Layoff with recall rights. Ever heard of that?

[NNN0LHI]

That is all I have ever known belonging to a union. In other words some business can't layoff a bunch of workers and then not call them back and when they do start needing more workers they can't replace them with younger workers for less pay.

I think a lot of that is what is going on right now. Companies are laying off their older better paid workers and then replacing them with new workers who are starting off at the bottom of the pay scale.

Anyone else think this may be occurring due to the lack of people belonging to unions and having collective bargaining to gain benefits like recall rights?

Don

[slackmaster]

1. My dad had happen a few times in the early 1970s. He was an aerospace worker, no union.

That was back in the days when it was normal to get a job and keep it for your entire career, which is what he did. He retired from the Navy in 1956 and worked for the same company from then until he retired.

[old mark]

2. That used to be a part of many if not most Union contracts, for the exact reasons

you mentioned. Lots of big companies like to lay off older workers because the cost more in health benefits and take more sick time, have better vacation and other longevity benefits and are coming close to that pension. They then replace them with young workers who can be paid less, and the old workers are out on their ass for life.

Recall rights asures that the laid off workers will at least be offerred a job before new people are hired...some companies try to offer lesser jobs to get around this.

mark

[madrchsod]

3. my wife`s union has recall rights where she works.

i had recall when i was a union member but all the non union employers did`t

[SheilaT]

4. Even nonunion workers

typically had recall rights back in the day.

I was an airline employee 1969-79. My job category was not unionized, but the presence of the other unions (mainly pilot, flight attendant, and mechanics) was sufficiently strong that those protections were extended to the rest of us.

[Uben]

5. I had recall rights in a non-union shop

....and that practice is still present there. I've worked some shops that do not follow that protocol. They only call back those workers who were productive and had good work ethic. Smaller non-union shops tend to discriminate more since they do not face the scrutiny of union officials.

Unions are necessary to keep corporations from getting too corrupt. Unfortunately, unions carry no weight on the management side and that's where the corruption is the greatest in American corporations. The government is saddled with oversight of the big dogs, and we've seen how effective that is.

[NNN0LHI]

6. Recall rights in a non-union shop without a contract is like trying to carry water in a sieve

It is just like whistling past the graveyard. When some foreman feels like his son-in law is more deserving of the job you are doing see how long that "gentleman's agreement", you have with your employer concerning recall rights stays in effect.

Unless of course you are already related to someone in management where you work. Then all bets are off.

Don

[Uben]

15. No

It was an auto assembly shop that is the only non-union shop the company has. All the other plants are union, and this plant's benefits mirrors that of the unions, so the union is really responsible for us having it. The company has managed to keep the UAW out of this one plant because it matched the pay and benefits of the union plants. I've been expecting it to go union for the last twenty years, but workers seem to be pleased with the way it is. My short stay there (11 months) was due to being hired as a temp worker. After I was laid off, I was recalled about six months later, but I refused because I had landed a much better job. (that's saying a lot because it was a very good job).

[Still a Democrat]

7. I really enjoy some of your posts

Good to hear some good old fashioned "here's how it used to be" and be reminded how much good unions can do.

[daa]

8. St Ronnie broke the unions and yes that is

exactly how it happens. IBM fired 80,000 US workers the last decade and replaced them with cheap Indians.

And it gets better, Delta employees just voted down a union again for the third time in the last few years. May be that is why I refuse to fly that crappy airline.

[SocialistLez]

9. A lot of stuff companies are getting away with are because of a lack of collective bargaining

rights.

I would love to be in a union at my workplace. It would really change things.

[bemildred]

10. Sure, I worked union 12 years in the 70s.

Laid off twice, hired back, quit three times, hired back two. I now get a small pension from those years because I got vested.

[Pacifist Patriot]

11. It's definitely happening at my husband's company.

They've had about two and a half straight years of progressive layoffs where a handful of people were let go at a time. They just sealed two huge new deals and need to bring themselves back up to full staff strength. They aren't looking at the people they let go, they're looking at interviewing and hiring "inexpensive" new grads.

My husband is livid because not only is it unfair to the previous employees who were there, know the job cold and are still looking for work, but it makes life harder on the people who have to train and work with the new hires. My husband did a cost-analysis on this and it makes more financial sense for the company to hire the previous folks back at a higher pay scale than to search for, interview, and train new grads who are also more likely to make mistakes that need fixing down the line.

Now that's not to say it's not important for new grads to get jobs too, and yes, the previous employees can make mistakes as well, but odds are a newbie is going to make more mistakes than someone who knows the job well already.

[ipfilter]

12. Our CBA contains recall rights

and any attempt to change it by the company during a negotiation would result in a strike. I would consider recall rights as almost boiler plate CBA language.

[mimitabby]

13. yes, of course

[Atypical Liberal]

14. I've only been laid off once...

I've only been laid off once, and I couldn't afford to hand around and wait to see if they'd call me back or not. I found another job before the severance ran out.