Amazon workers just voted to join a union

[bwframe]

I don't know. I know Subaru is non union and their turnover rate is low.

Some years back, I took an auditor job at a local non union small factory that built GM components. It was brutally hard and hot work that paid relatively poorly. When I showed up the second day a lot of the guys were jubilant and truthfully teasing that a lot of new hires never made it to the second day.


.

 

[Jaybird1980]

I asked where are the bodies of the dead non-union employees that would have been saved by union?

Here's one that got some attention, I couldn't even to begin to guess how many times I've been told to work on a hot slag tank. Hell I've been told to open the cyclone doors on the boiler while it was online. You probably don't know what that means, but that's ok neither did the supervisor who threatened to send me home if I didn't do it.

Fourth TECO worker dies from industrial accident

A fourth worker has now died from his injuries after the industrial accident at a TECO power plant on June 29.

www.fox13news.com

Edit: not sure why the link disappeared but I redid it.

Notice how it's an "accident". To me accidents are unforseen events, anyone in the industry should be able to see this would happen.

 

[bwframe]

How Two Best Friends Beat Amazon (Published 2022)

The company’s crackdown on a worker protest in New York backfired and led to a historic labor victory.

www.nytimes.com

 

[DoggyDaddy]

I don't know. I know Subaru is non union and their turnover rate is low.

A buddy of mine used to work for Subaru up in Lafayette and he said that the reason there's no union there is that Subaru is very much into the "team" aspect with their employees, and the employees have a stock sharing program, so when the company does well, they do well. When you treat your employees well, it kind of cuts the unions off at the knees.

 

[Ziggidy]

Would companies go out of business if no one wanted to work for them? I get the whole thought of "I need to work" thinking; been there - done that.

Is a union the answer to ignorant companies? Unions are political organizations, once had a purpose but that purpose turned into a power stand. People have lost the initiative to fight for themselves and rely on the "comfort" of someone else doing their work/battles. Sure, I'll give up money and sacrifice freedom so you can manage my relationship with my boss.

This mirrors all societal problems we see today.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

I used to work at Allison back 1978-1979 and had an experience the soured me on unions (UAW in particular). Now I was just a wet-behind-the-ears co-op student at GMI, but one of my stints was in Production Processes. We had transmissions that were failing in test, so part of my job was to find out why.

There were these little split spring steel "retainer washers" that were on the torque converter studs. In the assembly process, the torque converter had to be dropped down over a splined shaft. I traced the problem down to that process. The line worker (union employee) was spinning the torque converter clockwise to get it to drop down on the splined shaft.

His gloved hand, while spinning it clockwise, was causing a retainer washer to unscrew off the stud. When the transmission was bolted up to the test machine, that was causing the retainer washer to flatten and not do its job. As a result, we had pallets of transmissions that had to be re-worked.

When I saw what was causing it, I told the worker to spin it counter-clockwise instead and that would keep the washer from unscrewing up the stud. He gave it a quick spin (and it didn't drop down onto the splined shaft) and declared, "See? It doesn't work!"

He ended up shutting down the entire line and calling his foreman over on me. After speaking to the foreman and explaining the issue, he refused to do anything about it because... "union". So I guess it was more acceptable to have to re-work hundreds if not thousands of transmissions than to **** off a union employee by making him do it the correct way.

 

[Bugzilla]

Here's one that got some attention, I couldn't even to begin to guess how many times I've been told to work on a hot slag tank. Hell I've been told to open the cyclone doors on the boiler while it was online. You probably don't know what that means, but that's ok neither did the supervisor who threatened to send me home if I didn't do it.

Fourth TECO worker dies from industrial accident

A fourth worker has now died from his injuries after the industrial accident at a TECO power plant on June 29.

www.fox13news.com

Edit: not sure why the link disappeared but I redid it.

Notice how it's an "accident". To me accidents are unforseen events, anyone in the industry should be able to see this would happen.

Never heard of poking the monkey with a water-blaster. Red hot slag being hit with water, what could go wrong?

 

[Creedmoor]

So a guy I knew got a union job at a auto industry parts supplier. First night second shift, they showed him how to put pieces in a press, stamp then then put them in a parts tub. He ran parts for about 4 hours, then not seeing anyone he went looking and spotted a bunch of guys playing cards and eating in the breakroom. He ate a bit then took a nap, woke up and asked when lunch was over.

Was told all those lounging were done and they called a steward to talk to my friend, they went back to his station and he showed them the 8 tubs of parts he made in 4 hours. The steward was upset, called for a fork truck to get the tubs out, he never made another part that week, the fork truck would show up and set down a tub each night from the first 4 hours work.

Yep, that is good for everyone…

Sure a few Union employees had and some still have that mindset, its amazing how with all those good Union workers F'ing GM, Ford and Chrysler but yet those zillions of parts get made every year and the final assembly plants keep production up with all those lazy Union workers that play Pinochle all day.
It must be magic.

