I

should have listed all the good things that the union has done.

I guess I should have said if you work a 40 hour job and not made to put in overtime you should thank the union.
I guess I should have said if you work a job with paid vacation that you can take at anytime you wish you should thank the union.
I guess I should have said if you work a job that pays you enough money that you can afford to go on strike for 10 months you should thank the union.
I guess I should have said if you work a job that you are able to make a minimum of $26/hr to work in a factory you should thank the union.
I guess I should have said if you work for a company that you only pay $2 copay on almost all your meds you should thank the union.
I guess I should have said if you work for a company where you can say "That's not my job" and the employer can't reprimand you for it you should thank the union.

Now I am not putting down the UAW but honestly are you really worth that much? It is a factory job and you don't need a college degree or anything. I would go as far to say that almost any able bodied person could do it. All it takes is being trained to do the one job on the line.

[teamster633]

7. If I still drank, I'd be crying in my beer for you.

Somehow I think anyone taking a look a your belongings would find a whole lot of slave-labor Chinese shit demonstrating your true political leanings.

[yost69]

24. Hard to find everything made in the U.S.

[lunatica]

8. You must be a member of the Idiocracy union

I'm sure you're grateful for your normal 'minimum' wage.

[Mari333]

12. thank you massah! may I have another massah!

unfortunately that seems to be the way these days.

[Kolesar]

9. I just bought a great Chevrolet for $16,600 plus tax and title

Could not ask for a better deal

[yost69]

25. I bought a chevy truck a couple years ago. Wasn't made in america though.

Come to find out, it was made in Canada. Go figure.

[Lars39]

16. Poor baby.

Got any kids about 8 or 9 years old? Send them to work instead.

[yost69]

26. Nope, Got two over the age of 18 that refuse to get a fucking job.

I've been working since 13 so whats the big deal? Makes you a better person to take on some responsibility.

[Lars39]

29. You really need to educate yourself about unions.

[livetohike]

18. I hope you are kidding here

Define a "normal wage"? Oh and if you don't already have a physical job where you are on your feet all day such as "putting cars together" or working in a coal mine or steel mill, then I doubt you have any idea what you're talking about.

[yost69]

27. I have already did my factory time. I decided to get further education

so that I didn't have to do that all the time. Never did the steel mill or the coal mine as there are none around me. I have did work in a gravel pit though.

[Bozita]

28. "They can't take being paid a normal wage..." - And a "normal wage" means just what?

[yost69]

31. A normal wage means you get paid what you are worth.

If you go by the UAW standards a bank teller would be worth about 80K a year. But yet there is no education needed, just a little training.

[michreject]

10. Buy a new car that have their Corp Hqts in the U.S.

And the profits stay here to benefit union workers. Not the scab workers of non union manufacturers.

[Mari333]

11. not enough people have studied labour history in the USA

they have no idea that people worked 14 hr days in sweatshops along with children at the turn of the century, in unbearable unsafe conditions...they have no idea how many people fought the robber barons on the streets whilst Pinkerton cops bashed in the heads of workers..all to gain a decent wage and decent working conditions and hours..
and now, people are behaving like serfs again ...maybe , eventually, they will rise up and fight again against todays robber barons.

[Kolesar]

14. Americans had it good compared to Britons, and that is why Britain is more class-concious...

...even a century later.

Capital was built on the backs of the Englishmen and their children. Factory life was horrible and dangerous. Then, when opportunities were better in America, the capital shifted to America. Americans never had to endure the horror of the start of the Industrial Revolution. Working conditions were better here.

Into the 20th and 21st centuries, many Americans adopted frightful anti-worker, pro-business sentiments.

[doc03]

15. If today's workers were around back in those days

we would still be working 14 hour days. I have been on two lengthy strikes and the younger employees in particular were wanting to go back to work after they lost their first check. The first week or two everyone shows up at picket duty then within a few weeks you are lucky to put one person on a gate. The last time I was out for 10 1/2 months and some weeks I was the only one at the gate at a plant with 2500 people. Out of 8 Local Presidents after a few weeks all but 2 wanted to return to work for nothing. The president of our Local never gave up even after having his and his families life threatened, I still have a pension today because of his and the other holdout's guts.

[Mari333]

17. god thats damned sad to hear

i wonder, if our kids really knew the history of the labour movement, if they would be any different? sigh.

[doc03]

20. Back when I was in school we were taught

about the robber barons back in the late 1800's and early 1900's and how Standard Oil and other monopolies were broken up. We learned about the birth of labor like the steel strikes at Homestead where company goons gunned down workers. Now they are taught monopolies are good and labor is bad. I think the movie Matewan should be required viewing in all schools. It is sad, people today have squandered everything our forefathers fought and died for.

[Mari333]

22. and I grew up in a union family

watching my dad fight for decent wages and working conditions on the railroad..they still took half his pension when he retired..
But I learned about the fight for workers rights at his knee. He was asked once to be in management at the railroad where he was a train engineer..he told me "I couldnt live with myself if I did that".

[pleah]

19. K&R

[brewens]

21. If it's a union Republican, slap it!

We have a lot of union Republicans here in my town. I know very few of them have any real knowledge of the labor movement. I'm thinking mostly of the guys I know that work at our local pulp and paper mill. They think they make good money because they are all working class heroes. No clue whatsoever of what they owe everything they have to.
Some of them work there and don't even join the union. There is a strict policy that no one does anything to them for not joining or they are fired.
I'm surprised that the company doesn't cut wages drastically. There is absolutely nothing they could do about it. Almost none of those guys could make it through a strike of any length. They'd have no choice but to bend over and take it. Only the union could be keeping that from happening.

[Coventina]

23. If only all DUers felt that way....

Unfortunately, there are those here who blame workers for what the kleptocrats do at the top.

x(