If You want to see what happens when unions go unchecked, look no further than the ABORTION we call "THE BIG DIG" around here in Boston. Most of the working class in this country pays at LEAST 50% of their medical insurance, and precious few get any company-paid retirement plan. I've never understood why the UNIONS look for sympathy when usually they are way over paid for the skills they have. I do think it is bad publicity for co's to give out huge bonuses when they try to cut pay/or benefits at the same time, but that is done to avoid giving the $$ to Uncle Sam in the form of taxes. Cripes, around here they pay friggin toll-takers 60k with full benefits!, Makes me sick.

 

Sounds like you should be looking for a union job .

 

No thanks on a Union Job. I'm self-employed and answer only to myself these days. I was in a UNION as a younger lad, local 5 of the AFL-CIO at the General-Dynamics Shipyard in Quincy MA, (70's). The crap I saw in that union was all I needed to know about em. They sold us all out and the yard mngment finished us off...

 

UNION YES
If employees as a group can negotiate a better contract. Bravo.
If a CEO can negotiate a $210,000,000 severence package after being removed from his position. ie. Bob Nardelli, Home Depot. Bravo.
If a CEO can cash in, so should a specific group of employees!
Equal opportunity for every one!

 

with all due respect to my fellow bay stater Joe, the big digs problems had nothing to do with the union labor, but in the design of the project, building in unstable soil, in what was swamp land just 200 years ago. As for the failed ceiling panels that was also a design flaw, and had ZERO to do with the people who toiled to build it.

And as for the toll takers yes they get paid well, but the have to deal with people like you, I am union, MBTA, and I don't get paid enough to deal with the massholes.

Lets see if the HD rider, who lives, breathes and sleeps HD and apple pie sides with the union workers, the unions who fight for good jobs and working conditions, and the middle class, or the company who would send all thier jobs to Mexico if they could get away with it.

 

Maybe by the time you retire maybe the Indian Motorcycle plant will be running strong up in Kings Mountain,NC. I believe they are operating in a old textile plant now doing a bunch of R&D.

 

never mind not worth the trouble

 

Neggy, give me a BREAK son, there is no fatter cow on this planet than the MBTA! My bud worked 20 years at the Albany ST garage warmin up buses and changin flats mostly, he was gettin 50k and Blue Cross master medical back in the freakin 80's. He mostly slept as he was on the midnight shift. I used to go in and visit him sometimes and he would be in the locker room nappin. He retired at 50% and full medical with a check for like $20,000 for unused sick time. Toll collectors are a JOKE! A 17 year old at 7-11 needs more skill than a toll-taker. You tell me why those clowns need 60k a year to stick their hand out a booth 8 hours a day. By the way, it was union guys that sucked that tax-payer nipple for the last 20 years ballooning the cost of that project to 14billion. 14 Billion for what...a bumpy *** road and ceilings that fall... what a joke...

 

It gets me sick to hear scumbag R.U.B.S bashing union brothers ! You should be ashamed of yourself , and you call your self a American ? The middle class is getting smaller and smaller , pretty soon with thinking like that this great country will be the very rich and poor. These guys are striking over health care and wages , they don't want to go backwards . HD is one of the last true Proud American company's , maybe they should quit padding the upper management's pockets and pay there workers what they deserve.
In my opinion the strike will not last long , they are making too much money .

 

I seriously doubt it is possible to reason between pro and con Union camps, but stubborn hope forces me tooffer this not so sage observation. Labor is always short sighted. they can only see the wages and profits of today and maybe, just maybe a year down the road. One things for sure, labor is incapable of looking at history and learning from it.

anyone on here remember the US Steel industry of the sixties? Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Youngstown and others. Workers making incredible wages with up to 25 weeks vacation per year. yea it was great for the moment, but guess what, their kids, grandchildren, or great grand children, aren't finding even minimum wage jobs in the mills today. The mills don't even exist today. They are far over seas. not because of corporate profit gougingor because of depleted naturalresources, it was good ole Average Joe'sgreed.

And before I get shot at down in flames for the above statements, I absolutely go out of my way to buy American. I even refused to pull my Thrift Savings money out ofcommon stocks after 9/11, firmly believing it was the right thing to do for the good of the countryand American workers. news flash that brilliant patriotic move on my part pissed away almost $45K out of my retirement account. guess what, it was still the right thing to do, even though labor wouldn't agree. I did itfor my kids. grandkids, and great grandkids to be. Iwant them to be able to find jobs in the good ole USA during their lives. Is your Union guaranteeing your future generations the same?

Let the flaming begin..................