Sweet, Sweet Victory (and some Schadenfreude)

[supiluliumas]

I am pleased to announce that despite Obama stacking the National Mediation Board with ex-union thugs, the humble ramp workers of Delta Air Lines have not only voted down union 'representation' by the Union fatcats of the IAM looking to make their living off our sweat and toil, but have ended decades of union parasitism at Northwest! Now unless

Comments

[unclejam]

*reverently makes the Sign of the Dollar*

*fires 22% of the workforce to juice the stock price*

But seriously, you seem quite pleased at the decision NOT to have an organization representing these folks! Is this particular union unusually noxious (while a more laid back one would be OK) or what?

[supiluliumas]

Well, first, it's not just 'these folks', it's ME, kemosabe! As far as the benefits versus drawbacks of Union representation, one might point to the fact that despite six decades of union representation, Northwest employees made less than we do. Had less benefits

[unclejam]

Another point to consider is that the priority of unions is not Delta employees. The priority of the union is the union.

While I don't doubt that this is in pragmatic senses often true, and likely quite true in this case, this actually would seem to be a sign that this union has gone rotten and needs to be cleaned up or replaced with the International Brotherhood of Airline Mechanics, because the purpose of the union is in fact to club together and unify the efforts of workers!

As for the things on your list, having a professional washington lobbyist sounds wonderful. I'd actually have representation in my government!

[supiluliumas]

So point me to a union that HASN'T gone rotten. 'Big Labor' is an industry. The only group I can think of that I /might/ even consider to be non-rotten is the Teamsters, and that's because the OTHER unions in the AFL-CIO were using them to prop themselves up, and they quit as a result. On the other hand, the Teamsters don't NEED us. They've got skilled labor propping them up, and skilled labor has power in any negotiation

[unclejam]

Also I suppose now that I think about it, the ramp crew is probably pretty hard to downside. So a wage freeze and benefit slash while the bonuses for executives goes up seems more plausible than a mass bloodletting to juice the stock price!

[supiluliumas]

Unquestionably! Quite plausible. Yet despite all those things we still made more money and had more benefits than Northwest did, despite IAM representation. Advantage: Delta!

[lordhumungous]

I work with a number of ex-Northwest Airline mechanics, who all were union. They were all decent mechanics, and made no big deal about the union, but my understanding, (and theirs too) was that you join the union, when there is a union. If you don't, there would be hell to pay. You were simply an outcast.

I heard about a guy in the sheet metal shop who was non-union, they put him in the corner as far away from everyone else as possible. If said person tried to sit down with a group of other union workers, they would simply yell at him and tell him to beat it. And here's the big one, one that I heard from 2-3 separate mechanics from Northwest at different times. If they, meaning union guys, didn't like you, meaning non union, they would simply ship your tool box off to another city, or even state. NOW THATS FUCKED UP. I would be fighting mad. when I asked why didn't they do anything about it? how did they get their box back? The only answer was there was nothing to do about it.

So yeah, the union is a bunch of bullies.

[supiluliumas]

I'm very glad to be avoiding this in my workplace. On the other hand, I don't have that much that'd cost a lot to replace. Still.

I'm just glad we kept them out of our little corner of the industry, for now. Eat some red-hot justice, union screws!!

Also, glad to hear from you sir! :)

[supiluliumas]

By the way, I still have the DVD of the Big Lebowski you got me for, I don't know, my birthday or something. I seem to wind up watching it twice a year or so, and I watched it today during lunch, and I thought - oh yeah! Wes just left me a comment.

You could say he just walked in, to see what condition his condition was in.

YEAH YEAH YEAH OHHHHHH YEAAAAAH

*dun dun dun dun, dun dun dun dun dun*

[lordhumungous]

hehehehehe. Its good to see that you're still doing alright. I read about the delta strike union in the paper the other day, and thought about you and mike. Hope to see you again someday.