Forum Post: I'm back with news about Unions
Posted 11 years ago on June 12, 2012, 8:55 p.m. EST by DanielBarton
(1345)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
So i have been working as an estimator for a painting company for the last 6 weeks and i have learn a lot about unions and which ones are good and which ones are bad. Before i used to think of them all the same but they aren't trade unions are something special.
As Painters they can join a craft Union this means that they go to school for 3 years and become an apprentice. when they do the work is usually better than non union. It also pays better and gives more benefits.
I also got to see the relationship between management and the workers. With out us they don't get jobs every bid i put in creates a job for these people it does create work for me. My bosses are all former painters who worked their way up in the business. Now we dont take as much from the top as people think we will be lucky to get 10% profit from a job due to rising cost of everything and the fact there is less work than there was five years ago. With this i'm learning the fact management is needed because we help them guide and get work for them. They in turn do work for us and get paid. its a mutual system with pretty good check and balances.
So with this i will say i am all for Craft/trade Unions now but not labor unions the craft unions have problems too with political bullshit but not as much as labor unions.
here is my two cents for now
Under the conventions of the International Labour Organization, workers have a human right to be represented by a union. In light of that fact, your hairsplitting attempt to divide unions into "good unions" and "bad unions" is pure nonsense.
I say that as someone who's in one of the unions that you consider to be one of the "good unions" (Carpenters local 157, NY, NY)
As far as your claims about construction management and the "pretty good checks and balances", young man, I've been in this business for 20 years so I'll allow for your ignorance about how this industry really works.
Basically, the tradespeople on the stepladders do the work, and the several layers of bosses (subcontractors, General Contractors, real estate developers and, of course, the banks) take the profit that comes from our hard skilled labor.
well if you read mine i say we get 10% at most. i will agree the general contractors are not needed as much as they say they are but honestly what i do is necessary for the business to run now i do get paid less than the painter but i am only a temp i will be back in school soon. i know more about this business than those who run it. this stuff is easy and can be easily fixed
I do think there is good unions and bad unions Walmart employees don't deserve the wages of skilled labor since they can be replaced and dont have a skill set.
Now i do fine it hard to swallow the fact that the engineers who design cars get paid less than those who build them. The engineers get paid salary are expected to work overtime for no pay it is expected to work overtime to meet deadlines. Then the works whom some just press buttons get paid more than them. that is why i find labor unions unfavorable because they drive the price of items through the roof.
If the Walmart employees had a union the prices would no longer be able to be kept at the low prices.
I have doubts about claimed profit margins vrs labor cost
Amen.
Sounds like divide and conquer. Labor unions are bad because the trade unions say so?
divide and conquer not really just an observation
Job #1 is to preserve jobs. After that unions are one big grey area.