The UAW

[Joey D]

I've been working at General Motors for a few weeks now as a CGIT...basically a college intern. I am not part of the union in any way, although I have to work with them. The person I am working under for the internship is the supervisor of the shop floor (I work in a mock-up atmosphere).

Any way I have to work with the UAW workers. Now don't get me wrong there are some guys who are very good ar what they do and get the job done. I can respect those people. But what makes me mad is the other 80% that don't do a damn thing.

I'll ask them if they could do "job x" for me and they tell me no, or when they do do it, its so half assed that it must be re done. This always makes me really mad, I mean just do your job and do it to the best of your ability.

Also if I happen to do one of there jobs because I get pissed off...and no I'm not talking about making a part, I'm talking about moving a tabel...I get a "grevance" written up against me and I get in trouble.

Also they get more breaks then I could ever want, during an 8 hour work day, they get a total of 1 and a half hours worth of breaks. And they are paid!!! Now here I am working 10 hours with a 45 minute lunch break. No breaks no nothing and I actually do work.

Finally here is the kicker. Well one of the kickers. The other day we had a builder destroy the front on a 2008 GMC Pickup truck. Ok this was a hand made front end and there is only one of them made as of now in metal and plastic. Well he broke the hell out of the grille and the headlights, also bending the hood and left fender. Ok this could have been a mistake, but the builder tried to hide it and didn't tell any one. Well he was caught 2 days later, and after a 2 hour "disscussion" he admited he broke it. Well he was fired....well for 3 days, he was back because he agreed to anger managment classes. OK this is bull, I'm sorry, I couldn't have people like that.

Also guys were skipping out for a few hours at a time or just leaving for a few days, and when we told them that if they were caught again they'd be fired, the UAW came smoking on our ass. Our department got in huge trouble because we were harassing people who needed to leave. Excuse me, your being paid to leave and go out and do what ever. Do your damn job!!!

I can see why cars cost so much, they are built by half assed people like that!

Well ok now that you know how I feel on the UAW. What about you?

 

[Klostrophobic]

Unions are worthless. I hate the fact that they are partially protected by our government. It's ridiculous. "Oh you can't fire me, I work in a union. That's illegal. Zzzzzzzzzz."

Unions make wagers with each other on who can be more lazy.

More capitalism! Less communism!

 

[ledhed]

Shoot me now I support whole hartedly the right for workers to join forces and bargain collectively with management to achieve fair and equal compensation and proper and safe working conditions. Its not the union that sucks its the workers that are slackers that suck and make it alot more attractive to buy a product from a country that has less moronic and dillegent workers. You get your money do your friggin job or get out and let someone else do it.

 

[Duke]

Shoot me now I support whole hartedly the right for workers to join forces and bargain collectively with management to achieve fair and equal compensation and proper and safe working conditions.

I do also. Under reasonable conditions, bargaining between a union and an employer should be just like two companies reaching a business agreement. Each has a product the other wants: jobs, and people to fill them.

Where the idea fell to the ground is when unions got the power to require employers to deal with them. If you're a skilled electrician, say, and you feel underpaid, by all means organize your fellow electricians and hold out for better wages. Sincere good luck to you. But your power should be directly proportional to the number of electricians you can get to voluntarily join your union. You have no right to politically force employers to deal with you, or to force elcetricians to join the union just to work. And union members who threaten or attack non-union workers, or who vandalize non-union jobs (I've seen it happen on many construction sites), should be shot on sight.

Its not the union that sucks its the workers that are slackers that suck and make it alot more attractive to buy a product from a country that has less moronic and dillegent workers. You get your money do your friggin job or get out and let someone else do it.

Also agreed. However, in this country, unions are such a political force that slacking has become institutionalized.

I once took a tour of the Andersen Windows factory - a merit shop, ie non-union. The workers were happy working hard and well. Here's why: they were assigned to make X number of windows a day per team; a reasonable number for an 8-hour day with a half hour lunch and a few other breaks. But here's the kicker: when they got X number of windows done, they got to go home and they still got paid for a full day! So it was in their best interest to work hard, efficiently, and to high quality standards, because by doing so, they gave themselves an automatic and immediate pay raise. It was even called "jackpot time". It functioned flawlessly, and there were no slackers, because the non-slackers would vote them right off the island for holding up the work.