union question

joseph11

I was reading over a few the post and the topic of unions were brought up. I was just wondering how people in the neighborhood thought about them. Good? GReat? Bad? Horrible? A necessary evil?

brooklynleather

Subject: Yes to Unions

I am part of a multi-generational union family. I am pretty far left of center so perhaps no surprise I have already been in a union for several years (I am 25) and tried to unionize a former work place....

sir_eccles

It is hard to generalize across all the different unions and different people have different experiences good and bad. Good unions work hard for their members' safety, security and the like, when they work well you hardly notice them. Bad unions tend to be obstacles to change, obstructive and generally get in the way. Sometimes ok unions come across as bad due to the management they are interacting with, often there is blame on both sides. I'd say a lot of the problems are due to public perception.

jml

Remember the US before unions? Workers were not treated all that well, nor paid very much. Unions can be a bit obstructionist today, but the alternative is much worse.

sweet tea

mixed bag. some unions are great -- i do get the impression that mine (UUP) does stick up for me, for instance. my pay is ridiculously low, but benefits are good, at least. on the other hand, when my sweetie was in a different teaching union (at a different school, in a different state), she did not feel that way at all.

likewise, when the union (forget which one) made a big push to unionize the shop of the theatre i used to work at (not in ny), it was not necessarily true that unionization would have been good for many of the workers. for those who worked only at our theatre, it probably would have been on balance positive, though the reasons given by the pro-union crowd mostly boiled down to respect, not changes in pay, etc. -- that was already pretty decent for the field.

however, the fact of the matter was that many of those who would have had to join the union did not work only at our theatre and would have had a hard time making a living, since the union would have made them choose between working in only union shops or no union shops. one costumer felt she had already been chased out of a different city when the same thing happened -- it wasn't possible for her to make a living if she couldn't work in all the places she had worked prior to the unionization of one of them. in that case, i think the union was more concerned with increasing its own power than with the lives of the workers involved. much rancor all around. (eventual result, after votes and legal wrangling with ILRB, was no union. dirty tricks may have been involved. i don't know.)

mougar

Maybe less so these days (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/09/nyregion/09union.html?ref=nyregion) but organized crime used to be much more involved with organized labor.

MOD

I was very active in my Union for clericals at the university I worked for. They did a very good job and protected us and we had great benefits. Now this last job I had, only the librarians had a union, we were trying to get the admin people in it to. Just goes to show, when the lay-off came all the union workers were protected and all the admins were laid off. Also, I had to put up with harassment from a co-worker and had no way of fighting back or filing a complaint. If I had been unionized I would have not had to go through that. So I guess from my experiences, I'm pro-union.

flo

Pro. Everyone I know who is in a union (teacher, LIRR conductor, scenic artist, federal employee, legal-aid defense attorney, police officer, fireman) gets paid better than me and has job stability. (Did I mention I desperately need a job?) Historically unions have done a lot to secure rights for all workers. Sure there are problems, but I don't believe that the free market works to benefit workers, no matter what the Friedmanians (is that a word?) might say. Oh and my grandparents were union workers, my mother is in a union and my brother and sister are in a union.

flo

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/columnists/louis/index.html

The above isn't an editorial on unions...but does speak to some labor issues today.

xlizellx

i'm a teacher - with the constant pull-outs of money to schools, i would have been jobless many times over if the union hadn't been there to fight for the teachers.

armchair_warrior

I had a terrible experience with a union. they told me to slow down on the job(i always arrived on time or before time). I was told by the guy training me I should learn to take breaks on company time and pretend to arrive late. it paid pretty good and have nice heath benefits.

teamsters for the win!!!

off course i quiet within the month lol. couldn't stand the lazy guys hanging about accessaride vans drivers and their unions suck balls.

trainsmoke deleon

I used to work as a union organizer in North Carolina and Mississippi. Unions are an absolute necessity in most job fields. Workers rights in this country are few and being in a union is most worker's only real chance to have any say at the workplace.

rbenghiat

I never thought I'd be in this position, but we're protesting a union policy... http://www.petitiononline.com/newspace/petition.html