 

[tmcindy]

Sure a few Union employees had and some still have that mindset, its amazing how with all those good Union workers F'ing GM, Ford and Chrysler but yet those zillions of parts get made every year and the final assembly plants keep production up with all those lazy Union workers that play Pinochle all day.
It must be magic.

Yes, you have 1 lazy POS the Union stands up for and we're ALL lazy PsOS.

 

[bwframe]

How many union guys have good management and are proud of their work? Don't seem to hear about that much.

 

[tmcindy]

How many union guys have good management and are proud of their work? Don't seem to hear about that much.

Yes, UPS is #1 because the union workers are horrible awful people. We should execute them.

 

[Jaybird1980]

How many union guys have good management and are proud of their work? Don't seem to hear about that much.

Define good management. I define it as protecting my job and benefits. Our management does a good job of that sometimes.

 

[Jaybird1980]

Never heard of poking the monkey with a water-blaster. Red hot slag being hit with water, what could go wrong?

There are nozzles and cannons built into the slag tank, never heard of a different method other than using water. The grinder and jet pump depend on the water. The only water system larger than the slag/ash sluice system is the cooling water.

Because it's in such a harsh environment it tends to need more maintenance, therefore it always gets neglected to save money. When it gets neglected they try to get people to do the nonsense in that article and then people end up dead or severely injured. I can almost guarantee that was the case in Teco incident.

 

[Bugzilla]

There are nozzles and cannons built into the slag tank, never heard of a different method other than using water. The grinder and jet pump depend on the water. The only water system larger than the slag/ash sluice system is the cooling water.

But sounds like they were using a water blaster manually, not the slag tank system. Used to the guys using a long rod to try to open the plug. Good job for Dirty Jobs!

 

[Jaybird1980]

But sounds like they were using a water blaster manually, not the slag tank system. Used to the guys using a long rod to try to open the plug. Good job for Dirty Jobs!

I edited my last post because I wasn't clear. I would put money on it that the slag tank maintenance wasn't done and the nozzles we're plugged. No they should have never been trying it the way they were doing it, but like I said I have lost count of how many times I've been told to do things exactly like that.

 

[Ingomike]

Sure a few Union employees had and some still have that mindset, its amazing how with all those good Union workers F'ing GM, Ford and Chrysler but yet those zillions of parts get made every year and the final assembly plants keep production up with all those lazy Union workers that play Pinochle all day.
It must be magic.

No one has disparaged union workers here. There must be some truth because folks are so defensive.

So should I tell you about a bud that started his auto repair business while working third shift at GM? His job was to clean 4 paint booths per night so they were ready for first shift use, it took him 30 minutes to clean each, after which he drove home, slept in his bed, got up in the morning, went back, walked in with first shift, clocked out and went to his shop and worked all day. His supervisor had his number in case he needed him. This would be almost impossible at a non-union shop…

 

[actaeon277]

No one has disparaged union workers here. There must be some truth because folks are so defensive.

So should I tell you about a bud that started his auto repair business while working third shift at GM? His job was to clean 4 paint booths per night so they were ready for first shift use, it took him 30 minutes to clean each, after which he drove home, slept in his bed, got up in the morning, went back, walked in with first shift, clocked out and went to his shop and worked all day. His supervisor had his number in case he needed him. This would be almost impossible at a non-union shop…

What does that have to do with a union?
I worked in a union, and that guy still would have been disciplined.
The only managers that had problems disciplining people, were the ones that skipped THEIR OWN COMPANY RULES.


Damn it.
I wasn't going to get involved in another union thread.

 

[tmcindy]

No one has disparaged union workers here. There must be some truth because folks are so defensive.

So should I tell you about a bud that started his auto repair business while working third shift at GM? His job was to clean 4 paint booths per night so they were ready for first shift use, it took him 30 minutes to clean each, after which he drove home, slept in his bed, got up in the morning, went back, walked in with first shift, clocked out and went to his shop and worked all day. His supervisor had his number in case he needed him. This would be almost impossible at a non-union shop…

LMAO! You start by saying, "no one is disparaging union workers". Then you proceed to disparage union workers. ?

 

[Bosshoss]

I would never say that, ever. It is the unions I have issues with. In my example it was not the working guy, it was ridiculous unproductive work rules that a new guy could do a weeks work in 4 hours…

When doing piece rate work the company sets the rate not the union.

 

[Jaybird1980]

No one has disparaged union workers here. There must be some truth because folks are so defensive.

So should I tell you about a bud that started his auto repair business while working third shift at GM? His job was to clean 4 paint booths per night so they were ready for first shift use, it took him 30 minutes to clean each, after which he drove home, slept in his bed, got up in the morning, went back, walked in with first shift, clocked out and went to his shop and worked all day. His supervisor had his number in case he needed him. This would be almost impossible at a non-union shop…

These bizarre examples you give are the result of poor company management. That's not the fault of the union.